Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a pair of green toads. they're living in a 20 gallon long aquarium with a mesh lid. i ahve a clippy light for them but i don't often use it. and a water dish..
i've had them for over a year without any problems. this year, i put my captured american toad in with them, and for some reason, it died. at the time there were fungus gnats in the terrarium and i thought they might have been irritating my american toad because it had started acting very strangely. namely, it wouldnt eat and peed whenever i put it in the container with the food. never did that before.

well, i changed the substrate washed all the tank furniture in water. no soap. and evetything seemed to be going well. the substrate is compressed coconut fiber. it's very fine particles.

anyways, lately one of my toads has been refusing to eat out of my hand. they had been very tame and would take meal worms directly out of my fingers. i wasnt overly concerned because i put meal worms in a dish in their tank and i saw them both at the dish and all the mealies vanished, hopefully into their stomachs and not into the substrate. anyways, i take the toads out today and i see soemthing crawling on it that looks maybe like a small mite. perhaps that is what has been bothering my toads? has anyone heard of mites parasitising toads? and what on earth can i do about such a thing? or am i going to ahve to go to the vets? sorry this is so long, im trying to put all relevant (and some irrelevant, im sure) infos...

anyways, if anyone can help, i really appreciate it.

thanks in advance

I had a similar problem in my gecko cage, although the tiny little creatures seemed to be more in the cage, and not so much on the animal. What I did was take everything out, thoroughly clean everything and thoroughly wash the affected animal with water only before putting everything back in the cage. I had to do this twice before it appeared as though there were all gone. I believe the infestation came from a dirty batch of crickets I got at a fishing store. I don't know much about your frogs, and I can't be sure that your pests are the same as mine, but I'm sure any information is better than none. =) Hope this helps.
Best of luck.

Heather

hey thanks. yeah, i've seen a few of the "fungus gnat" dealies, but the thing i saw yesterday was different. it didn't have wings, was round, and brownish red, well, like garnet colored. the brownish red garnets...

maybe i'll try to get a picture if i see it again. it didn't look liek the gnats...

but looks like it's time to clean their cage again! heh. thanks again!

Toads are big waste producers so keeping the soil clean will eliminate these pests.
you dont need to clean the tank with soap even hot water will do a good job sometimes soap residue can bother the toads.
I would like to ask you since you had them a yr what temps you keep them at all year long day/night because I am interested in getting them?
I keep Malaysian toads but they like it warm but think green toads prefer cooler. either way if you could let me know .
Thanks.
Malays

hey. i don't know where you are located, but i let mine be room temp year round. i'm in western PA, usa. so it can be a bit chilly, going to around 50 at night. especially this time of year, the fall, where the weather changes so quickly. they have a light on them, it's incandescent and gives off more heat than beneficial light. the light is a recent addition, tho. it took me a while before i got the light set up well and they had some irregular lighting for a while. they also quit eating well then. oops!

but yeah, i don't have a thermometer in their terrarium to actually guage the temps. (yeah im a bad herper) but i read that they're temperate dwellers and hibernate in winter in the wild. they seemed fine, even in the heat of the summer(which i believe my bufo americanus suffered quite a bit from..). i love them, myself. lol. there are a few webpages about them out there.. i could look one up for you if you want. i don't have them bookmarked. i found them on google, com. but i don't recall if they have any temp recommendations on them, though.

now that i think about it, this is my second winter with them.

anyways, good luck!

Wow that is chilly at night. I hope you dont take early morning showers lol you would freeze. Great info you gave me tho after reading your post and an old book I got on them.
I came to conclusion that they do well in temps at night in mid 60s or low 60s if need be aslong as warmer in day.
50s isnt an issue for me so glad to hear they are that hardy.
I imagine with your bulb now they probably prefer it and better for their digestion.
thanks.
Malays

yeah, i try not to let it get that cold usually, but occasionally it does. none of my pets appreciate it when that happens tho. lol!

they really are hardy beasts. they are the best.

and, just a random aside, i've been trying different water dishes lately, mine prefer this really deep glass one where they can reach the bottom, but usually are semi floating, as opposed to the plastic one.

they're so fun to watch, too. they all hop and flop!

My water dish is shallow . Your plastic dish was shallow while your glass deeper?
I am going to get a deeper one so they can still reach bottom but more water than what I have now.
How many inches deep more or less is your water dish?
Malays

yeah, the plastic dish is shallower than the glass one. they really seem to enjoy leaping into the glass one and splashing the water everywhere so their substrate gets soaked and their dish needs refilled. lol

i just measured it and it's about 2-3 inches deep. : )

Thanks alot mine is like 1 inch of water. I figured since land toads didnt want it to deep. But 3 inches isnt going to hurt them and yours like it so going to increase the water to 3 inches.