New to the forum...

[A_O]

I am new here and would appreciate any assistance you could give me...

I've been a "fish guy" for a long time, and I have a few tanks, however, I recently got a White's Treefrog, and now I'm interested in amphibians. I'm tired with one of my fish tanks, and will be moving the inhabitants to new homes. The problem is, I can't figure out what to do with the tank since it is kind of oddly shaped, and not ideal for many types of fish...

I've done some rudimentary research, so I know which species are best for someone with my skill level (tinctorius, auratus, azureus, and leucomelas), and I know that some do more climbing... my question is, would any do better in my tank than the others? I'd like a more active species...

It is a 50-gallon... stocky, so it's 30'' long x 18'' width x 20'' high. What do you think? What would be appropriate for stocking levels?

This is just the first question of many, but I don't want to get too far in front of myself... plan, plan, plan, execute!

[Steve]

Hi A_O

Firstly welcome to the board.

Secondly, that size of tank is almost perfect for frogs. (The reason i say almost perfect is because there is no perfect tank but instead the best we can do for them with what we have).

Your tank with it's dimensions gives ample height to allow terrestrial (ground dwelling) frogs to climb and for Aboreal species to hang out high also.

In the hobby, a lot of people think a ground dwelling frog will stay on the bottom of the tank/enclosure. Not strictly true, although it may do just that in most cases they will climb. In the wild, terrestrial can mean anything upto about 2-3 metres from the forest floor.

Your tank also gives a good footprint and has plenty of room to allow you to sculpt your imagination.

The main things to remember are: you need a tight fitting lid to your tank, with a small portion vented, frogs can push there way up and under the plastic back pieces that come with most aquarium lids.

This is also essential to aiding keeping your humidity levels up. you want to be aiming for between 60% to 99% depending on your type of frog and season you want to re-create (though this will come to you with experience, for now just keep it high, ideally 80%).

Also you need room for plants to fill out in the viv, your size is a good size for this.

You also have plenty of room to fit a false bottom in there and still keep plenty of height.

It's good you have done some research too, that step alone will help you get help on the board.

OK.. what to get...

Tinctorius: Bold, you will see them a lot. Wonderful colors, relatively easy to keep, a great beginner frog. Only keep adults in sexed pairs, or all males. If you keep females together they can fight, sometimes to the death or stress the weaker to death. This is more apparent when mixxing two females with one male...

Auratus: Not so bold as youngsters, though they will get bolder with age, and i have heard a heavily planted viv will give them security that they can hide when required and may be bolder for that reason. Again another great starter frog. They also do well in groups. Egg eating maybe be seen amongst females, but aggression is not so high as in Tinct's and Azureus.

Luecomelas: I have never kept these, though i have read they are great in groups and very bold, another great starter frog.

Azureus: Same as Tinct's as far as husbandry goes, they grow slightly smaller than some morphs of Tinctorious. Again, a bold and beautiful frog.

Have a look through the galleries and topics here, Dendroboard is a fountain of knowledge, if you read and read and read (as you rightly have been doing) you won't go far wrong and there are plenty of people here who are willing to help someone who is prepared to help themselves.
The sticky's are a great source of easy accessible info too.

Again welcome to the board.

Best regards

Steve

[leucofrog]

Greetings and welcome to the Board!!
I think if your looking for answers to all your questions, just shoot away! You'll get tons of responses on this forum.
So, to your tank; i agree with steve, you could keep terrestrial and arboreal species in there. Remember to use all the space you have. Maybe throw a waterfall in, a pond, LOTS of plants, caves, just go wild.
With frogs... I keep a pair of Leucomelas in a 20gallon high tank, and I see them more than I couldve ever imagined. I personally love Leucomelas and recommend them as a beginner frog (which is why my name is leucofrog ). They are just so bold,and they're call is beautiful. They light up any terrarium.
Auratus come in many forms, and i've kept green and black (both costa rican and panama) and they're the more shy of the bunch. Dont get me wrong, they're a beautiful frog with a beautiful call, its just you may get some you always see, or you may get some you'll never see ! Like steve said, they usually do best with lots and lots of plants. I have blue and bronze auratus, and despite what people have told me, i see them tons. If you want to keep auratus, i'd suggest lots of water (ponds, waterfalls) and mist. I'm not sure if others suggest this, but my auratus love this (?????dont know why).
I'm planning on buying cobalts (tincs), so I dont know how much i can tell you about them. The thing about frogs is, a bunch of resources could say that a frog is very shy, and when you have it, it could be bold. So listen to online resources, but ask for first hand opinions.

When you get your terrarium going, put pics up
Heres a breeder who i think prices his frogs right. He's local to me, so i bought my leucs easy from him. He's out of frogs now, but he usually has tons more in a month or so. shoot him an e-mail http://www.brianstropicals.com

[A_O]

I'm not going to go leaping into this... it's probably going to be awhile! I've learned the hard way with fish to do adequate research.

I appreciate all the help and the knowledge... I'll do some more poking around and come back with some questions.

THANKS ALL!

[A_O]

Ok... so it's apparent that I'll need to do one of those backgrounds with cork bark, foam, silicone, and coco-fiber. I think I can handle that. How easily does that stuff scrape off if I were to want to re-do it (or if I want to move the frogs to a new habitat later on)?

I have a canister filter from my fish tank, and I think I could rig it into a waterfall system with some sort of pool and/or river and a false floor using egg crate (which I am familiar with using).

I have a Power Compact hood with 130 total watts (two 65-watt bulbs)... I had this since my aquarium was planted, and I have 6700k bulbs in it. Would this work or would it be too much? The light hood gets warm, but I have it raised off the tank, so it shouldn't add anything in terms of raising the temperature.

I haven't put much thought into substrate, but that shouldn't be too hard. Of course, I'd get some broms on the background, and maybe some other epiphytes. I'll have to look. I'd like to put some Anubias in there, too... I have a few things I want to test with them.

I talked to a woman at work who is familiar with the reptile/herp people in the area. She said there is one breeder close by, so I'll have to check out the next local show.