Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got a Pacman that came in a tiny critter keeper and I put it in a tank w/ a heater on the bottom, lots of sphagum & a water dish. He ate about 5 crickets yesterday, but today he's not eating (probably full). He also has strange colored skin. It looks very dry, and the best way to describe it is like translucent stale cheese. He's albino. Is this normal? His eyes are clear and he ate a lot & can jump around when scared, but I dont know if his skin look healthy. Are they supposed to be slimy?

Well while I am not positive what is going on with your little guy, I can give some suggestions.

First off, ditch the under-tank heater. Pacs are burrowers that like to go down a bit, usually a couple inches (they then come up to the surface when hungry). When you put a heater under the tank, you are raising the temperature of the moss and then when your pac burrows he cannot escape the heat. Burrowing is also done because it is cooler in the substrate than on land, but putting a heater on the bottom really negates that possibility.

Pacs secrete a whitish film over the top of them when they brumate (hibernate), this locks in water. If this is what is happening to your frog, increase the humidity in your tank so that the substrate is moist. Pacs are from the rainforest so a dry habitat is a bad habitat. What is your humidity at now? What about temperature?

They usually are not that slimy, but sort of bumpy kinda like a toad with a little more slime added on. Sorry that is a horrible way to describe it but that is the best I can come up with.

How many inches of spagnum is in the tank from the bottom up? Also I like to use Bed-A-Beast (which is a brick of coconut fiber that expands with water) or similar product with my pac, it holds water better than moss.

Best of luck with him!

Oh I figured it out. It's just his natural color! I went to a different store and saw an albino pacman, same thing and the owner said he was healthy. (I bought him too, couldn't resist) About the under tank heater, it's stuck on there permanantly :- What should I do? The humidity is at 90 when I cover the screen, above 70 without. The temp is usually between 70-80. I have a good layer of moss, and he has a ceramic water dish to cool down in. Are they intelligent enough to move when it gets hot, or is burning him still a fear?

Thanks a lot

theres a few things you can do sense the UTH is stuck on you can get some pet carpet, wich is a small green thin carpet and lay it down on the bottom them moss over it.. or get some gravel and put a thin layer on the bottom.. Another option is putting something over it like a large rock to make sure it cant get directly on the pad. Also make sure theres not allot of water at the bottom of the tank or a water dish ontop of the UTH.

Really a UTH isnt bad as long as its not directly heating water or your frog isnt ontop of the glass sitting on it. For future refrence tho stick it to the back of the tank instead of the top 2 inches higher then the substrate, this way they cant get agienst it and they can escape the heat if they want to..

Now for the humidity.. 90% isnt bad allot of people say it works.. I keep mine at 80% because my frog seems to like high humidity then the lower ranges people use.

I see. But the high humidity in the tank results in a good amount of water collecting at the bottom. Will this lead to problems? Also, I'm afraid that something like bed-a-beast is going to render the heating pad useless. It's already pretty weak. If I have enough substrate is it still a danger?

just put something down at the bottom like some pet carpet.. its normally thin and green and works just fine.. then the substrate ontop of that.. And bed a beast wont kill the heat pad effects.. mix like 1/5 bead a beast the rest moss and that will be fine..

Really all you want a UTH to do is heat the air, not the substrate.

my GABBIE will only stay on the end with the heater, I keep her tank around 75-79, now that it has turn cold.

GABBIE & hobosam

Undertank heaters are bad for horned frogs. The frogs can become burned if they dig deep into their substrate and sit directly on the glass. Also, unlike snakes, they do not need "belly heat" to digest their foods. A better option would be a heat lamp, but you have to take care that your cage does not dry out too much.
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2.1 Ball pythons
1.0 Boa Constrictor Imperator
0.1 albino Cranwell's horned frog
1.0 bearded dragon
1.0 Tiger salamander
1.1 breeding Clawed frogs
1.0 black kittycat
3.1 Oscar cichlids
0.1 Paint horse mare

We have our albino baby (Lemony Snicket) in a 20 gallon long. I have shredded bark for the substrate, with a good 2 inches of moss over it. There are 4 live plants, a water dish, a few decorative smooth rocks and a small waterfall in the corner. The humidity stays around 85-90%, temp around 75-80. We have a heating pad underneath the cage set on low (the kind people use) and a 40 watt bulb at the top. The daylight is florescent, and night lite is just a regular reptile nite lite. Set up wise, I think we did well this time. We recently lost our other PacMan, and the reasons are unclear. I know now the humidity was too low, but we also found crickets had hatched and hundreds of them were hiding under the large water bowl when I went to dismantle the tank......perhaps they chewed him up? We used the Bed-A-Beast litter for his tank but personally I just don't like it. It sticks to everything, particulary the frogs.
One great thing you can use to keep the humidity up is by useing that sealable plastic wrap......the kind that seals when you press down on it. You can take it off and on and it reseals every time. It sticks to anything.
Laura Ledet

See the thing about elaborate set ups is I don't know how to clean them. I like to clean the aquarium every other day, and I just need a simple substrate I can take out, clean, put back in. The burning the frog issue doesn't seem to effect my frogs, i touch the bottom of the tank daily to make sure it's not too hot and the temperature feels acceptable to me, only slightly warmer than my body temp, but this may be too much for the frogs? What do you guys think of just a reptile carpet and a water dish?

I think just a carpet would be a problem. For one, depending on the frog ofcourse, you need to keep humidity up, and a carpet would negate that attempt unless you placed a lot of wet moss on one end. Also, its just a very un-natural substrate for a frog in general. And it may be hard on their skin. Lastly, if you are useing soaps or chemicals of any kind to clean that carpet, it will be harmful and possibly fatal to your frog. Of course this is only my opinion.
Laura Ledet

I never thought of that. But wouldn't the chemistry on the carpet be harmful whether I have moss on top or not if that's the case? Why have any carpet at all?