Fire Belly Toads! ?s and requests!

[BoidsUnlimited]

Hey everyone.

Was at the petstore and saw some of these guys..I decided I might get 2 or 3.

Just wondering how this sounds.

10 gallon with vermiculite or bark as the substrate. Large rock water dish at ground level. Heat lamp at about 85 day....70 at night. Humidity will be kept with misting, hides, and aluminum on the lid. Food is obvious...a variety of crickets, mealworms, waxworms, etc etc.

Anyone own these? If so how about some pictures!

[urd]

i keep 1.3. I keep all mine in a 14 gallon semi-aquatic tank with about 1 inch of gravel with the water level coming to about an inch above the gravel. For the land i just used a few rocks and heaped gravel. i used to have them in a setup like the one you described but mine rarely if ever came on to the land, only when they went to feed but even then they just dived from the water, took a cricket/locust and jump back in.

They seem to be much more active in the semi aquatic tank and have bred since i put them in there. For hides i just use some artificial aquatic plants and they sit among these with just their eyes above the water.

If you do decide to go for the setup you mentioned i would definately not use vermiculite as they are unbelievably poor shots and would most likely end up witha mouthful of vermiculite every other strike at a cricket. I would not use anything that has even the slightest chance of fitting in their mouths as i can almost guarantee they will end up swallowing it.

I feed mine crickets, locusts, wax/super/meal/butter worms and anything else they will eat including small fish. The more varied their diet the better as if they do not recieve the correct levels of certain nutrients their colour fades quite rapidly.

I will try to post pics of my setup asap.
Sorry about the long post, hope it helps :)

Nick

[BoidsUnlimited]

Awesome Nick!

That setup sounds more attractive anyways! And I already have gravel for my Piranhas tank!

Do you have a heat source? If not I'll still use a light probably for display.

So gravel...1 inch of water...and some rocks for land? Sounds good! How can you sex them also? And are the babies hard to raise?

Thank you! Pics would be awesome!

[concept3]

room temperature is fine for firebellies. If you want light for a display just use a plain old flourescant light/

[Double J]

Originally posted by BoidsUnlimited
Hey everyone.

Was at the petstore and saw some of these guys..I decided I might get 2 or 3.

Just wondering how this sounds.

10 gallon with vermiculite or bark as the substrate. Large rock water dish at ground level. Heat lamp at about 85 day....70 at night. Humidity will be kept with misting, hides, and aluminum on the lid. Food is obvious...a variety of crickets, mealworms, waxworms, etc etc.

Anyone own these? If so how about some pictures!

Vermiculite?????

You must be joking.


Bark is bad for the frogs as barks from pet shops are generally fir barks and contain phenols which the frogs absorb directly through their skin, which of course is bad.

Gravel?? Garbage.... unless it is COMPLETELY submerged. If any gravel come above the land for these frogs, they will surely ingest it (they are fairly messy eaters) and of course will have a difficult time with gravelk lodged in their system. I have gravel in my tank, but it is deep under the water.

NO HEAT LAMPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These frogs prefer temps in the low 70s, and do fine in temps in the high 60s!!!!!!!!!! A heat lamp will over heat and dry out these frogs ridiculously fast. Keep them at room temperature and they will be fine. all you need for lighting is a fluorescent light above, and the frogs and plants will thrive. There is no need to heat fire belly toads unless your house is consistently in the high 50's and low-low 60's.

As for housing... there are a variety of options, but here is the easiest:

Ten gallon tank with a screen top for two or three. Eco-earth or bedabeast or coco-husk fiber as a substrate. Have at least two inches deep to hold humidity. Have a large water dish, using dechlorinated water or spring water (not distilled!) for misting and for the water dish. For cover, use pothos plants or philodendrons.. they are hearty and will survive in a fire belly tank. You can have some flower pots of coconut shells as hides if you like. Live plant cover is a beautiful thing, as plants grow and look far nicer than fake ones. Dont fret about sterilizing your live plants when cleaning out the tank. There is no need to. Feed them dusted crickets, but avoid mealworms.

Again, that is the simple way of keeping them.

If you want something a little fancer (I keep mine in a somewhat fancy setup), you can go semi-aquatic. Have pothos plants floating and/or rooted in the gravel (the gravel is of course compleelty submerged). You can then use cork bark, or piled slate for an elevated land area. If you like, you may put eco earth on the slate if you want to plant plants directly in it, but it is not necessary. I will post a pic of my setup in a follow up post.

Good luck, and do some more research. They are the ultimate beginner frogs in my opnion.

I hope you enjoy them if you wish to purchase some.

And for the love of god, don't mix them with any other reptiles or amphibians. Otherwise, death will be inevitable.

Good luck

[Double J]

Here is a pic of my fire belly toad enclosure. The pothos has truly taken over the tank, so it is just slightly difficult to see the land are in the back, but I like it that way. This amount of plants is not necessary :) though I do enjoy a heavily planted vivarium.... hence my tank.
It is a 15 gallon acrylic aquarium, much like the ones used at petsmart, though I have a screen top rather than a goofy plexi glass insert.
On the right side, slate is piled up, and cork floats on the left side. I do have a small filter in the water as well.

[Double J]

Here is an older pic of the tank before the pothos really took hold. It will give you a better idea of what the land area looks like.

[BoidsUnlimited]

Thank you for the help!

Ill let you know what I decide in a few weeks.

Any pis of them toads themselves?

[Double J]

Heh heh...... here is an old pic of one of my gravid females.

Maybe this one should cut down on her intake of trans-fats :p

[BoidsUnlimited]

Holy smokes! That is a LARGE FBT!

Way to go!