# Frogs & Toads > Fire Belly Toads (Bombina) >  50 gal. FBT paludarium setup

## Sherry

I recently finished my Fbt setup and got 6 toads yesterday.  They had green and brown, which I had never seen before and I think they are really pretty, so I got 3 green and 3 brown. The 3 green ones are super fat. I don't know if they have eggs to lay or something but they are HUGE.  I have been hearing some kind of call from one of the brown ones. Like a barking sound. Is that a mating call? Anyhoo here are some pics. Not the best quality, sorry.

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## Heather

Beautiful home! They are so cute! 

Yep! That's what you're hearing  :Smile: .

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## Sherry

Thank you! Cool I wonder if there are some females in the bunch...

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## Heather

I'm betting you have some of each. You're welcome  :Smile: .

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## gbyrne

I have the same tree stump as you, do your FBTs ever go inside of it? I was debating whether or not to use it in my setup because i was wondering if they would get stuck... did you fill it with rocks or something?

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## Beardo

That looks like an awesome FBT setup. Kudos!

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## Don

Beautiful setup.  They should be some happy frogs.

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## Sherry

> I have the same tree stump as you, do your FBTs ever go inside of it? I was debating whether or not to use it in my setup because i was wondering if they would get stuck... did you fill it with rocks or something?


There is one female that goes inside of it from underneath. When I saw her in there the first time I was freaked out because I thought she was stuck, but she climbed right out of the top at dinnertime!!  She is REALLY fat too, but she was that way when I got her.

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## Kitten

That is an AMAZING FBT set up.

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## Sherry

Thank you for all of the compliments!!

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## heyjude2200

Hi Sherry, 
What a great job, so much nicer than what I first did for my FBT's.  I've been constantly changing/upgrading it since I got them a year ago.  

And a couple of mine are really fat too.  I thought at first maybe it was eggs or such, but I think they are just fat.  One of them is like a dog--she's right there when I get ready to feed them--she's also better at catching them.

And BTW, regarding the tree stump, mine climb in & out of things easily--I have a piece of cypress with a hole in it & they love to go in there.  (See pic)

What do you think of the sphagnum moss? I put it in at one point & then removed it because the crickets would bolt in there immediately & it seemed that my frogs had a harder time seeing the crickets.

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## Sherry

> Hi Sherry, 
> What a great job, so much nicer than what I first did for my FBT's.  I've been constantly changing/upgrading it since I got them a year ago.  
> 
> And a couple of mine are really fat too.  I thought at first maybe it was eggs or such, but I think they are just fat.  One of them is like a dog--she's right there when I get ready to feed them--she's also better at catching them.
> 
> And BTW, regarding the tree stump, mine climb in & out of things easily--I have a piece of cypress with a hole in it & they love to go in there.  (See pic)
> 
> What do you think of the sphagnum moss? I put it in at one point & then removed it because the crickets would bolt in there immediately & it seemed that my frogs had a harder time seeing the crickets.


Thank you!!  My biggest problem was the crickets climbing up the walls to avoid being eaten. I guess they are smarter than I had thought!  That was remedied by use of a feeding bowl.  My only problem with the feeding bowl is I think they would rather hunt for the food.  As far as the sphagnum moss, it is actually supposed to be on the walls- I wanted to try something other than coco fiber to cover the silicone on the background- but that proved to be a bad idea because it is constantly falling into the water.  Before the use of the feeding bowl, crickets would climb in there to hide.

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## s6t6nic6l

how often will you have to thoroughly cleanse the gravel, rocks and area in the pool from the mucus build-up from the toads esp' as you have 6 to contend with?

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## s6t6nic6l

> how often will you have to thoroughly cleanse the gravel, rocks and area in the pool from the mucus build-up from the toads esp' as you have 6 to contend with?


please don't ignore my valid question. a response WOULD be appreciated. maybe my concerned queries about such matters in other peoples threads would'nt be so harsh if people had the decency to reply to such matters(as this first to many later) regarding the welfare of the toads at hand or do i assume by the lack of any response means there maybe something not right/overlooked somewhere and just can't/wont justify a reasonable repose to the setup. 
nic

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## Heather

Water changes should be done every one to two weeks depending on what kind of filtering device you have. I had a waterfall filter and changed the filter pads ever 4 to 6 weeks and did water changes every 2 weeks and never had any trouble for 4 frogs.

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## s6t6nic6l

yes water changes often is a must with these, but what i don't like about the gravel (which in most cases looks nice in a setup btw as this one does) is unless you take it all out with each cleaning, again, a needless chore is that it will get rank from the mucus. this with heating which most have in there for them, the introduction of the live feed which could be harbouring god knows what as well as whatever the toads may have dormant on them leads to unwelcome bacteria growth, a parasite breeding ground which inevitably leads to poor health. i've said and stand by my theory that when using a filter for a fbt setup the media is nullified due to the mucus build up that blocks the pores that need to be open to do the nitrifying. may seem a bit ott and extreme but if i'd rather avoid than try to rectify. if, unlikely tho, it came to have a gravel laid pool area i would stick a reverse flow underground filter to at least have some good bacteria for filtering on the gravel and keep the floor  free from organic matter.

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## heyjude2200

I scoop out about 1/4 of the water & replace it with clean water most days.  I also have a circulating pump that I have set up as a little waterfall, as well as a submersible filter, I take both of them out & clean them every week or two and about every 4 to 6 months move my FBT's into a smaller aquarium and I take everything out and thoroughly clean it.  It has been working OK, my frogs are very active and seem happy to me.

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