Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I never post in this section although I do use other forums on kingsnake. Well, someone I know is moving and couldn't take his two tree frogs and gecko with him, so he gave them to me! I haven't kept any sort of amphibians yet but I have worked with them in a pet store and do I keep reptiles. He said these were Cuban tree frogs, but I'm not sure they both are because one has a much bigger head then the other. I would also like to know what sex they are, because if they are the same species and opposite sexes then I think I might try and breed them. Here are the pics of them, I can get better ones if needed:

And I would also like to know if the tank set-up I have for them is ok (I just set it up today):

They seem to be pretty interesting frogs, and great eaters! They were eating bugs on the car ride home

Thanks for any help!

Adam
-----
My pic gallery

Oh yes, they are Cubans. I have three adult males myself and 36 babies!!! The females are a good deal larger than the males. Males average around 3 inches and females can get up to 5 inches! This time of year it's easy to tell the difference because the males are calling and have nuptual pads on their front feet (they kind of look like a dark grayish patch on the outside of the "thumb"

They are fairly easy to breed (I did it accidentally) all they need is proper temps and a good size water dish and you have eggs. They develope VERY fast too!!! I found eggs on July 5th snd they hatched on the 6th. It only took a couple weeks before they morphed. Mine are almost 3 weeks out of the water and I am currently trying to find homes for them. Be careful though because they are an introduced/invasive species and here in FL are something of a pest because they are eating all the native froggies.

As for your tank, the only thing I'd change is possibly turning the tank up on one end to make it taller. You can use some sylicone and fix a piece of plexi on the bottom front to hold back the substrate. You'll just have to make sure to latch the screen so that it doesn't come off easily. These guys are really goot at escaping!!!

They are AWESOME eaters!! Even my babies are little pigglets eating about 3 or 4 pinheads a piece every day!! My adults easily eat 4 or 5 large crix every other day.
-----
Heather

Great! Tonight when they are out and about I am going to check them for the gray patches. If they are male and female would I need a larger waterbowl for them to breed? And how do you heat your frogs? I am using an under tank heater because they seem to be on the ground alot. Why do you think I should put the tank on it's side? The frogs seem to like all of that ground space, and I don't have any peices of driftwood that would reach up to the top if it was on it's side. Oh yea, and one last question, do they look good and healthy and the right size for 3-4 year olds?
Thanks for the help, I appreciate it!
Adam
-----
My pic gallery

If you plan on breeding you'll need a large enough water dish for both of them to fit into with room to spare. Mine hung on the glass over the water, I had eggs everywhere LOL Down the glass, in the substrate and all through the water.

I don't have any special heating on my tank because it doesn't get cool enough in the house to cause problems, I just have a UV light on them. Come winter I'm sure I'll need a little extra warmth and then I'll simply use a low wat basking lamp. I'dswitch to lights for heat rather than the heat pad, Tree frogs go to the ground to cool off so with the heat pad you are warming up the substrate.

And the reason I'd turn the tank up on end is to give them more up space. They are tree frogs after all. Mine never spend any time on the ground unless it's in the water dish or hunting. As for drift wood, you can do what I did... go out to the park and cut some branches. I have two good sized branches in my enclosure that I just picked up at the park. Brought them home and scrubbed them good, tossed them in the oven at 350 for about an hour to kill anything that may be living on it, scrubbed them again them rinced them real well with treated water. You can also boil them but I don't have a pot big enouh. I can almost bet that if you tip your tank up on end and give them climbing space, you won't see them on the ground any more.

Here's a photo pf my three males. They are all the way up at the top of the tank. (36" from the ground) They say that the males can be territorial but my three seem to like hanging out together.

-----
Heather

Ok, I put a lot watt heat bulb on the tank and they seem to like it. Although now I have another problem, if I turn the tank on it's side then I won't have anywhere to put the bulb. Plus the crickets would easily be able to get out the screen top if it was on ithe side. So I think I'll just keep it the way it is, although if they get stressed or sick from that then I will just buy them a taller tank. I didn't get a chance last night to check them for the patches, but I'm hoping that they are male and female cause I want to name then Havana and Fidel.
Thanks!
Adam
-----
My pic gallery

There's a real easy fix to keepin the crix in if you turn the tank on it's end. Hit Home Depot's scrap can in the Plexiglass department and find a piece that will fit your tank (free, just tell them you need to practice cutting it before starting a bog project). A little aquarium sylicone (cost less than $5 for the tube)and fasten it into place. Here are a couple pictures of my enclosure. I haven't had an escaped cricket yet!

As for the light, you can always rig it to shine in at the top front of the screen. I just have mine sitting on the glass and it works fine.

(The tank is a little bare right now because we are getting ready to move, I'm going to deck it out once we get settled again)


-----
Heather

Nice set-ups...sorry for being so rude the other day.

Thanks!

And Thank you for the apology.
-----
Heather

Hey peregrinefalcon, I'm near positive you have both a male and female cuban on your hands ^^ good luck with the breeding if you try to pursue it, the tank turned on its side is a brilliant idea, I may have to do that one of these days) But if nothing else a 20 gallon with a good inside setup (plenty of hiding spaces, leafs and branches to explore keeps them interested) will do the trick nicely, I housed a female and male for about 2 and a half years and they were dandy ^^ Of course you need to change around the layout of the setup to keep it interesting, but obviously not that often to get them stressed out.

By the way, beautiful males heather, simply gorgeous!

Thank you Thank you!!! I do have some pretty boys Hee hee. All three are wild caught and we made a point of finding ones that all had different coloring. Frap is the first one that we got, with the green splotches. For a while there we didn't know what species of frog he was at all because of his coloring. He is the only Cuban I have seen like that.

Poppy, the more golden, lighter colored of the three is the daddy to the babies I'm trying to get rid of. He can turn nearly all one color in the early evemimg when the temps start to change. And Hershey is the third one who can become a very very dark chocolate brown, usually when he's hunting.

All three of them sing to me ever morning. I come out, mist their tank and about 10 mins later they are chirping away. I just LOVE IT

That is another way to tell... the males call pretty easily. All you have to do is warm up the tank just enough to keep the mist lingering in the air and they will call.

There is always a chance that you have a male and that he just hasn't reached sexual maturity yet there for doesn't have his nuptual pads. The male will laso be quite a big smaller than the female. Males average around 3 inches and females can get up to 5 inches!!

Do you know their ages by chance?
-----
Heather

Aiiee, so cute ^^ yeah, koki my male always sang in the morning, i adored it, it so amussing to watch them bark too, i was on this site that had described their apperance as 'inflated pool toy'
I really do think that other one is female though, my female kiko (they both had longer names but we just called them short things) looked alot like her other frog, the build is just more female-ish looking because of the weight and size of the frog. I know thats not the best ttrait to base it one, but this time i think its enough to, i mean no male would be that big.

If you want to know for sure, look for nuptual pads.

-----
Heather

bottom veiw (btw, it's the dark patch on the "thumb"

-----
Heather