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Hey guys, I figured some of y'all would be better help than Google because Google is giving me nothing. I just moved to Sayreville, NJ and I'm looking for a local specialty herp shop to go to, preferably within 20 miles, but I'm willing to travel a bit for a really awesome store. I'm looking to get a tomato frog. I already got the paludarium set up minus the filter for the water section. I'll be getting that today, and cycling it by pulling filter media out of an existing tank. I've also got setups for a couple different kinds of feeder critters, I just need to get the critters. Everything's ready to go; I just need the frog! And somewhere to help me feed my new obsession/ fill my house with frogs. I've got an African Clawed Frog now, and he's delightful. He'll be benefitting from the little feeder colonies too, once I get them established.
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Jul 23, 2018 15:14
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:17 |
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my cat is norris posted:Maybe look around Philadelphia? It's not THAT far from you, and for a special buy, it's probably worth the drive. Otherwise, I'd look into reptile shows that could connect you with a source. Probably a good call, yeah. It'd be a really good chance to see some of the early America stuff I want to see around Philly too. Could be a real nice weekend. OneTwentySix posted:Are tomato frogs still in the hobby? They weren't really captive bred and I don't think there are any more imports - could be mistaken. I saw some captive bred ones online but they were in California, and it was like $40 shipping on a $30 frog. They're not super common but I was under the impression they were still around. They're really cute though... maybe I'll expand to a pair and be the source I want to see in the world. :3 Raising tadpoles sounds tough but that may be a fun future project. In any case, there's a local Petco I talked to that might be able to get one in for me; their gal will get back to me within the next week to see if she can actually do that.
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Jul 23, 2018 21:00
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A good thing happened a couple months ago: my lovely boyfriend ordered me a tomato frog for my paludarium! He came in a little skinny, but he's doing really well now. He won't come out of his little hidey-hut during the day, but I've heard that's fairly normal for them. When I got him, he was about the size of a quarter; now he's between a quarter and a half dollar in size. I really could not be happier with him. His name is George, nominally... short for Georgia if he ends up being female. (we can only hope!) The name that seems to have stuck for him around the house though is "tiny tomate." He's still terrified of us. The last time I handled him my hands broke out in a rash like poison ivy, so I'm going to pick up some disposable gloves and try to get him used to handling/people. The hope is to get him tong feeding someday. My African Clawed Frog Paul is as aggressive as ever, although he's gotten a bit lazy with the treats I feed him. I drop him roaches from my dubia colony on occasion, and he'll sit there and look at me until I move them to where he is in the water. He begs for food, too. He'll swim up to the glass when I'm in the room and make little motions with his front feet like he's trying to cram something in his mouth. I give him minnows sometimes and he'll happily chase those around. It's so much fun to watch him hunt them down, and the enrichment/exercise is good for him. He'll also eat right out of my hand, though. I really should get around to aquascaping his tank. He's a good little guy. Next on my list is a Budgett's Frog. Everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE, seems to be sold out of them. I'm gonna put some of the filter media in Paul's tank and then move it to the new tank. Setup is just a matter of getting my tank stand up and getting the tank put together; I have all the stuff ready to go, and will be getting a few live plants as soon as I go in to work tomorrow. The only problem is actually getting the frog. Anyone know where I can get a Budgett's frog in central NJ? I'm not sure if I'll be able to go to the Hamburg, PA reptile show this month. It's on the 20th, and my much-needed new mattress is being delivered that day.
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Oct 10, 2018 03:04
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So I have an odd and slightly gross question for you all. I have a young female Budgett's Frog named Dumpling. She's still small, only about 3 inches snout to vent, up from about 2 when I got her about a month ago. I feed her either a whole nightcrawler or a gut-loaded large dubia roach daily, just because she is still growing and I know these frogs grow crazy fast and all the advice I've read says to make sure they get good nutrition when they're still babies. I'll cut down feedings to once every 2-3 days as she grows. She's also got minnows in her tank that she can hunt if she feels like it, although she seems to prefer the food I put in front of her face. Today I fed her her nightcrawler as usual, and when I came back like an hour later, I noticed she was in the process of defecating it out completely undigested. I removed it from her tank once she'd passed it completely, and I plan to give her guts a chance to rest tomorrow. That is a HUGE thing for such a small critter to pass. Is there something wrong with her, or did her little body just not need that worm? She doesn't seem overweight; she looks like most of the pictures I've seen of Budgett's Frogs online. She takes food readily, and is otherwise content to just hang around in her various hides as normal. Her temps are right around 70 degrees and water quality is good.
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Nov 15, 2018 17:44
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Hello, herp thread! Got a couple questions for you guys. I have a Budgett's Frog that's almost a year old now. From everything I've seen and read about them, they're supposed to be voracious, near-fearless eating machines. Mine is terrified of everything, to the point where he panicked and swam away from the nightcrawler I was trying to feed him. Is there anything I can do to make him feel less terrified of everything? Would adding more caves and more cover to his enclosure do it? I'm getting a boa constrictor probably within the next 2-3 months, probably a baby. My boyfriend and I are building the enclosure. As long as I provide lots and lots of cover and hidey holes to keep it from stressing, is there any real disadvantage to building the enclosure to its adult size and just growing the snake out in its final home? Edit: Also can anyone recommend some live feeder fish that don't get above about 2 inches and don't contain tons of thiaminase? Bonus points if they look cool, but that's not my main concern. I want something better than fathead minnows for my frogs to snack on for enrichment. Axqu fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Mar 30, 2019 |
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Mar 30, 2019 15:39
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Important announcement: My frogs are really cute. This is Dumpling, my Budgett's frog. He likes food and nothing else. He's come to associate humans with food and will try to bite anyone and everyone through the glass. Surprisingly doesn't scream even when I take him out for tank cleaning, although he has peed on me before.  This is Paul, my ACF. He sings at night and goes absolutely apeshit for pellets. Strongest prey drive I have ever seen on any animal ever. Paul was my first foray into frogs in my adult life and he's so good I had to get more.  Taco is my baby pacman frog. He's growing well and super not-picky. I can load his food up with vitamin and calcium powder and he(?) doesn't care so long as it moves. Also eats from tongs super well. Taco is my fiance's favorite. I hope he actually ends up being female because all 3 of my other frogs are males, but I'd honestly be happy either way. We probably have another 4-5 months before we can tell. I got him right after he'd reabsorbed his tail so he's probably around 4 months old now.  Nominally his name is George but we just call him the Tiny Tomate, even though he's actually a rather large tomate now. I recently redid his enclosure and he's a lot less shy and more active now, which is nice to see. He is on a diet. When my fiance and I buy our first home, we're actually planning on a frog room so I can have more frogs.
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Aug 6, 2019 15:41
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 This is Nyla, my young female cane toad. She's about 5 inches SVL and is eating well. I don't know if anyone else here cares about cane toads or wants to own cane toads. There aren't many amphibian keepers here in general, and of those, they're mostly dart frog keepers. Just in case anyone is interested in cane toads, I found a study that shows how to reliably tell the sex of a cane toad bigger than about 2 inches just by looking at it. I live in NJ, where it gets too cold for cane toads to be invasive. She was wild caught in FL, where they are invasive. Ordinarily I wouldn't want to buy wild-caught animals in general, but taking an invasive species out of the population makes me happy; she's never going to breed and never going to contribute to ecological destruction if she's sitting in a terrarium being waited on hand and foot. Gotta be honest, I've had her about a month and a half now and it's been a joy. She's just as easy to keep as an American toad, just on a larger scale. Cane toads have always been a dream species for me. She's already the biggest toad I've ever seen, and if she's on the larger side she's going to grow to around the size of a dinner plate. She's also a lot darker colored than most cane toads I've seen-- I vaguely wonder if that would breed true, but there's no way in hell I would ever artificially put more cane toads on this planet. She's grown about an inch since I've had her and is basically a bottomless pit for bugs. I can see why people absolutely hate them, but I have not had a single regret about getting her. She's helped a lot with my sadbrains. My other frogs were CBB so they grew up around people, but there's something intensely rewarding about slowly building trust with a WC animal. She tolerates handling a lot better now, and will sometimes hang out outside her toad house when there are people in the room. She also doesn't try to pee on me any more!  It's not a problem if she's scared of people while she's still little, but when she gets to be 10 inches long with the strength to match, I want her to be comfortable enough with handling that I can put her in a cat carrier and take her to the vet if she needs medical care.Sorry for rambling. I just love her lots and lots and she's helped me so much with my mental illness stuff.
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Nov 11, 2019 20:44
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HungryMedusa posted:I would look at Craigslist for used furniture for shelves. See if there is anything wood you could use like an old TV stand you could remove bottom shelves from and use the space for the bottom tank. Sorry for the late reply (Cross country move with 3 amphibians; all 3 are doing great!!) but from everything I read the bare minimum for an adult cane toad is a 40 breeder. Bigger is always better. I have Nyla in a 40 breeder now, with plans to upgrade her when she's bigger. Have you considered building your own tankstands? My fiancé built all mine and they're super strong. Plenty of blueprints online, and way cheaper than prefab options. The King of DIY has plenty of fish tank stand schematics online; his are for aquariums but they'd be overkill for terrariums which I tend to like. Nyla's about 6.5in StV now!! She took almost a week off food after the move. She spent 1300 miles/ 4 days in a cat carrier with water and damp sphagnum moss; she was really unhappy about the car ride and has gone back to distrusting me completely. Can't say I blame her. I left her a food bowl full of Dubia roaches right after, and a few days later she polished off 25 medium (1in) Dubias in one evening. I think she's in the middle of another growth spurt. We're staying with my grandparents for a while while our rental home gets cleaned up, so no roaches for a while. Luckily, Nyla likes crickets, nightcrawlers, and the occasional supplementary feeding of mealworms from my tiny mealworm colony. We already found a bait shop that sources high quality pesticide free nightcrawlers!! So glad Nyla isn't fussy. I absolutely adore this toad. Easily my favorite of all the cold blooded animals I've ever had. Even if she didn't get any bigger she'd be an impressive animal, but she keeps getting bigger and I am thrilled. Such personality! Such gravitas! Toads are incredibly charming. Dumpling, my Budgett's frog, was stressed during the move but he seems to be recovering well. He got a little chilly and started moving sluggishly when I first arrived here, but he's doing well now. He's always been a high strung little guy. He was the second to start eating again after the move. He's normally too lazy to eat the swordtails I keep in his tank with him (Ornamental, plus a low- thiaminase calcium-rich fast-breeding snack if he gets hungry) but he ate 2 of them within a couple days of his tank being set up. He even went after and devoured a couple rosy red minnows I'd previously kept with my ACF but got too big for the ACF to eat. Those fish were as long as Dumpling himself and about 1/3in in diameter. He's stopped hiding from me and has returned to his normal behavior of Being Round and Staring. He's just barely longer than he is wide-- an adorable little near-circle. Lastly, but not least, my ACF Paul is being a good boy as always. He was so happy to be out of his little travel container that as soon as I moved him into his tank he started singing!! So cute!! He took pellets almost immediately and went into his little clay pot to hang out. He swims up to the front of the tank to greet me and beg for food whenever I enter the room. I've recently learned that ACFs like to be social like ADFs, so since he's in a 20 long, I'd like to get him a male roomie soon. Paul is a sweet boy and easily the most responsive of all my frogs. He hated the move and the travel container, but as soon as he had room to swim again he settled right back into his old routine. ACFs are hardy little dudes. Everyone wants axies but ACFs are easier, cheaper (no chiller), smarter, more personable, and much hardier. Fantastic beginner amphibs, but with a lot of charm to keep experts interested. I love frogs a lot and I'm glad my herp journey has led me to focus on frogs exclusively. (Toads are frogs) Next on the list is another ACF so Paul stops being lonely. After that... maybe a pacman, maybe some Whites Tree Frogs, maybe some mossy frogs or Amazon milk frogs? I don't want to take on more than I can handle. I'm probably going to limit myself to 5 species/tanks total. Frogs are the best and I love them. Axqu fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Jan 5, 2020 |
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Jan 5, 2020 01:52
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Alright guys. I might've hosed up. I thought that a glass top by itself would be enough to keep my ACF from escaping his tank. That wasn't the case. So now as far as tank security goes I will be adding a large landscaping brick wrapped in a towel (resting on the plastic tank rim, not on the glass itself) to keep the little bastard in. He was almost dried out by the time I got to him. Almost. He's alive. He's moving. I've got him in a tiny hospital tank with shallow water so he can easily breathe, and he's looking better and better, but he's not out of the woods yet. Those of you who've had experience with rescuing critters on the brink of dessication, what are some things I can do to help him recover better? His little hands are uncurling finally, and his little feet seem to be less stiff, but I want to give him the best chance possible. This frog helped me through some pretty significant sadbrains and I'm terrified of losing him. (X-posted aquarium/herp threads because aquatic frog) Edit: I got to him too late. Even rehydrating him wasn't enough. He's gone. Axqu fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Jan 18, 2020 |
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Jan 18, 2020 19:48
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So I improved tank security in the form of a huge-rear end brick on top of the tank lid and I've got two ACFs coming in the mail on Thursday. Two females, one reticulated albino and one regular albino. I love the species, but I didn't want to get another normal because I'm afraid of looking in the tank and thinking it's him. Same deal on the sex-- I don't want to hear singing and think it's him. I'm incredibly excited for them; I've never owned fancy morphs of anything before, and I absolutely love ACFs. There's a little bit of filling the void that Paul left, but I'd like to think I'm going about it in a healthy way.
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Jan 28, 2020 16:58
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Dreqqus posted:I've got a 12x12x24 exoterra. Any ideas for what to do with it? I thought about a crestie, but I know that's not big enough past the juvi stage. I used to keep loving terrariums with thumbnail dart frogs and I thought about that maybe? Anyway ideas are appreciated. I for one would be excited to see another frog keeper running around. Those dimensions would be perfect for a tree frog! If you want to go with something cool and different, you could get into reed frogs. Starry Night reed frogs are absolutely gorgeous. You could also probably do one single Amazon Milk frog in there if you want one large display animal. Of course Whites and Red Eyes are always options, or glass frogs if you want to go super high-dollar. If it were me, I'd do a pair of Vietnamese Mossy Frogs.
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Oct 23, 2020 17:57
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MillennialVulcan posted:Post a pic of turt swimming Oh she’s beautiful!! What a gorgeous chonky amphibian.
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Mar 28, 2021 15:08
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Seconding the love for that cool AF whites tree frog enclosure. Apparently I need to start looking for display cases to convert!!
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May 2, 2021 21:28
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:17 |
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AtomikKrab posted:No, those would probably be great if I can pretty much staple them into the wall of the tank or the top of the tunnel log. Cyanoacrylate super glue is completely inert and frog safe once it cures!
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May 3, 2021 12:27
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