Are northern leopard frogs available as pets?

[somuchpaint]

Thanks for the reply! It now seems that I will have three frogs (I made a post about it), so bigger is better.

A few years ago, I did lots of reading up on salt water aquariums, and became really interested in the use of live rock and sand as part of the filtration. Now I wonder if it would be possible to made a naturalistic-functional setup for frogs (understanding that it will NOT be no-maintenance).

Maybe, starting on the left back corner, there will be a reptile filter set up like a waterfall, maybe going down a "stream" of smooth pond rocks (too big to swallow) diagonally towards the front middle of the tank. On either side of the waterfall (and under the stream) will be the land portion. I read that leopard frogs like to dig, so I'd want several inches of softer substrate (something that plants will grow in). Maybe I could put a few earthworms in there, to be a surprise meal. Under the softer substrate would be loose rock, going down to a false bottom, so water could flow under it to the corner filter-waterfall. The right side of the tank would just be water, sloping up to the land portion with smooth stones. I don't know what to put on the bottom, since I'd like to have plants, but I don't want to interfere with water flowing to the left side of the tank. I'd like to have a few guppies in the water. They'd be fun to watch, and would eventually serve as frog food. No guppies, though, until the frogs are really frogs (and not tadpoles).

I can certainly see, though, the benefits of using dog water dishes for easy maintenance. This gives me a lot to think about. Would the more-water with a turtle filtration system be easier to maintain? Or would it just be really, really dirty, because of the substrates being knocked into the water?

[lindsayshocking]

Thanks for the reply! It now seems that I will have three frogs (I made a post about it), so bigger is better.

A few years ago, I did lots of reading up on salt water aquariums, and became really interested in the use of live rock and sand as part of the filtration. Now I wonder if it would be possible to made a naturalistic-functional setup for frogs (understanding that it will NOT be no-maintenance).

Maybe, starting on the left back corner, there will be a reptile filter set up like a waterfall, maybe going down a "stream" of smooth pond rocks (too big to swallow) diagonally towards the front middle of the tank. On either side of the waterfall (and under the stream) will be the land portion. I read that leopard frogs like to dig, so I'd want several inches of softer substrate (something that plants will grow in). Maybe I could put a few earthworms in there, to be a surprise meal. Under the softer substrate would be loose rock, going down to a false bottom, so water could flow under it to the corner filter-waterfall. The right side of the tank would just be water, sloping up to the land portion with smooth stones. I don't know what to put on the bottom, since I'd like to have plants, but I don't want to interfere with water flowing to the left side of the tank. I'd like to have a few guppies in the water. They'd be fun to watch, and would eventually serve as frog food. No guppies, though, until the frogs are really frogs (and not tadpoles).

I can certainly see, though, the benefits of using dog water dishes for easy maintenance. This gives me a lot to think about. Would the more-water with a turtle filtration system be easier to maintain? Or would it just be really, really dirty, because of the substrates being knocked into the water?

To be honest, all my other frogs are mostly desert dwellers or tree frogs, so I haven't dealt with filtration systems much. What I can tell you based on my three is that yes, they burrow a lot (when I got home today, I thought Essie got out because I couldn't find her...turns out she had completely burrowed!) which means they get substrate everywhere. I'm constantly washing substrate out of the water dishes. I'm not certain how the turtle filtration system would work with that.

[frosty]

I have a northern leopard frog and he is a real joy. i love him/her he is only three weeks old and is big as a treefrog

[somuchpaint]

To be honest, all my other frogs are mostly desert dwellers or tree frogs, so I haven't dealt with filtration systems much. What I can tell you based on my three is that yes, they burrow a lot (when I got home today, I thought Essie got out because I couldn't find her...turns out she had completely burrowed!) which means they get substrate everywhere. I'm constantly washing substrate out of the water dishes. I'm not certain how the turtle filtration system would work with that.

I took your advice (at least for the time being) and have my two southern leopard frogs in a few inches of coconut fiber bedding (soaked to expand) with an easy-to-crawl-out-of water dish, all in a 40 gallon breeder. I have some magnolia leaves, collected and washed in water by my daughter, and baked in the oven until I was worried they were going to burn, in one corner. One of them prefers to hide under the leaves. The other spends much of its time in the water dish. (The third one died before I had a chance to move them. It had some wounds received as a tadpole.)

I am finding it simple to rinse out and refresh their water bowl. It does collect substrate, but not too badly. It will probably be worse when they are bigger.