Red Eyed Tree Frog Beginner

[frogeyes]

Hello everyone,
I have decided to venture into owning a Red Eyed Tree Frog or two. I have never kept frogs before, so I came here for some advice. I'm a reef tank guy, but I wanted to change things up a bit and try something else other than fish and coral. I think I would enjoy both the reef tank and a frog tank.

So, I have been looking online a little bit and I think the Red Eyed Tree Frog is awesome! I know this may be a question you guys get a lot, but, what equipment is required for the Red Eyed Tree Frog? Should I buy an automatic mister/fogger or just "mist" manually with a spray bottle? Real plants or fake? What type of lighting (LED if possible)? I have read that peat moss, or unfertilized soil is good for substrate.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am planning on a 40 gallon breeder as the tank, but may go with a 29 gallon. Not completely sure yet.

Thank you for any help,
frogeyes

[Lija]

Hello and welcome to the forums! You came to the right place to ask question! I have no idea where is everybody and why nobody replied yet hello people??? I've never had red eyes, but will try to answer to the best of my abilities.

automatic fogger is aways better for people like me who like to make sure everything is perfect at any given moment. So i always use and advise everybody to get a zoomed hydrotherm, plug it into your fogger and heating device and not to worry about humidity or temps ever again.
Im sure the frogs would appreciate real pants and naturalistic vivarium and you, coming from reef tanks, would really enjoy making one for them. Be careful though it is very addicting
I would be careful of mycobacterium marinum if you plan on using old fish tank.

Check a care sheet here, it is pretty good!

[frogeyes]

Hello and welcome to the forums! You came to the right place to ask question! I have no idea where is everybody and why nobody replied yet hello people??? I've never had red eyes, but will try to answer to the best of my abilities.

automatic fogger is aways better for people like me who like to make sure everything is perfect at any given moment. So i always use and advise everybody to get a zoomed hydrotherm, plug it into your fogger and heating device and not to worry about humidity or temps ever again.
Im sure the frogs would appreciate real pants and naturalistic vivarium and you, coming from reef tanks, would really enjoy making one for them. Be careful though it is very addicting
I would be careful of mycobacterium marinum if you plan on using old fish tank.

Check a care sheet here, it is pretty good!

Thank you for the reply! I have learned a little more about them recently. I will be using a brand new tank with a glass top to hold in the humidity. I've decided on real plants as I like the natural look. I've also seen a lot of cool backgrounds people are making. I'm thinking of doing that as well.

Thanks again!

[flybyferns]

Hello
I will get back to this post as I can't stand replying on my iPhone.
I'm sure you have had quite a bit to read here.
For now I have a few ?s for you.
Do you have your frogs yet
Have you purchased any plants. If so what ones
Have you read the quarantine threads ?
TTYL

[frogeyes]

Hello
I will get back to this post as I can't stand replying on my iPhone.
I'm sure you have had quite a bit to read here.
For now I have a few ?s for you.
Do you have your frogs yet
Have you purchased any plants. If so what one.
Have you read the quarantine threads ?
TTYL

No, I don't have anything yet. I'm planning on getting the equipment and checking the humidity and heat for awhile before I get the frog. (How long should I wait to get the frog?)

I have not read the quarantine threads yet, but I have quarantined fish before.

Another question, maybe you can help me. I have an RO/DI unit for my reef tank, would this also apply to the frog? Should I use RO/DI water in the mister/fogger, as drinking water, etc?

[Lija]

No you need regular tap water with water conditioner ( prime, aquasafe, anything similar) as a drinking water, they need minerals that are in there. You can also use bottled spring water. You can use distilled or ro water for your fogger.

Check is thread http://www.frogforum.net/vivarium-te...hing-else.html

[LilyPad]

Welcome to FF!! I am considering venturing into the world of RETF's also

I would not use a fully glass top. Tree frogs need ventilation, I would try to make it at least 50% screen and mist regularly to keep the humidity up.

Here is the link to the care sheet that Lija was talking about - Frog Forum - Red-Eyed Leaf Frog/Red Eyed Tree Frog Care - Agalychnis callidryas

If you take a look through the vivarium section, there are some pretty great vivs to give you some ideas. I would recommend doing a drainage layer under some sort of substrate. That way you won't have to change out the substrate regularly because it's turned into a swamp and you can get live plants in there to help keep the humidity levels stable.

[frogeyes]

Welcome to FF!! I am considering venturing into the world of Red-Eyed Leaf Frog's also

I would not use a fully glass top. Tree frogs need ventilation, I would try to make it at least 50% screen and mist regularly to keep the humidity up.

Here is the link to the care sheet that Lija was talking about - Frog Forum - Red-Eyed Leaf Frog/Red Eyed Tree Frog Care - Agalychnis callidryas

If you take a look through the vivarium section, there are some pretty great vivs to give you some ideas. I would recommend doing a drainage layer under some sort of substrate. That way you won't have to change out the substrate regularly because it's turned into a swamp and you can get live plants in there to help keep the humidity levels stable.

Thanks for for the reply. For the substrate I was going to use aquarium gravel on the bottom, then ecoearth, and some sphagnum moss on top. Do you think this would be okay?

[LilyPad]

I have used gravel in the bottom layer of a viv in the past. Using hydroton is much easier to work with in my opinion. Your tank comes out much lighter than when gravel is used, plus you can use less. Gravel will work though. I put the sphagnum moss below the eco earth and leaf litter on top though. That just lowers the risk of your frog getting a mouthful of it but helps maintain the humidity. I would also recommend putting some screen down so that the eco earth doesn't just end up mixing with whatever you use for drainage. Other people here use egg crate and skip any kind of gravel or hydroton altogether, that seems to work well. Make sure you either put a pump in the bottom layer or some tubing for siphoning to drain excess water if you can't drill a hole to do that.

[BArnold]

Hi,

Red eyes are awesome. I got three back in Feb and I just got two (supposed to be three but one was DOA) on Tuesday. I have one albino, one leutino and three regular, I also have two gray tree frogs that I got as tadpoles and are barely turning into froglets. I am not an expert but I can give some tips that I have found along the way and tell you what I have done so far. I haven't read all the comments but I did read that you were going to do a glass top, red eyes need a lot of ventilation and so a screen top is best. As for keeping in the humidity, what I have done is made the bottom of my tank rocks with water and added a filter that pumps the water up and it trickles down the plants, I also put a little wash cloth towel over the back half of the screen top and that helps keep it in with some ventilation also. I have fake plants suctioned on top of the glass and I have arranged it sort of like a canopy that you would find in a rainforest. Then I have wood (make sure it is not grapewood, I had that at first, it grows a dangerous mold when in wet environments, ghost wood and mopani wood are good) for them to perch on and live plants in the rocks below. As you have probably read you will need a dish for them to soak in, I still need one even though I have water on the bottom because they prefer to use it, idk y. I used to feed their crickets straight into the tank, but a lot of them would swim and burrow into the rocks and start to get weird, so now I do the bowl method where you put them in a glass (or plastic) bowl that they can't climb out of. Occasionally they will hop out, but a couple isn't as difficult to deal with. I had substrate once, I used eco earth coconut fiber. I have a heating pad that I put at the top of the back of the tank, since they are arboreal it makes more sense for it to be up where they will be sleeping, but they don't sleep there anymore, just when they were little. They don't require lighting, but I am going to get a light that will help my plants grow. I just keep them by the window so they get the natural cycle and whatnot. The heater to the room is also there so it helps when the room feels chilly. Humidity, mine stays around 78%, and the temp, stays around between 70 and 80 degrees. This may not be what people say it should be at, but my frogs are happy and growing like weeds, so it works for them. For the background I have the regular exo terra styrofoam background, but once my new frogs come out of QT and go with the others I hope to practice some cork bark backgrounds and do something cool with some plants and moss in it. There are YouTube videos of some setups that I have gotten some ideas from, since you have some experience with fish, setting up a frog tank will probably be pretty fun. As for the fogger, I feel like that is more a dart frog thing, They look cool and keep humidity but I think the monsoon one would probably be more natural for the tree frogs. Either probably work. I didn't want to spend the money on it so I made the makeshift waterfall trickle system that I have. As for water I put tap water in gallon jugs and let it sit for at least a day to dechlorinate it, even with seven frogs I don't go through it that fast except when I change the water bottom (I usually empty 50% every week or two using the tube connected to the pump). I also use it to fill their water dish and to mist. People say to use distilled water to mist to avoid water marks on the glass, probably a good idea, but I don't notice a problem, I clean the glass with a wet paper towel whenever I see it getting dirty. I am not sure if I covered everything. Hope it all works out! My red eyes have so much personality, you will love them.

Bridgett

[frogeyes]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Sorry I haven't been replying. I've been busy working on the enclosure. I decided to go with the "great stuff" style background as well as a false bottom. Let me know what you think. I plan on using the Repti-Fogger which will fog through 3 different spots custom built into the background. Tank is a 55 gallon standard.

[jarteta97]

Wow! you really jumped into it, that looks awesome. I just finished putting the great stuff on mine, so I'm hoping it turns out good. Just out of curiosity, did you mix sphagnum moss with the eco earth?

[frogeyes]

Wow! you really jumped into it, that looks awesome. I just finished putting the great stuff on mine, so I'm hoping it turns out good. Just out of curiosity, did you mix sphagnum moss with the eco earth?

Thanks, I appreciate it. Would love to see your build. It's actually Exo-Terra forest moss (I may use sphagnum on the bottom, on top of eco-earth). I didn't mix them together, but rather placed the forest moss on afterwards.

[DigitalPunk]

Frogeyes,

The tank looks great! You have gotten some good advice from other Red Eye keepers so I won't retread things that have been suggested.

You won't regret going with a false bottom - Even if you decide to flood most of it with water to help with the humidity. False bottoms are the way to do in my opinion.

For soil - I saw where you were (at least at the time of the posting) were looking at doing ecoearth. I would recommend you use ABG mix or the NEHERP custom mix soil. It will be much better for the real plants you plant into it and will also be great for a springtail colony to live in. Springs are great with Red eyes. The reds don't feed on them, but the springs will eat any frog poop that lands on the bottom, any dead feeder insects, and decaying plant life. The Springs waist is great nutrients for the plants in the soil. It in a way create a little self sustaining eco system at the soil level . Just buy a spring culture and dump them straight into the soil and they will take care of the rest

As for the glass top vs screened. I find it best to have 50 - 75% of the top covered with glass. It helps lock in humidity and still allow for ample ventilation.

I have an automatic mister and used it for several months, but have since removed it and now I hand mist all my tanks. I just felt like the auto mister was disconnecting me from a lot of the hands on time with the frogs and the tank. Was to easy to just feed them and not look back with the auto mister going.

They will love the 55G tank and all the space. They love to be up off the substrate so 21" hight is great for them.

The fogger is going to be great for helping to control the humidity. You could even look at connecting it to a ZooMed HydroTherm and let that turn the fogger on and off as needed to maintain proper humidity. As with any automatic fogger or mister. You want to make sure it isn't running so much it swamps out the substrate, but the false bottom will help you avoid that if you are checking it regularly. Are you going to install a way to access the False Bottom so you can siphon out excess water if needed?

[frogeyes]

Frogeyes,

The tank looks great! You have gotten some good advice from other Red Eye keepers so I won't retread things that have been suggested.

You won't regret going with a false bottom - Even if you decide to flood most of it with water to help with the humidity. False bottoms are the way to do in my opinion.

For soil - I saw where you were (at least at the time of the posting) were looking at doing ecoearth. I would recommend you use ABG mix or the NEHERP custom mix soil. It will be much better for the real plants you plant into it and will also be great for a springtail colony to live in. Springs are great with Red eyes. The reds don't feed on them, but the springs will eat any frog poop that lands on the bottom, any dead feeder insects, and decaying plant life. The Springs waist is great nutrients for the plants in the soil. It in a way create a little self sustaining eco system at the soil level . Just buy a spring culture and dump them straight into the soil and they will take care of the rest

As for the glass top vs screened. I find it best to have 50 - 75% of the top covered with glass. It helps lock in humidity and still allow for ample ventilation.

I have an automatic mister and used it for several months, but have since removed it and now I hand mist all my tanks. I just felt like the auto mister was disconnecting me from a lot of the hands on time with the frogs and the tank. Was to easy to just feed them and not look back with the auto mister going.

They will love the 55G tank and all the space. They love to be up off the substrate so 21" hight is great for them.

The fogger is going to be great for helping to control the humidity. You could even look at connecting it to a ZooMed HydroTherm and let that turn the fogger on and off as needed to maintain proper humidity. As with any automatic fogger or mister. You want to make sure it isn't running so much it swamps out the substrate, but the false bottom will help you avoid that if you are checking it regularly. Are you going to install a way to access the False Bottom so you can siphon out excess water if needed?

Thanks for the information Paul!

I will definitely look into the springtails and ABG mix, and possibly the hydrotherm down the line. On top of the ABG ill put some Sphagnum moss, and maybe a bit of leaf litter. For the top, would eggcrate be okay to use (the top of the tank)? At least for now? I am actually using a canister filter to pull water from the false bottom, and then flow back in on the right side of the tank.

Do you think I need anything inside of the false bottom other than water? I don't want to clog where the canister filter pulls the water through.

[DigitalPunk]

nah just the water is fine. I don't put anything in my false bottoms other than water and Air.

You will want to cut some notches in the bottoms of your PVC supports. Water will drain from the soil down into them and if there is no way out you will end up with stagnant nasty water in the supports, 2 small v cuts is enough.

The Sphagnum above the soil is amazing help with the humidity as well as keeping your frogs clean when they venture the to substrate.

If you wrapped the egg crate in fiberglass screening that would be fine. I would be worried about the frogs escaping through the egg crate if it wasn't wrapped in something. A roll of fiberglass screen at a Home Depot or Lowes is very very cheap. You might even be able to get some glass cut for the top (cut it small to leave room for some ventilation) cheaper than you can buy the egg crate for. You don't need anything super thick. Though for your size of tank (unless it has a brace running across the middle on the top) you may want to go with 1/4' glass just to make sure it doesn't flex to much.

I would do the cut glass and then the egg crate wrapped in screening for the top. You will need to be able to open the top to feed them and clean the tank so having some or all of it removable will be key.

[frogeyes]

nah just the water is fine. I don't put anything in my false bottoms other than water and Air.

You will want to cut some notches in the bottoms of your PVC supports. Water will drain from the soil down into them and if there is no way out you will end up with stagnant nasty water in the supports, 2 small v cuts is enough.

The Sphagnum above the soil is amazing help with the humidity as well as keeping your frogs clean when they venture the to substrate.

If you wrapped the egg crate in fiberglass screening that would be fine. I would be worried about the frogs escaping through the egg crate if it wasn't wrapped in something. A roll of fiberglass screen at a Home Depot or Lowes is very very cheap. You might even be able to get some glass cut for the top (cut it small to leave room for some ventilation) cheaper than you can buy the egg crate for. You don't need anything super thick. Though for your size of tank (unless it has a brace running across the middle on the top) you may want to go with 1/4' glass just to make sure it doesn't flex to much.

I would do the cut glass and then the egg crate wrapped in screening for the top. You will need to be able to open the top to feed them and clean the tank so having some or all of it removable will be key.

Ok thanks, I'll figure something out for the top. I just figured I had some leftover eggcrate to use.

I actually already cut notches in the PVC supports. There are 4 notches per support.

Thanks again!


Another question...

Are there any types of plants that I cannot use? Any that you recommend?

I also like drooping plants... are there any you can recommend?

[DigitalPunk]

Anything that can survive in a tropical type environment with big leaves will work great. Pothos is a very common plant in Red tanks. It is a vining plant and over time will create great climbing and hiding spots. Snake Plants also are great in Red tanks. My Reds LOVE climbing and sleeping on the snake plants. Chinese evergreens are also very good for Reds.

Just keep in mind that Reds get rather large (as far as frogs go) and will do some damage to plants that aren't up to the task os supporting their weight. I don't get fancy with the plants in my Red tank. I only have Snake plants and Pothos. I bout one snake plant back in Jan for the reds (off of Amazon of all places) It has grown like crazy and has created a mini forest type thing for the reds to climb around on and hide in when needed. They love sleeping on the Pothos as well.

Doing a quick search on the forum you will be able to see what plants others are using in their tanks, but it largely comes back to the basics 1. Tropical tolerant 2. Bigish leaves 3. Sturdy.

Don't be afraid to experiment with plants. They are pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things and you may stumble across something that works great in your setup for them.

As far as I know there isn't any plants that you need to avoid with the Reds.

[frogeyes]

Anything that can survive in a tropical type environment with big leaves will work great. Pothos is a very common plant in Red tanks. It is a vining plant and over time will create great climbing and hiding spots. Snake Plants also are great in Red tanks. My Reds LOVE climbing and sleeping on the snake plants. Chinese evergreens are also very good for Reds.

Just keep in mind that Reds get rather large (as far as frogs go) and will do some damage to plants that aren't up to the task os supporting their weight. I don't get fancy with the plants in my Red tank. I only have Snake plants and Pothos. I bout one snake plant back in Jan for the reds (off of Amazon of all places) It has grown like crazy and has created a mini forest type thing for the reds to climb around on and hide in when needed. They love sleeping on the Pothos as well.

Doing a quick search on the forum you will be able to see what plants others are using in their tanks, but it largely comes back to the basics 1. Tropical tolerant 2. Bigish leaves 3. Sturdy.

Don't be afraid to experiment with plants. They are pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things and you may stumble across something that works great in your setup for them.

As far as I know there isn't any plants that you need to avoid with the Reds.

Ok thanks, I'll keep an eye out for sturdy/big leaf plants. Really like all 3 plants you mentioned, and have heard that pothos is the main plant for reds. I think I read something about them liking to lay their eggs on the big leaves?

[frogeyes]

Hello all,

I found some awesome branches for the frogs to climb on. They are dead vines actually. Would these be safe to use after baking them?