[PaysonHobbyist]

Hello all,

I am thinking of breeding my red-eyed tree frogs but not for a little while. I want to plan and figure things out before trying to do anything as I am a planner.

If anyone has any advice on breeding them I am all ears. Right now I am specifically looking at the rain chamber set up. I have been looking up how to set them up, etc and feel like I have a pretty good idea of what to do but I have seen a couple different ways and am wondering what others would recommend.

First, would anyone recommend a plastic container (sterlite for example) over a glass terrarium and why would you choose one over the other?

Second, what type of plants would you recommend? I can’t seem to find any specific types of plant that anyone uses.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Ravage]

Rain chambers are pretty straight forward and there's videos and great descriptions out there, so I'll stick to the questions you asked.
Glass terrarium- with either a false bottom to raise plant pots in the pool, or just a pool. You're going to have active spraying water and I just think a sterilite is asking for it to leak. I'm sure someone has done it, but I think you'll want good water retention and high visibility. You need to monitor for stress on your froggies. In Nature these guys get a wet season every year whether they are breeding or not. In captivity we only rain on them when we want breeding, so there's multiple layers of confusion going on- along with a strong instinctual drive to get busy. If they don't do anything for a couple of days, pull them and refeed- recondition. Don't force froggy love.

As for plants, Pothos. They are tough, grow big enough leaves and can take the punishment of immersion in a pool. Philodendrons work as well, but in my experience they just don't perform as well (or grow as fast) as Pothos. That having been said, let whatever plants you choose grow large and dense in the chamber before adding your breeders.

I keep all of my tree frogs in a vivarium that is a rain chamber at all times. There is a raised false bottom over the pool. When breeding all I need to do is pull a floor section, add the pump/spray bar and make it rain. This can greatly reduce stress because they are already home and there's no additional movement stress. I have not bred my RETFs since I built this system because I don't have good faith in their bloodlines. They are pets pure and simple. The Cruziohyla will be ready to breed in the Spring- so that will be the first "live fire" test of the rain chamber/vivarium system.

Pics: RETF viv
Cruziohyla viv
Close up of the cruziohyla label, but you can see the water filled sump behind it with the pluming, and may be the re-circulation pump/ heater, etc.