What can I put in here? 12x12x18 exoterra

[Heuchera]

Hey all! I re-set up my 12x12x18 exoterra recently, and am going to work on slowly filling it with plants and vines. However, i'd like the plants and the environment to reflect whatever creature I put in there. I'd like your advice! Are there any beginner frogs that would do well in this size enclosure? I felt like asking individual people rather than looking at online articles would be better, since sometimes articles lie in order to promote buying animals.

The only criteria I am looking for is:

• Beginner species (since I am new to amphibian and reptile care)
• active (either at night or during the day)
• NOT wild caught! (so no easy-to-care-for weird species. My last attempt at keeping a wild-caught frog ended in lots of vet bills and a dead frog. )

Additionally, as far as my substrate/drainage layer goes...is it too deep? Am I constricting the space of the enclosure too much? For reference, it's about 4 1/2 inches from the bottom of the tank - each layer is roughly 2 inches each.

Thank you all. <3

[TreeFroggy]

Hello!

I know this is a little late, but I only found this now.

you could definitely take out a lot of that soil. It takes up a lot of space, and isn’t needed. (Keep 1-2 inches). I’d expect that you’d be getting a treefrog, as these are the easiest (usually) and would be best for the size of your tank. If this is the case, I suggest you also add some live or fake plants, and maybe some driftwood to allow more climbing and hiding places. You should also add a waterbowl.

that being said, some of the easiest (and cheaper) frogs (in my opinion):

Gray Tree Frog

Dumpy Tree Frog

Whites Tree Frog

Green Tree Frog

Theres plenty more, but you’d have to do some research.

hope this helps you out! Hope to hear from you soon!

[Heuchera]

Thank you! I did end up removing most of the soil and am keeping about 1 inch (hopefully the plants dont mind!) I'm glad to hear I can put *some* sort of frog in here, because I was worried about it being too small overall. I'll look through these species to see which one needs what kind of environment and fill the rest of the tank up with plants based off that. =) The rest of the materials I have as well, I just didn't want them sitting in there with nothing to use them haha. I appreciate you taking your time to answer!

[Larry Wardog]

The dumpy tree frog in the whites tree frog of the exact same frog. the dumpy tree frog would not do good in enclosure this small and it will need a lot more bushy plants because it lives in a more dense type of a forest than just the plain forest floor. If you buy a green or a gray tree frog they will be wild caught so no matter what you do the American tree frogs are wild-caught and the dumpy tree frog will get too big for this setup in about 2 to 3 years. I think your setup would be great possibly for a tomato frog or some type of Reed frog. You might be able to search for a smaller captive-bred tree frog species. Josh's Frogs and LLL Reptile are highly favored in regards of captive frogs. There is also a Mourning gecko that you could keep it stays small and you could potentially have a group inside the enclosure. You could also attempt fire belly toads.

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[Heuchera]

I appreciate the clarification - looking up pictures they definitely seemed too large. (Someone also told me I could put a crested gecko in here...which is also not true! )

I would *LOVE* to put reed frogs in here, but do they need a riparium or paludarium set up? From what i'm seeing online, there aren't any primarily terrestrial set-ups. I'm not a huge fan of their colors, but I am considering a mourning gecko for the cage. =/ It seems the 12x12x18 is the equivalent of a betta bowl as far as legitimate housing goes.