RETF question

[drroboky]

Hello all.

i'm kris from indonesia, soon i'll have my first red eyed, but before that i want make sure what is the best enclosure for them..sorry i have a lot of question to ask

1. which one is the best, the false bottom or mist them daily with a mister?

2. If i use a false bottom terrarium is it ok to keep circulating the water?

3. i'm thinking to keep them in an air conditioner room at night, because in some articles that i read it need to drop 10 degrees at night,in indonesia it's very hard to drop at that point except using an AC.. is it ok?

4.what is the best substrate for a good decaying for their feces?

thank you for your time.. sorry my english is not good enough.

[night crawler]

Hey sounds like your off to a good start on the research.

Tank style and design will have to come down to preference, you'll have to research both and decide what would work best for both you and your frog.
Yes you should circulate the water in the sense of keeping it clean by changing it everyday or two...you can setup a pump to really circulate the water if you would like...this also comes down to preference. Overall simlpicity is better if your just starting.

AC will be fine, it is a good idea to let the temps drop down slightly at night...just make sure its still in range of what your frog needs.

A common bedding will work; coco fiber, peat moss, then maybe live moss on top to keep him or her clean and regulate humidity... top soil is good to add in also because of the organisms that will eat away at the fecies and left over food.
Alothough you will still have to clean about once a month.

One more tip: dont rely on all the info I gave you, not everyone on here knows what there talking about (including me) so check out the guides on here...they are full of great reliable info.

Hope this helps
-Kevin

[DonLisk]

Hi
In response to your questions, I'll add a little info that may help.

1. which one is the best, the false bottom or mist them daily with a mister?
The false bottom is mainly to collect the moisture that drops down through the substrate so a false bottom or hydro ball (clay ball) bottom layer is needed for collecting the drainage from the misting system or hand misting.

2. If i use a false bottom terrarium is it ok to keep circulating the water?
You can circulate that water back up to have a water feature but is not neccessary with the RETF. It is recommended to have an area to access the false bottom if the water is over collecting and needs to be drained off.
Also provide clean declorinated water in a dish or similar for them to access and change this water routinely.

3. i'm thinking to keep them in an air conditioner room at night, because in some articles that i read it need to drop 10 degrees at night,in indonesia it's very hard to drop at that point except using an AC.. is it ok?
You should have a night temp of 68 - 72 night temps and using air conditioning outside the tank to keep the room temp down is just fine.

4.what is the best substrate for a good decaying for their feces?
I use a Hydroball bottom layer, a mesh screen above that for keeping the next layer from falling through into the Hydroball.
I then put a layer of coco fiber and you can mix in peat or spagnum moss which will help retain moisture longer. Then a layer of coco-fiber above that.
RETFs don't spend much time on the substrate and will rarely be seen on the bottom if enough plants, branches, and vine is provided to allow them to move freely from the water dish to other locations in the tank.
As Kevin stated, moss such as sheet moss and tropical moss are nice additions since it seperates the frog from the dirt layer. You can also add a layer of leaf liter above the soil to this.

Once set up, you shouldn't have to remove the substrate what so ever and only a spot cleaning of waste, and changing water in the provided dish, is needed routinely. If you add in springtails, this will create a removal system for the waste and dying off leaves and make the enviorement more self sustaining.

Hope some of this info helps in providing your frog with a happy healthy life.

[drroboky]

@ kevin and don...

thx guyss!

this is very helpfull... now i"ll get my terrarium and soon make the enclosure.. this forum is very helpfull for newbie like me.. oh and last question, which plant is the best for a terrarium? a fake one or a real one? is it true that a real plant can keep the humidity more stable?... thank you

[ViperJr]

Real plants do indeed keep the humidity up and more importantly, more stable. Pothos is a great terrarium plant, hard to kill, grows like crazy and support the wieght of RETF. Snake plant is good as well. It's not as hard to kill as pothos, but they have VERY strong, thick leaves.

You should check out the "What does your tank look like" thread in the general section more some inspiration and pictures of the plants!

[DonLisk]

Great plant choices. Try to do more height than width in your viv since they love to be up high.
You can get the Pothos to hang down from a location near the top and snake plants can can grow nice and tall. Mine sleep all the time on the snake plantss.

[ViperJr]

Yeah, I got my pothos planted at the top and it grows down, to the bottom , roots itself in it and then climb up again
So yeah, definetly get some pothos. You could by a large one in a regular plant shop and then seperate it into 2 or 3 smaller ones, to cover more space in the tank.