[Guest]

HI, I know some of you may frown upon this, because half the fun of keeping frogs is keeping vivariums. I personally am mainly a tarantula keeper and am very into simple housing methods. I keep them all in sterlite containers inside of a heated cabinet.

What is the simples method I can get away with for dart frogs? I've heard sterlite containers and plastic shoe boxes work great for froglets. Will bigger ones work okay for pairs? What about 5 gallon aquariums. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. thanks

 

[geckguy]

For my simple tanks I use a layer of packing peanuts, sphagnum moss, tons of pothos, a breeding hut, and water bowl. I also seed these tanks with tons of springtails. Theese tanks are 10 gallons.

 

[Guest]

I know many people that frown on keeping/raising the frogs in clouded/dark enclosures b/c if/when the frogs are moved to a glass or acrylic tank that you can see through the frogs won't realize it. This results in them bumping their noses/heads which can lead to infections.

If you plan on keeping them inside a sterlite container for ever (and don't plan on selling them to someone who will move them into a clear vivarrium) I don't see the problem. I would think your frogs will be more skittish than normal frogs when you do look in on them.

I have to ask why though? I understand some of the vivarium setups look daunting but they don't have all be "show quality." The thing I enjoy most about the frogs is watching them something hard to do in a sterlite container.

Lastly you would probably have trouble getting plants to grow.

-Tad

 

[Dancing frogs]

Lastly you would probably have trouble getting plants to grow.

-Tad

Which in turn means hardly any nitrogen uptake, which means you would have to clean the container fairly often. In the long run, a nicely planted viv is less work, IMHO.

 

[Guest]

I was asking because one thing I like about keeping tarantulas is that I can keep over 20 species and 30 or 40 specimens using very little space and very little work. It's also very cheap to house them this way. I was just thinking about what I could do when addiction sets in :wink:

 

[Ed Martin]

I've kept adults in large clear sterlite containers (10 gallon size) and clear Rubbermaid (5 gallon size) containers too. I quarantine all my frogs and usually keep them in these containers for the whole period, most frogs are kept like this for 60 days, but 90 is starting to become the norm. After a negative fecal test, I put them in with an inch or so of leca, 2 inches of soil and lots of leaf litter. I also plant pathos, ficus and peperomia and they all grow fine. I do not see why you could not keep the frogs in these containers permanently. I have also raised froglets to near adult size in these enclosures and have not had issues with abrasions when moving them to acrylic or glass enclosures.

That being said, I must also say that I do not enjoy the frogs when they are in the containers as much because the enclosures are not crystal clear, so it makes the animal harder to observe. As Tad said, it also seems to make the frogs more skittish, because these types of containers are tough to open and often the entire container moves when you open it.

Ed

 

[Guest]

If you want to do something real simple that works great and takes care of the waste, use the regular 10 gallon tanks lined up the narrow way on a metal rack. Put 2" of leca (baked clay), plastic screening over the leca, 1" of peat moss/soil over the screening, and a layer of oak leaves over the peat/soil.