Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My mint green P. terribilis are in an 80 gallon bow tank with a water fall/drip wall, pool, sculptured Mayan temple, and a burping frog God, both of which my son gave me. It has been heavily planted, and over the past year, I allowed it to become extremely overgrown, so much so, that one couldn't see through the front glass to the center or back. This was almost solid ferns, vines, Selaginellas, and one particular fern, Elaphoglossum longifolium, that sends out rhizomes and entangles them everywhere, was in particular need of "control." I did not take a "before" picture, but all you need to do is imagine a big blot of foliage against the front glass, obscuring everything. The temple looked as if it had been in the jungle for centuries, barely visible even from the top opening. The frogs were happy enough as long as there was a space in the top to drop in flies for them, but even they were getting awfully short of "hopping around" space, and needed miniature machetes to hack through the foliage. Today, I ripped a lot of the foliage out viciously and put in a new layer of substrate and leaf litter, leaving only a few small sprouts and roots to repeat the process. I did not remove the frogs first. This kind of process would be frightening and stressful to some species, but the P. terribilis joined right in as I ripped up roots and hacked away, disturbing escapee bugs that had previously eluded them. I had to be especially careful not to hack off a frog leg along with plant stems, because these guys are not the least bit intimidated by having their habitat ripped to shreds by the rather clumsy "food god," whom they appear to recognize as being rather useful to them in the long run. They got really dirty, and kept wiping dirt off their faces as they discovered new goodies to eat among the devastation I'd created. I took a couple of pictures of them as they were deciding how to rearrange the furniture, which consisted of some new substrate, some fresh oak leaves and barely a few roots and sprouts left from the previous jungle.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue
D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
D. imitator
D. leucomelas
D. pumilio Bastimentos
D. fantasticus
P. terribilis mint and organe
D. reticulatus
D. castaneoticus
D. azureus
P vittatus
P. lugubris

I clicked the mouse before I included the photo of the frogs all out in their new barren environment.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue
D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
D. imitator
D. leucomelas
D. pumilio Bastimentos
D. fantasticus
P. terribilis mint and organe
D. reticulatus
D. castaneoticus
D. azureus
P vittatus
P. lugubris

It looks like mine did AFTER mine was all overgrown. Hope your little guys get lots of exercise hopping around now.
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phflame
kingsnake.com host

I haven't cleaned up the background on this tank yet. That little Ficus pumilia (Quercifolia) you can see all over the background cork has pushed its way through the back flap, and the fern, Elaphoglossum longifolium is still entangled all over the top of the drip wall/falls. This was sold to me as a Bird's nest fern, which is Asplenium nidus, a less invasive species, and before you could say "Jack Robinson," it had grown clear to the other side of the tank with its tough rhizomes, getting into every nook and cranny along the way. I simply let everything go for too long before trying to control the plants, including the two other fern species that are in there, and the boisterous Selaginella. I really should have taken a picture of the amount of overgrowth I allowed to occur. I quite literally, could not see into the tank without opening the top and looking straight down where the frogs were waiting for their breakfast, having to look straight up at me, and often getting impatient enough to take a big leap toward my negligent face.

I do tend to anthropomorphize the personalities of different frogs and their interrelations with the keeper, but that's part of what makes the hobby so much more fun than simply regarding them as a lower order with no brains or thoughts of their own. I thought that the fact these P. terribilis, which are generally regarded as rather dull eating machines, got in the middle of the "furniture rearranging," and came out while it was going on, instead of hiding, was interesting.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue
D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
D. imitator
D. leucomelas
D. pumilio Bastimentos
D. fantasticus
P. terribilis mint and organe
D. reticulatus
D. castaneoticus
D. azureus
P vittatus
P. lugubris

Hahaha, looks awesome Patty.