Suggestions on substrate

[swish]

Hello, I posted here a while back about suggestions for a setup for a 40 gallon paludarium for my frog. And certain concerns I had about it and how to prevent some issues (namely hard water build up but enough about that.
Here is more or less the setup I have now for Froggo.

She is a (AFAIK) southern leopard frog.

The only concern (and even then it's not the biggest deal) is any differing suggestions on substrate. Currently I have some experience terra 'jungle moss' in/under the log hide. I really like it because it allows her to dig herself in, but it can be a bit of a hassle to clean out of the water side. I didn't catch what species of moss it was, but I did see a decently sized wad of live moss for sale at Petco. It seems to hold together pretty well.
If there's no other workable solutions, I'm fine with what I have now. I do like the moss as it's easier for her to get out of her mouth if she accidentally grabs some with food. Again, it just tends to disintegrate rather quickly in the water so it's hard to pick out.

I am new to building habitats for leopard frogs (I have a very young northern leopard frog, about 1" long), but I wanted to tell you that your tank for Froggo looks awesome!

Do you mind telling me where she spends most of her time? Does she swim in her pool often? My little guy stays under his water most of the time, so I am thinking of re-doing his setup.

[Magoop]

I am new to building habitats for leopard frogs (I have a very young northern leopard frog, about 1" long), but I wanted to tell you that your tank for Froggo looks awesome!

Do you mind telling me where she spends most of her time? Does she swim in her pool often? My little guy stays under his water most of the time, so I am thinking of re-doing his setup.

She will hide under her log or under the ecocarpet. its warmer under the log and cooler under the carpet. If I'm in the tank and she wants nothing to do with me she'll splash into her water. She's not super graceful so I can hear her belly flop when the lights are off on her tank and she swims around. As much as she does spend time on land, I usually leave the water area a bit bigger so she's a lot less likely to run into the glass at full speed.

I'm using a Tetra Aquatic reptile heater. http://a.co/gnUeoX0 I believe this one. It works for up to 30 gallons and is preset at about 78 F. I used to just have an adjustable but sometimes I would catch her sitting directly -on- the heater, and saw that this one has a hard plastic case around it (you can remove the heater from the case and adjust where the cord comes out). the water is usually a lot cooler under all the rock, and I have it set up that the outflow of the filter goes over some of the land to help keep the water moving a bit, but the water half stays around 76-79 so it works well.

As you may have read above, the substrate I'm using under her log does get in the water. It's not the worst in the world, but since this new set up uses a canister filter instead of a internal filter (You can see some hard water stains from when she's splashing around but its sooo much easier to clean the glass now that I'm using the canister), The only thing I have noticed is that I had to take the canister apart for cleaning about a month after I had this set up. It was mostly just getting garbage out of the sponge filters and cleaning out the tubing. I'm going to put some fine mesh over the intake to help (most of the gunk was decayed moss stuff and frog poop, so nothing terrible) keep the big bits out. Again its not as bad as I thought it was, and controlling how much of the moss I put under her log has helped a lot.

Another thing I would suggest is if you put any critters in the water side (I currently there's a lot of platty juveniles and a few guppy fry in mine) make sure it's nothing super valuable. AFAIK she has't gone after the fish, or my shrimp (I honestly think she is too big of a klutz to get them on the first try) but she has gotten a few bladder snails (I wasn't totally concerned as they seemed to have pretty thin shells). I don't know if you would need the basking platform in the water like I do, but mine will sometimes use it.

Anything else just ask.

[swish]

Thanks for sharing your info and experience! My setup is uninspiring at best (one pothos, one fern in a 10 gal tank; the only substrate is large gravel because I got paranoid about him eating the moss and coco fiber not long ago and tore the whole tank apart to get every tiny scrap out. He has a slate island in his 'pond' that is about 5" long he likes to sit on from time to time)

I wonder if that heater will work... I have only about 1.5gal of water in a 10 gallon tank, so I fear I might boil the little guy. :\

Thanks for sharing pics of your setup! It gives me a lot of hope that I can make something similar!!

[Magoop]

Here's a picture of what I had her on before. A twenty gallon long set up I used the same heater and had that filter and a water pump under the land to keep the water flowing. Reused most of everything except the filter. Needed more hydroballs and gravel. Added more plants.

[swish]

That's an awesome setup too! What kind of lighting do you have over her land area??

My guy doesn't have a very deep pool... maybe that would help.

[swish]

oh and another question -- how often are you changing or cleaning her eco carpet?

[Magoop]

Eco carpet maybe once a month. I sectioned off the standard 20 gallon long size into three equal sections. Everytime I'd out new moss down I'd pop out the old carpet, get as much moss off as I could, spray it with the suggested cleaning spray (Wipe out? It's on the package of the eco-carpet) and let it sit to dry. After it was dried off I'd rinse it off in tap water, wring it out, and then rinsed it again in dechlorinated water, and wring it out again.
The new eco-carpet I'm using for the 40 gallon wasn't as good of a fit, but I found out she prefers to have access to the gravel as well and burrow into it. Well more make a frog sized depression, but she thinks she's being sneaky
For lighting she was under a daylight heat bulb and tropical uva (it came with the combo mini dome light kit I got when she just finished morphing from a tadpole, she seemed to do fine and I figured this kit was more appropriate than the desert heating kits. IIRC I since replaced the blue daylight with a basking bulb (had a freebee from a friend. She seems to prefer that.
The other side is a standard aquarium light for plants

[swish]

Thank you, Magoop! Super helpful! I had tried the eco carpet a while back, when trying to figure out the easiest way to keep everything clean, but he wouldn't go near it. He would look at it, but not step on it, so I put it away. He like to burrow in his pothos roots, but the gravel I'm using now is too big for him to get too cozy in.

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge. These leopard frogs are so cool and I want to do everything possible to make mine comfy and happy (well, as happy as one can be living in a glass box.... <3

[daybr4ke]

I got paranoid about him eating the moss and coco fiber not long ago

The moss could cause impaction, but I wouldn't worry much about the coco fiber. Unless the frog has particularly bad aim and is gobbling down tons of the fiber, it should pass through just fine.

[Magoop]

The moss could cause impaction, but I wouldn't worry much about the coco fiber. Unless the frog has particularly bad aim and is gobbling down tons of the fiber, it should pass through just fine.

Thankfully even though her aim is bad at times, she's very good about spitting out fibers.

swish: other things I did that maybe helped with her acceptance of the carpet were:
Using the 'smooth' side (I noticed in side of the carpet is smoother and reflects light better and the other is fuzzy)
Used a lot of substrate, put her hide right on top of a bit of substrate and the carpet
Sprayed the carpet with a mister first thing right before her lights come on, it wasn't soaking, mind you, but it may help the texture.
You can also try feeding him on it to, mine readily eats wax out of my fingers and red wrigglers off the carpet as well.

You can always try removing spots of the larger gravel and putting in smaller and smoother gravel in areas you may want him to dig. Just be careful not to feed him in these areas since the rocks are fairly small.

Sorry for babbling, I'm trying to remember all the important stuff I learned from the first year and an half of having her

[swish]

Thanks, Bryce! Frog has incredibly bad aim and was getting more coco than cricket in a bite. Frog is barely over an inch in length, so pinhead crickets that fit his mouth are a difficult target! I'll look at switching to coco when he's bigger.

[daybr4ke]

Depending on the range of sizes your local cricket provider carries, you may be able to buy 2nd moult crickets, which are a little bigger. It may be a bit too soon, but they definitely should be able to handle them around 1.5 inches. At their current size, flightless fruit flies would probably be a pretty good fit. The larger species, Hydei, is around the size of a pinhead. I find they're a bit meatier, as well. They come in a culture, so you basically buy a tube and they reproduce in it. It lasts about 2-4 weeks. They can climb glass though. If they're dusted with calcium/multivitamin powder they don't climb very, and you can block their way out. They can be very useful for smaller species and younger frogs, and having them available without a trip to the store is convenient. I figured I'd mention them because when frogs are that size they're pretty convenient. Good luck with frog!

[Magoop]

I had some luck with worm butts too when she didn't want crickets, but it requires you snip off a section of a live worm (if you do it right they will heal and survive). The down side is they don't always keep moving so your frog may not want it. I was doing sections of mealworms for a while, too, but that requires them being ok with your hand moving the food.