# Frogs & Toads > Fire Belly Toads (Bombina) >  New FBT set up

## Jason

Just thought I'd show you guys and anyone looking for ideas to set them up my new set up :Smile:  Super simple but I really like it
http://s24.postimg.org/3s2g1yq2d/IMG_1675.jpg

----------


## Cory

Hi, looks good. My one suggestion if you want the to do more terrestrial setup as you have I would put a bigger dish in there for them and maybe put a plant or something on the edge of it or sitting in it for some coverage. I find my guys really like hanging out in the water on there lilypads, and I notice my guys when eating will take the cricket into the water a lot to eat it then come back out for another when its gone. Again its only a suggestion and all in all it looks good.

----------


## Jason

thank you! the water dish is an xl, it does look small on in the picture but yeah there is more land in there and would like to get more water in my set up at some point. i'm thinking of getting a bigger tank at some point and separating the land with cork bark to make a decent sized pool and plant it with aquatic plants, possibly lily pads like yourself, they'd be pretty cool.

----------


## privet01

I feel you need a lot more water.  My 10 gallon tank is 60 percent water and my two FBT's spend almost all their time in or at least in contact with the water.  They do go on the dry part some, but typically just to grab a cricket or get away from each other.  They especially prefer to be in the cave in the water as opposed to the one on the dry.

----------


## Jason

i've changed the water dish and i think this one looks much better
http://i59.tinypic.com/fm6fro.jpg

----------

wattsmason

----------


## privet01

Just my opinion, but I still think there is not enough water.  With that small amount, your chemistry is going fluctuate from one extreme to the other.  I'd imagine you'd have to change water daily.  My FBT's like both shallow and deep water.   I use a gallon of water in my 10 gallon viv.  The entire bottom of the viv is wet.  I use gravel piled up to just above the water line for my land areas and then top that with substrate for my plants.  The plus on that is the plants can sink their roots to the water and I don't have to fuss with them.  I generally change the water weekly, but even when it's been over 11 days, my ammonia and other stats are still within safe limits. 

Take a look at the pics this user posted....... http://www.frogforum.net/showthread.php?t=34637    That's a fine setup IMO.  You can see how they piled up the gravel then added the land above the water line.  Your viv look like an exxoterra and they are able to support a wet bottom.

----------


## Cory

I would also have to agree that you should have some more water. If you wanted to keep it bowl style you could go to a dollar store or something and find a plastic dish that would be almost the length of the front of your terrarium. You could take out some of the substrate even and get something abit deeper also and put some river rocks or something in to it make a slope so there is a little change in depth. Or for another idea a guy named ExoPredator just put up a post just under yours with I believe the same size exoterra you have and he has a full out water feature in his. I would say in IMO you want at least 50/50 land to water ratio or at least 60/40 land to water.

----------


## Jason

thanks for your help. i think the best thing i can dois to get a long cork round, take it some substrate, put it in the middle seperating the land from the water and then on the land side plant the pothos directly into the hygroballs, top with sphagnum and then for the water just put some gravel and keep the water about 3-4inches. thoughts?

----------


## ExoPredator

Heya Jason,

 I think we have the same setup in terms of tank! My original setup was very much like yours but I found the FBT's didn't seem super happy. I'm not saying yours aren't, it was just my basic observation in my set-up.

I went from this,

http://i.imgur.com/TR6g7kq.jpg


To this,

http://i.imgur.com/yjUczOn.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Lkt3Ssy.jpg

I have a shallow pool area for the FBT's to chillax in and a deeper area for them to swim in. They love it and they're hardly out of the water. If they aren't in the water they're close to it. I found that the tank is great to use for building up towards the rear and you can really maximize the space you use and give more land surface area without subtracting from the aquatic area of the tank.

 I would say most of my tank is now aquatic, including the pool and the various tiered pools on the waterfall which i turned off before I took those pictures.

I notice you're in Scotland... I have a brand new ExoTerra Pebble waterfall (Small), with pump etc. It was only in my tank a few days before I took it out and replaced it. It was a great little water feature but I wanted to build the tank up more. You can see it in the corner of the first picture i sent.

If you want, with you living in Scotland, you're welcome to have it, providing you cover the postage. (Should only be about £5 max, if that.)

This is it;

http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products..._waterfall.php

Hit me up via PM with an address and I'll pop down to the Post Office tomorrow to check how much postage will be if you want it.

All the best and can't wait to see what you do with your tank!

PS,
I also found pebble moss and carpet moss worked better for me, It took root really quickly and thrived under the full spectrum lights

----------

monster, wattsmason

----------


## privet01

I like that setup ExoPredator.

----------


## Jason

Hi ExoPredator. Thank your for your reply and I appreciate the fact that you fully explained your points and showed me your set ups which both were awesome but yes the second one definitely does look more ideal for FBTs. I think when I get paid next week I'll definitely order some cork bark and try make a water section at the front. Hopefully have it all finished in a week or so then will post it and show you  :Smile:  thank you so much, I'll PM you just now about the waterfall.

----------


## ExoPredator

Hey Jason,

 Sounds like a great plan. I managed to do my transformation for absolutely nothing - free of charge to Exo's perpetually crying wallet. :Big Grin: 

I'm going to do a tutorial on how I managed to get the aquatic and land section up and running as a few members have messaged asking how I did it. 

I've replied to your PM,

Regards.

----------

jasonm96

----------


## Jason

i've like to see that, i'll keep an eye out for it! i'm thinking of maybe taking my exo terra to a fish shop that i know makes custom tanks and put a divider in it. if i were to put a divider right down the middle of my 18x18x18 do you guys think the water side would need to be filtered? i'd imagine finding a small filter would be a nightmare. over in america they do tetra whispers or something and they look good but hard to get a hold of here so that's out the window.

----------


## Cory

Hey, ya you could split it in half that's how mine is setup. I have a piece of plexi glass as the divider, I have heard of people getting small leaks were the caulking from the tank meets the new but I haven't had any problems and its been about 9 months. And if you have a fish store close by you could pickup the caulking there and do it yourself instead of paying someone else to do it. For the filter that tetra is what I use, again if you have a fish store I imagine if you explain to them the small amount of water you need to be filtered someone there should be able to help out. unfortunately I don't know the most myself about them and I don't know what is available to you, even a small turtle filter would work if you could find one of those. If you do the caulking yourself give 48 hrs to set and let the fumes dissipate before putting anything back in. I will try to post a picture in abit of mine.

----------


## Jason

seems like the easy route and quite a lot of people have done it. yeah i've heard that too but i'm sure that would just be a case of sealing it again? lucky, those look good but are hard to come by here and because i'd be replacing filter media every month or two, it would be a nightmare getting a hold of that and would probably be costly. the fish store i know will do it for a £10 so it's just worth them doing it as I'm so bad at DIY lol. I had a fluval mini filter in a set up I had for them a while ago and that made too much movement to the water and the toads were like flying about, was funny but not good! i'll probably ask the guy at the fish shop if he can order a small one in. I'd like to see your set up, that would be cool :Smile:

----------


## Cory

Hey, hows the changing things around going? I didn't forget about the pics, took about 6 new shots of the tank the other night and now just have to open up a photobucket account or something so you can see them. I didn't forget, just got really busy.

----------


## Jason

Hey man, I'm in the process of making a more aquatic set up but not finished yet. Using a turtle dock as land and a few turtle grass fake plants in the water for the frogs to hide in. will post pics up when done :Smile:  okay dokey :Smile:

----------


## Jason

alright, so i've finished my set up so I'll show you guys. I plan to keep it this way for some time. my toads are really forgiving but i think they're probably getting quite annoyed with me for changing their home so often. as far as i know by what i've read in books and seen how other people keep their toads, this set up should be fine. my girlfriend actually posted up a set up simmilar to this we had. so i've got my 18" cubed exo terra terrarium for my 3 fire bellies. for the land i'm using a medium turtle bank. the filter i'm using is the one i used before, it's not ideal as it it's a little strong but when i put the plants infront it kind of dims it down, so i think it'll be fine for now. i've got 2 exo terra 13w natural light bulbs for viewing and providing them a day and night cycle. Not using a heater as my room is usually around 18-25 at this time of year. hope you guys like and if any of you have fbts aswell i'd love to see your set ups. 

http://imgur.com/97C3uQH

----------

Cliygh and Mia 2, monster

----------


## Xavier

Great!  :Smile:

----------


## Sherry

very nice! Your toads will love their new home  :Smile:

----------


## Jason

thank you guys, hopefully they will so i can start enjoying them:P

----------


## Cory

Hey, good job man looks way better. My one last suggestion and it is totally up to you because it does look good is maybe find a nice size rock and put it on the opposite side of the turtle dock. That way if they don't feel like all chillin together if they choose to get out of the water it gives them choice of were they want to be. Or even place a couple smaller rocks just big enough for them to kind of chill on in couple different spots. But like I said that's if you want to because it does look a lot better, Its actually starting to give me some ideas if I ever decide to change my setup.

----------


## Jason

thanks cory  :Smile:  that's a good suggestion, i'll find a nice rock from down the beach at some point

----------

monster

----------


## Cory

No problem man, that's what forum is for. And when you said a walk down the beach it gave me another idea that you even may have already thought, a small piece of drift wood would also give them somewere to chill. And it would probably look nicer then a rock. Hope your guys like there new pad and I imagine in the next couple weeks you will come up a ton of ideas for them if you wanted to add something else. I had to stop looking at my tanks or I would have drove myself insane with ways to change them around. L.O.L

----------


## Sherry

If you are going to add things to the tank from outside be sure to boil/bake to kill off any harmful insects, bacteria, etc.  :Smile:

----------

Cliygh and Mia 2

----------


## Jason

yeah definitely, i'll boil them for 15 mins. i think i'll probably go with a rock though so there's no chance of rotting and it'll go with the pebbles already in. i'm the same but i'm pretty satisfied with my set up now, so they'll get to settle now :Smile:

----------


## privet01

Much much better.

Does the rock have a decent place for them to hide under?  I think they like to have hiding places on both land and water, but even without, that setup will keep them healthier (IMO)

----------


## Jason

thanks man. yeah one of them does under it. since putting them in this set up. all i can hear are calling noises. sadly, i'm sure all of them are males. think i might get another toad and hopefully it'll be a girl so my boys can get some action :Wink:  does anyone know if fbt's water need to be filtered? i was thinking of going shallower and chucking the filter as it's just making the water go far too crazy, kind of fed up with it. i know some people don't filter cos they say the toads don't like the water movement. what's your thoughts on this? if filtration is a must, i might look into getting eheim mini flat filter.

----------


## Cory

With a setup like yours you would need a filter, even if you made it abit shallower. Right now with my setup I do a 25% water change once a week and then do a good cleaning at the end of month, but I always save some of the old water to put in with the new. I treat it pretty much like a fish tank, and my water area I left the bottom just glass so its easier to spot clean through out the week. In front of my filter I built up some rocks on front of it to reduce the flow of the water. Without the filter you would have to do water changes a lot more often to so your ammonia and nitrates level stay low so its still healthy from them. And without I would also imagine you would have a greater chance of creating some sort of bacteria or something in the water that would not be good for your little buddies. I would maybe try that other filter or maybe do like I did and try to put something else in front of the one you got to reduce the current.

----------


## Jason

i might slope the gravel to one side then to make the land and leave the bottom of the water just the glass like yourself. the filter won't work at the level i've got it at just now. so i'll just spot clean daily and do water changes every 2-3 days before the filter comes. have you got pics of your set up? i'd love to see it :Smile:

----------


## Cory

Im just trying to figure out how to send them to photobucket or a site similar. Like I mentioned earlier i even went and took more pics for ya its just im computer illiterate so its just the figuring out how to send them. My neighbour is a computer whiz so if i cant figure it out tonight i will get him to help me tomorrow morning.

----------


## Jason

Alright nice :Smile:  just need to upload them to a site like the one i used http://imgur.com/ and copy the url. really hope the pictures work on this site at some point. would like to make an album with pictures of my frogs or what i've found 'herping' in wetlands but never lets me upload photos atm.

----------


## Cory

The site was hacked by some idiot a couple months ago and ever since then the picture uploader hasn't worked. And yes for someone like me it would nice if worked again sometime in the future.

----------


## Jason

alright, so i decided to change it, couldn't stand the fake plants, as i much preferred the natural look better but i think you'll like the finished product but i already know my toads do, i've never seen them so active before. i've took all the advice into consideration and made a simple but natural looking set up. still waiting on a filter but if it doesn't work well with the set up, i'm not changing the set up, instead just do more frequent water changes. so yeah for anyone who's interested here it is http://imgur.com/uU9rXKA you can see two of my toads in the right hand corner. thanks guys, i'm glad i listened and gave them more water :Smile:

----------


## Cory

http://i.imgur.com/mRBDFC6.png, http://i.imgur.com/V8OvyER.jpg , http://i.imgur.com/KXKOYsY.jpg, http://i.imgur.com/aGFOX16.jpg, http://i.imgur.com/C36oQy2.jpg. I finally got the pics, hope you enjoy. The middle were the divider is I cover with moss so they rub against when going over it but I took it out quick so you could see the divide. That beige landing area in the water usually has abit of water on it but it was due for a water change so the level was abit low. The filter is in behind that rock to create a water fall, and I have some smaller river rock built up around intake to reduce the flow. They love sitting in behind the water fall and letting the drips of water fall on them. I sometimes have 2 of those lilypads but I decided to change things up with that plant. Even though the water area looks crowded they can swim and hide underneath the plants and rocks, the little guy I have likes to sit under that turtle dock against the back wall on that turtle grass stuff I put under it. And I think I put it in the thread somewhere but the tank is a 30gallon long, there is 4 of them in there.

----------


## Jason

that looks awesome! so much going on, really looks natural. i'd love to get a big tank and do something similiar in the future. thanks for sharing :Smile:

----------

monster

----------


## Cory

Ya man no problem, and im glad you liked it. Your new setup looks pretty good and I imagine they will like it a lot, and im glad I was able to help you out. :Smile:

----------

jasonm96

----------


## Cory

Hey, had to clean out my landside today and I added a few flowers and put that cork round against the back wall. The first pic is from the end of the tank in behind that stump. Oh and the 80 on that gauge is the humidity not the heat, just in case someone notices and thinks that what temp they are kept at. L.O.L If you look hard enough you can see one of the little guys sitting right on the divider under that pink flower. This tank takes me awhile to clean.

----------

Cliygh and Mia 2

----------


## Xavier

Looks good, but I would make sure that the flowers are frog friendly, and not toxic

----------


## Cory

Ya they are ok, I have had them for awhile and just never put them in. They all actually come from some sort of reptile or amphibian plant or aquarium plant that I have made sure are froggy freindly that I have collected from various stores. The big pink ones are from the lilypads that are in the water. I end up pulling some of them apart if its to bulky or something and make a couple out of them. To be honest I have been looking and thinking of turning it into a planted tank for them. Just a matter of time and comeing up with an idea that im going to really enjoy looking at and one that they will enjoy living in. I would like to do something like abit of land on both sides with it running a few inches wide across back, almost so it would look like a C. Then have the water portion in the front of the tank so it looks like a pond.

----------

Cliygh and Mia 2

----------


## Cory

Sorry to double post on someone elses thread but Thank you Xavier for pointing out the flowers. Not there is anything wrong them but your comment made me look at the pics again and I didn't like them. L.O.L Now everything purple and orange has been misplaced with a lilypad and I hung another hanging plant(vine) in the back corner beside the other one that is hanging , I didn't like the way the ones by the water looked or the back corner. That's why I never used them before, I always took them out. I will post a picture tomorrow on my own thread.

----------

Cliygh and Mia 2, jasonm96

----------


## Xavier

> http://i.imgur.com/mRBDFC6.png, http://i.imgur.com/V8OvyER.jpg , http://i.imgur.com/KXKOYsY.jpg, http://i.imgur.com/aGFOX16.jpg, http://i.imgur.com/C36oQy2.jpg. I finally got the pics, hope you enjoy. The middle were the divider is I cover with moss so they rub against when going over it but I took it out quick so you could see the divide. That beige landing area in the water usually has abit of water on it but it was due for a water change so the level was abit low. The filter is in behind that rock to create a water fall, and I have some smaller river rock built up around intake to reduce the flow. They love sitting in behind the water fall and letting the drips of water fall on them. I sometimes have 2 of those lilypads but I decided to change things up with that plant. Even though the water area looks crowded they can swim and hide underneath the plants and rocks, the little guy I have likes to sit under that turtle dock against the back wall on that turtle grass stuff I put under it. And I think I put it in the thread somewhere but the tank is a 30gallon long, there is 4 of them in there.


I have the same mossy log hide thing from the first picture. I guess great minds think alike  :Cool:

----------

monster

----------


## Cory

Ya I really like it, I have another cave thing I don't use because there is too many cracks and crevices  that the crickets hide in. My smallest guy chills in there all time, its his stump. L.O.L He is actually smart because its dark and at feeding time that's were most the crickets run too so he gets first dibs on the buffet.

----------

Cliygh and Mia 2

----------

