Chubby frog

[lenorefig]

Hello. any one have a chubby?

[StephenLS]

I have 5 of our chubby friends!

How can I help?

[lenorefig]

There seems to be some sort of white fungus growing on the wood in the 15 gallon tank where we keep the chubby that we purchased about 1 month ago. Is this normal? Should I take the wood out and replace it. He climbs on the drift wood and hides sometimes in the other wood for shelter. The bottom of the tank contains fir and sphagnum peat moss which we cover with terrarium moss. We also have one live plant (ivy) in the tank and a frog dish big enough for him to sit in. We mist 3 to 5 times a day. Hope you can help.

[StephenLS]

Wood in terrariums is a bit of a nightmare to be honest! A little mould isn't necessarily a problem but if it's rapid growing I would remove it!

I find the best wood to use is cork bark but even this can get a little mouldy if kept too wet for too long.

It also sounds like you may be misting a little too much. Twice a day is the recommended unless you are trying to breed them!...the substrate should have chance to dry out a little between sprays and should never be sodden!

[lenorefig]

Stephen,
Thank you for the information. You have been very helpful. I am going to remove the wood as the mould is growing fast. I will try the cork bark for a while. Perhaps with a little less misting it won't mould as quickly. I was thinking of purchasing another plant to give him some where to hide. I aready have a small ivy plant. Do you think another would be too much?

[StephenLS]

The more the better I say!

I'm a big fan of naturalistic set-ups anyway. Try a plant or 2 that are thin at the bottom and have more foliage above! Having a canopy above may make him feel more secure and sit out more often!

[lenorefig]

Thanks very much
I'll try my local nursery. They have a great greenhouse.

[Marilyn]

I also like the naturalistic look, but I find it is so much easier to keep the store bought artificial stuff mold, bacteria and parasite-free. But I do like to collect rocks from nature and place them here and there after soaking them for a few hours in a 10% bleach solution and then soaking them in clean water and airing them out real well. I often put a few drops of the water dechlorinator on the rocks to really zap the harmful chlorine that might have soaked into the rock. My Chubbies love little crevasses to hid in and around. "Boo" me all you want, but I'm not a fan of substrate. I use a few layers of paper towels. It's so much more easy to identify frog poop and pee and my Chubbies still manage to burrow under it.

[StephenLS]

If it works for you, fair enough! Do you provide plenty of hides for them?

I just like to try and provide as near as I can to natural habitat/conditions, although your method does make cleaning sound a hell of a lot easier

[Marilyn]

If it works for you, fair enough! Do you provide plenty of hides for them?

I just like to try and provide as near as I can to natural habitat/conditions, although your method does make cleaning sound a hell of a lot easier

Yes, I provide plenty of places for them to hide, but 99 times out of a hundred, all four of them are cuddled together inside of their Exo Terra rock cave. What I like about the paper towels is that if I'm in a rush, I can just tear off the piece of paper towel that got pooped upon and replace the rest of it when I have more time. You would be amazed how much cricket poop shows up on a nice white paper towel, too. I don't want my babies sitting in that stuff. In nature sun and rain takes care of the waste produced by frogs. In captivity they depend upon us to keep their habitats sanitary for them. I change their paper towels every day, and the paper towels can get pretty grungy looking in just 24 hours.

[frogdaze]

I agree that the easier it is to keep the tanks clean the better for us and the frogs. We don't spend as much time and the frogs have a much cleaner tank with less chance of bacterial and fungal infections.

[StephenLS]

hmmm interesting, I will have to mull the pros and cons over in my mind!

I've read that there is very much a naturalistic / simplistic divide between europe and the states!

Have you ever bred your chubbies?

[Marilyn]

No I haven't. I understand that in order to successfully breed frogs in captivity you have to replicate the seasons and influences of nature-- increase and decrease the number of MINUTES of daylight they receive--temperature etc. I'm too busy changing paper towels and water bowls to have the patience or time to monitor how many minutes of daylight they receive. Besides, what would I do with 10,000 Chubbies??

[Marilyn]

Not to be a smart a**, but their natural habitat also contains snakes and owls and TONS of parasites.

[StephenLS]

Apparently they have a high mortality rate when young...so 10000 might be ambitious....but what fun?

I'm going to have a go at trying to get mine to breed in November. The are currently 'cooling' and I'm in the process of building a rain chamber!

[Marilyn]

Also, "simplistic" doesn't have to mean "boring." I've accumulated a lot of naturalistic store bought items for my frogs over the years. I have a lot of fun satisfying my amphibians' needs while at the same time keeping the tanks sanitary but still aesthetically pleasing to me.

[Marilyn]

That does sound like fun. I might try it when my two teen aged sons are grown and out of the house. Until then, I devote ALL of my free time to preventing THEM from breeding.

[StephenLS]

Hey Marilyn, Apologies if I offended you using the term simplistic. It was not intended to!

After speaking with you I am infact considerig trying a similar set up with my chubbies!

[Marilyn]

No need to apologize. I didn't take you the wrong way :-))

[StephenLS]

Excellent