Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have herd that undertank heaters are not good 4 p-ac-man frogs.wat should i use instead of the undertank heater?

You can just stick an under tank heater on the side of the tank, the bigger heaters tell you to do this anyway. Honestly though if it's a zoo med the heater will not get hot enough to burn your frog (if you use the right size) even if it sits directly on the heater. I live in a cold area and I've got a big heater on the back wall, a small heater on a side wall to make a dark corner, and a hermit crab heater on the bottom because i keep the substrate extremely wet.

A zoomed heater can definately burn your frog if it were sitting on top of it. I have had temperature readouts on a digital thermometer, on a rheostat-less ZM heater that were in excess of 110 degrees! I have also seen ball pythons who were burnt by ZM heaters that were attached to the bottom of their tanks, outside of the tank.

Not to mention, the frogs burrow to cool off. In nature, the heat comes frrom above (the sun) and the frog buries itself to stay cool and moist.
A better way to heat your enclosure, would be a heat lamp, clamped above your tank. You can spray your substrate daily ti ensure your frog does not dry out.
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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

Over-head heaters tend to dry out the tank rather quickly so misting is super important. A hygrometer would be a cheap, but good investment. If using this method, use the lowest wattage bulb that is effective. If possible, don't use any external heat and keep the room at the proper temps... (typical of a herp room anyways). With this method the thermo gradient is coolside=undersubstrate or in water, warmside=above substrate.