Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone! I recently obtained a frog that was accidently shipped in with fire belly toads. This is definitely a frog, and definitely not a fire belly. I was wondering if anyone here could identify it for me and/or give tank setup and care suggestions.

I have included a link to pictures of the frog. It will load a little slow because of the pictures, so be patient. If you can't tell, the belly is entirely white.
Unknown Frog

Wow that's a beautiful froggie!!! I'm not sure what it is though. Kinda looks like Leopard frog but I don't know about the colors.

Someone here will know
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Heather

Chilean Christmas Toad
Lemon Toad
Bufo varigatus

Ok here's the picture of one of mine. Everything looks identical other than the color.

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Heather

Chilean Christmas Toad
Lemon Toad
Bufo varigatus

It is a leopard frog, a relatively common aquatic species in eastern United States. Definitely do not keep this frog with fire bellies, and do not release it as it is not native.

This frog will need at least a 20 gallon long with at least half of it water.
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*Humans aren't the only species on earth... we just act like it.

".the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without
spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

I normally would agree with you, and actually did think it was a leopard at first, but it seems to me the patterning isn't quite right. The closest picture I could find to my frog that is identified as a 'leopard frog' is this one: Leopard Frog

Take a look at the legs for one.. the dark line on the inside edge of the thigh in my frog is not there at all in the leopard frog. And look at the white line that accentuates the mouth.. In my frog it curves upward before the foreleg (you can just see this in the slightly blurry side shot) and then has a fainter blotchier line of white that meets with the white of the sides, whereas in the leopard frog it is straight and ends at the latter edge of the foreleg, not touching the white of the sides at all. And also, I don't know if it is just the way the photo was taken, but my frog seems to have a rusty hue to his nose and his eye sockets as seen from above, where the leopard does not.

I'm sure they are the same genus, but the species could quite possibly be one from asia, where the firebellies originate.

It is still young. When it gets older, the normal pattern will start to develop. I'm not sure what type of leopard frog you have. It could just be the northern with a different color phase when it is young. Don't know how it'll actually look once it is older, though.

n/p

all of those things you used to describe this frog are completely subjective and highly variable in a species that is already known to be highly variable in coloration and pattern. None of those features are used to describe and differentiate this species from others.

I have no way of knowing if any of the Asian species of frogs looks like ours, but it is awfully convenient that I am 100 percent sure it is a leopard frog.

It is not a Pickerel frog because I do not see any yellow on the inside of the legs.

>>I normally would agree with you, and actually did think it was a leopard at first, but it seems to me the patterning isn't quite right. The closest picture I could find to my frog that is identified as a 'leopard frog' is this one: Leopard Frog
>>
>>Take a look at the legs for one.. the dark line on the inside edge of the thigh in my frog is not there at all in the leopard frog. And look at the white line that accentuates the mouth.. In my frog it curves upward before the foreleg (you can just see this in the slightly blurry side shot) and then has a fainter blotchier line of white that meets with the white of the sides, whereas in the leopard frog it is straight and ends at the latter edge of the foreleg, not touching the white of the sides at all. And also, I don't know if it is just the way the photo was taken, but my frog seems to have a rusty hue to his nose and his eye sockets as seen from above, where the leopard does not.
>>
>>I'm sure they are the same genus, but the species could quite possibly be one from asia, where the firebellies originate.
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*Humans aren't the only species on earth... we just act like it.

".the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without
spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

People rely too much on color for a positive species identification. I work with the general public on wildlife education and it is sometimes hard for people to get over that. Science tends to use real morphological features as a descriptor and then color as a backup. In this case we're talking about a species that is highly variable, I can't emphasize that enough!
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*Humans aren't the only species on earth... we just act like it.

".the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without
spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

wow, it could be some exotic ranid frog. I would pay a lot of money for that if it is!
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*~Ginevive~*

It doesn't really look like a leopard frog to me, just some sort of rana. If these were wild caught bombina i'd say it was one of the native species there, which i have no experience with.

that's a leopard frog. it will do well in a 20-gallon long tank or larger. It needs half-water/half land setup, because they enjoy swimming and head for the water when frightened. there are many caresheets on the net for this type of frog. i have a few of them, and they are great pets, they eat well. here's a pic of Rayna, an adult that i have.

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*~Ginevive~*

this link might be helpful if the frog is japanese. click on Japanese Frogs and you can lok at a bunch of pics. The daruma pond frog is japanese but resembles our leopard frogs.
japanese frogs

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*~Ginevive~*

i would put it in a 10g tank for now, with a few inches of forest bed/bedabeast/ecoearth, and a large water bowl. Soon you should convery the tank to a half land/water setup, you can use a plastic divider to do so. the frog is ranid, so it will be aquatic much of the time. it should eat crickets for starters and maybe throw in some feeder fish and nightcrawlers/worms later on.
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*~Ginevive~*

does look alot like the Leo's I had, only yours has some fantastic color!!!

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Heather

Chilean Christmas Toad
Lemon Toad
Bufo varigatus

I just happen to be looking around a places in FL and the frogs they have available and look what I found!!!

It is a Vietnamese Leopard Frog they sell them at the link below for $20-25

Image

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Heather

Chilean Christmas Toad
Lemon Toad
Bufo varigatus

Those are really neat frogs! I wish they had their scientific name on the website too.. then I could find out more about them, and more pictures of them that are more detailed and closeup.

I tried to email them but my mail bounced back at me :

Thanks for the picture ellasmommie

No problem. I was just excited that I found your frog LOL I'll keep poking around and see if I can find anything else for you to look at.
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Heather

Chilean Christmas Toad
Lemon Toad
Bufo varigatus

Lookie what I found!
Link

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Heather

Chilean Christmas Toad
Lemon Toad
Bufo varigatus