New species for me and need help

[Buck Rogers]

Hi all

This is a thread I thought I would never have the opportunity to post under, but I just was given a fire bellied toad. This is a huge thing for me because exotic amphibs are extremely rare and illegal in South Africa. I am going to collect these 2 (hopefully 2) in the next few hours as the guy who owned them feels he does not have time for them and wants me to take them and look after them. I have only ever kept South African frog species so I am defecating bricks for a choice of better words.

I really think they are not in great shape and will need a lot of nursing. I am thinking of keeping them in an Addis style tub with sphagnum moss and a water bowl till I can see some improvement and feeding from them, then I will move them to a properly equipped viv. Will they easily take pin crickets and flightless fruit flies - from what I saw they really small, smaller than a US Quarter coin.

I just need some help and advice of what I should do from here, I know they should have a basking light (30w and lower) and cool water, but keeping them in a tub to monitor them is going to make that almost impossible so I would really appreciate any help i can get from the guys who have had first hand experience with working with this species. Should I place a heating mat under one section so that there can be some warmth or should I just rely on room temperature (which is dropping in the low 20's C at the moment in South Africa)?

I do not know the sub species but I can take a photo tonight and post it so that you guys can help me ID the exact locality to set up a viv to suit the temps.

[JeffX]

20 degrees celsius is fine for temperature. I wouldn't go any higher than 28 degrees celsius though. They tend to like a cooler environment. Some people use a basking light. I've never used one for mine. They do like it though.

They'll probably take small crickets, waxworms, phoenix worms. Fruit flies might be too small for these guys as they eat alot.

[Kurt]

I don't use basking lights with my fire-bellies. Check out the care articles for more information.

[Buck Rogers]

I've gone over the caresheet and seems pretty straight forward. I greatly underestimated the size of this little one, it is really small! I chucked in some flightless fruit flies and straight away ate them, crickets it was not too interested in. I am concerned though, this little one seems to have a very large head in proportion to its body, in other species I would have said this has been 'starved' but is this normal for them to have large heads?

I will snap some shots so that you can let me know if this is normal but just left it alone tonight.

Thanks for the help!

Oh and 2 painted reed frogs came with this one as well, so fun, fun, fun in my house tonight!

[Kurt]

Painted reeds? Awesome! Sounds like your fire-bellies are under weight.

[John]

Congratulations on your new acquisitions Darryn. Best of luck with them.

[Buck Rogers]

It is extremely under weight, it looks like it ate quite a lot last night so going to keep feeding it steady amounts till it gets to a proper size, apparently its over a year old but its just way too small for this age. I read the caresheet and did some searches for more information and feel that I know what I am doing, its always just a bit nerve raking to get a species you have never worked with.

Kurt - The reed frogs made me very nervous, I have tried to keep them before with no success so was not too excited about taking them on, but last night it looks like the larger of the 2 ate a few flightless fruit flies and small crickets.

I have all of these frogs in temporary Addis/Tupperware tubs for the time being so that I can keep them warm and monitor their eating.