Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two planted tanks set up at the moment.

55 gallon: 25-30 various plants, mosses, driftwood, stones/rocks, dried vines (any frog could reach the top area of the tank by climbing on the vines, so all areas are accessable); several separate pieces of glass over the top to keep in humidity and a mesh/wire lid as well; long tube light (I think ReptiSun but I don't remember...) that is on a timer for 12 hours/day; avg temp is 75F and avg humidity is ~78% (humidity can be changed if need be, but I would prefer not to mess with the temp)

20 gallon (tall): 1 large creeping plant, moss covering EVERYTHING, stones/rocks, driftwood, dried vines, and about 6 inches of water at the bottom containing 2 ghost shrimp (going to add more of these soon...very interesting to watch and wonderful at keeping tanks clean), 1 male platinum gourami and 3 long-finned danios; top of tank is solid glass but front is botom-half glass and top-half open (can be covered with wire or glass in the future but I leave it open for now because I like the look); not much lightibng in this tank as there is so much moss-only one incandescent bulb on for about 8 hours a day, and not directly shining in the tank; temp stays at about 75, as does the water (no heater) and I haven't measured the humidity yet

My questions are:

1.I originally set up the 55 for dart frogs, but now am turning more toward tree frogs. How much poo/waste is created by Red Eyes/Tigerlegs and the like? If they produce a lot of waste, I do not want to put those particular species in the 20 tall because I do not want to have to regularly change the moss, as there is so much of it...also, just out of curiosity, would frogs such as these willingly go into the water at the bottom? There are several vines reaching from water to land, so there is no chance of them getting in and not getting out, but I was just curious...

2. Would the 55 (standard 55 gallon) be too short to house tree frog species such as RETF and TLMTF?

3.What are some small (light-weight) species of tree frog (other than green and gray-I want something a little more challenging to care for and a lil more colorful) that would do well above water (in the 20 gal)?

(The pic is an approx drawing of the side of the 20 tall...)

I think your 55 is adequate for a few RETFs, I dont know about tigerlegs, though. Treefrogs probably produce less feces than darts, I would imagine, because they don't eat as often as darts. And a small treefrog that should do well in your 20 is a clown treefrog. Similar in care to a red eye, but smaller and seem to prefer naturalistic setups. Just be sure it can find it way out of the water if it falls in and there are not fish in there large enough to eat it. Good Luck.

OH, and REFTs will dip their lower halves into the water to hyrdrate themselves, but I dont know if they will go in there otherwise. And you may need a few more plants and thing to climb on in the upper level of you 20 if you want to keep a treefrog in it. I really like my cloen treefrog. They are a little difficult and sensitve at first, (as most are WC) but they seem to do well after they acclimate. I originally setup my 20 xtra tall CTF tank for leucomelas, so its loaded with small broms, creeping figs, etc on a grat stuff foam/bed-a-beast background and other dart frog things. The clown really seems to be doing well in it. Good Luck.