A few folks have pm'ed me about keeping these little frogs. Sadly, I am new to frog keeping, and am learning as I go along. Some of the advice I offered a while back via PM's has since proven to be slightly different from what I stated. There does not seem to be much information on captive care of the adults of this species.

In this thread I will basically keeping an open journal on habits, feeding and behavior I have observed. Please add to this information if you have any. These little guys are very interesting and active pets.

Please forgive me for not using metric, I have to get this stuff typed out before I forget it, doing conversions slows me down too much, and a hillbilly farm school education makes it very hard for me to think in metric...

Here is what I have so far, please keep in mind these are all personal observations.

Habitat: In the wild, habitat type seems dependent on ambient average temperature. In cooler temperatures (45-65ºF) these frogs prefer to be in the water. Warmer temperatures with high humidity (above 50%) and they become semi-arboreal and terrestrial. Early in the year (March in Nebraska), when there is still snow and ice, males begin calling in permanent ponds and continue to do so into late April. Calls are heard around the clock! All calling is done while in the water either from submerged plants or at water's edge.


By summer, the frogs appear to be absent from the breeding ponds and adults and new morphs (started seeing morphs that still had tail stumps end of June to early July 500 yards+ from water) can be found in areas of tall grasses and low bushes during times of high humidity (like after a storm) as far as a mile from the ponds. No calling has been noted. Just after sunrise on days of heavy dew they are abundant.

I have recently found over a dozen specimens in my lawn, which I have not bothered to mow in a month... I have seen a few in my lawn in the mornings, but was so startled to see them, I was unable to catch them.

It appears that these frogs prefer heavy grassland type vegetation when terrestrial and marshy ponds during the breeding season. They most definitely travel during the cool wet parts of the morning, and after heavy rains in all temperatures of the summer months. (temps are in the mid 80s to low 90s right now and these little guys are everywhere even in mid afternoon!!!

Temperature difference has similar effects in captivity. My initial specimen stayed primarily aquatic when temps were below 60ºF. (enclosure temps 65-71 ambient) Once I fixed my HVAC ducting and the basement temperature increased to 70ºF ambient from 58-60ºF ambient, these frogs promptly moved from the water to the tall cover plants provided in their enclosure. In fact, I have not observed them in the water at all since the temperature increase. (Their enclosure now sits at 72-76 ambient)

I have since modified my enclosure to better suit their habits, though a small aquatic area is still provided. In fact, I built a floating substrate using floral foam covered with a thin layer of topsoil and moss. Grass seed was planted in the moss. Semi tropical ferns are also provided for cover. The addition of some of my PVC logs, made from 5/8 and 3/4 inch diameter PVC pipe are readily used as hides by all specimens.I added river rock through out to keep the floating substrate in place. Water depth is one inch.

Feeding: What don't they eat should be the question here. Small crickets and leaf hoppers are consumed with gusto. Inchworms and small cutworms appear to be favorites. I have been using a butterfly net to sweep tall grass, and these little frogs go nuts for anything that moves, except ladybugs and stink bug neonates. Wax worms are rejected. Small phoenix worms are eaten. Fruit flies are eaten with gusto. Anything over 1/4 inch in length has been ignored, with exception to inchworms of small diameter.

Activity: These are highly active frogs most of the day, they seem to hide from 0300 to about 0900. Other than that they are actively hunting. They are definitely stalking type predators. In truth, they remind me of very small leopard frogs in there hunting and eating habits. Currently, artificial lighting for their enclosure is rigged to a photo cell scavenged from a driveway floodlight. Their lighting follows actual sunrise and sunset very closely.