Popular Tree Frogs. Robert Mailloux
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high relative humidity unless they are kept in a room with a cool-air humidifier. The alternative is to use a 1- to 2-inch layer of smooth medium-grade pea gravel as a substrate. Make sure the pea gravel is large enough that your frogs cannot accidentally swallow it. If you add water up to half the substrate height, the surface of the substrate will remain dry, but the bottom will contain enough water to raise relative humidity. Provide water in a shallow container, such as a dog’s water bowl or a plastic storage box (shoebox size). Make sure the water level in the container is no higher than that of the height of the frogs at rest.
Landscaping a Simple Vivarium
Place live plants, such as pothos ivy or Chinese evergreen, in jars of water or in gravel and water. They will serve as resting sites for your frogs and will help raise the relative humidity in the vivarium. If the air temperature is cool, place a red 25-watt (or higher) incandescent light bulb over a basking site. Use full-spectrum fluorescent lighting as the vivarium’s primary source of light; it will benefit the frogs and the plants. You can raise relative humidity by simply increasing the number of plants in jars.
Baby tree frogs are prone to dehydration. Most species fare best in a gravel bed type of vivarium. For quarantine or other simple setups, create an area of moistened green moss and add a shallow water container. To prevent drowning, place a rock or strands of pothos vine in the water container.
Flush System Using a Pebble Substrate
A flush system works best with large vivaria—use at least a 30-gallon, all-glass tank, preferably something larger. To construct this type of enclosure, first place a 2- to 4-inch thick layer of medium-grade smooth pea gravel on the bottom of the tank. At one end, push back the gravel to create a pool area, essentially exposing the glass bottom of the enclosure. You can add rock or freshwater driftwood on the surface of the gravel. Use plants that can grow hydroponically (see page 16) as bare-root plants in the gravel bed. Place additional flora in pots, with only part of the pot buried.
Next, soak green sheet-moss in a bucket of water and place it over the gravel, covering the base of the plants but leaving the edges of the pool and the pool itself clear of the moss. Place smooth, round rocks along the edges of the pool to prevent gravel from sliding in, and for aesthetic purposes as well. Then add up to 2 inches of water to the enclosure. The pool will fill up, but the gravel surface will remain dry. You also can add a miniature waterfall to this system by placing the outflow tube above the water surface in whatever manner is most aesthetically pleasing.
Gravel bed vivaria are advantageous when keeping animals and plant species that require high relative humidity. To maintain the tank, mist the plants each day. Once a week, pour water over the substrate to flush wastes into the pool area, then remove the fouled water with a wet/dry vacuum cleaner. Wipe the bottom of the water section with paper towels to remove algae and slime that accumulated on its surface. Add fresh water to the water section, but not over the substrate. The plants growing hydroponically help remove ammonia from the water, as does the algae growing on rocks and other surfaces. If the gravel layer is deep, add soil over one section of it and introduce plants directly in the soil. To make this system more effective, add a small water pump that moves water from the pool area through the gravel substrate; the water flow allows the gravel to act as a biological filtering system.
Healthy frogs experience minimal problems with this system, and weekly flushing prevents the buildup of bacteria.
Orchid Bark
You can use fir-bark based orchid bark—not cedar bark—as a substrate for tree frogs. Keep the bark dry. If orchid bark remains wet for prolonged periods of time, it may leach out potentially harmful compounds.
Filtered Flush Systems
More elaborate flush systems pump water into the pool section through a filter. There are two ways to create such a system: one is to move the water over the gravel substrate as indicated previously. The other is to pump the water through a box containing a filtering medium. Pool filters work in large vivaria, but you can construct simple box filters from food storage containers by drilling a hole in two opposite sides of a container and filling it with carbon and filter floss or filter pads.
Naturalistic Vivarium
Among European herpetoculturists, naturalistic vivaria are one of the most popular systems for keeping frogs. First, place a 1- to 2-inch layer of pea gravel on the bottom of a large, all-glass enclosure. Above the pea gravel, add a 2- or 3-inch layer of moistened, high-quality, peat moss-based potting soil. Plant various tropical plants directly in the growing medium. Appropriate selections include pothos ivy, Chinese evergreen, calatheas, philodendron, alocasia, and bromeliads that don’t have spiny edges, such as neurogelias. Add landscape structures, such as rock, wood, or cork, to the setup. Bury a water container in the soil and add water to the container. Twice a week, remove the water container, wash it thoroughly, and replace the water. Disinfect the container in a 5 percent bleach solution once a month, then rinse it and allow it to soak in water with a dechlorinator for at least an hour before placing it back in the vivarium.
Small tropical tree frogs mix well with poison-dart frogs in gravel bed type vivaria. Smaller tropical anoles can also be kept in this kind of set-up.
Alternatively, you can create a permanent, filtered water section. To do this, attach 2- to 3-inch tall glass walls to the sides and bottom of your vivarium with silicone sealant, creating an enclosed area. Add a small water pump that sends the water through a filter canister or through a sponge filter. You can also use an undergravel filter, but this requires adding a 1- to 2-inch layer of pea gravel on top of the filter plates. The drawback of fixed-water sections is that they need regular cleaning and water changes in order to prevent them from becoming vectors for disease. It is also necessary to clean or replace all filters on a regular basis.
Step-by-Step Naturalistic Vivarium Design
Many tree frogs do well in gravel bed vivaria. To create a gravel bed shallow shoreline vivarium, first add a 2- to 3-inch layer of washed pea gravel or larger grade aquarium gravel. In one corner, push the gravel aside to create a water area and line its edge with large, smooth stones to prevent gravel from sliding in. Add plants to the setup; choose types that can grow hydroponically and rinse them free of soil before putting them in the enclosure. Dig a hollow in the gravel, insert the plant and place gravel around its roots to anchor it in place. For tree frog vivaria, the best choice is Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema), but other possibilities include pothos (Epipremnum), arrowhead plants (Syngonium) and philodendron. Other plants, such as bromeliads and calathea, can be placed in pots on top of the gravel bed.
Add cork bark and freshwater driftwood as shelters and climbing areas. Place a layer of moistened green moss above large sections of the gravel substrate. This system works well with most Hyla species, such as green tree frogs, gray tree frogs, Pacific tree frogs, Chinese jade tree frogs, and a wide range of tropical forest and rain forest tree frogs (including red-eyed tree frogs).To maintain the setup, pour water over the moss area once a week to flush out wastes, then siphon or vacuum water from the water area once a week, and replace it with clean water added directly to the same area (not poured over the moss).
CHAPTER 3
TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY
Heating
Most tree frogs do not bask in sunlight like other reptiles, although several species appear to enjoy basking, usually in the later part of the day. Because of this, basking lights are not a good way to heat tree frog enclosures. In general, frogs should be kept