Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have kept many different amphibians but marine toads have been my downfall. enclosure setup is fine, its just that i seem to get stuck w/ what i belive are wildcaught specimens that never seem to feed well. I suppose parasites or stress in general are the main concerns w/ WC toads. Aside from purchasing captive raised animals, any marine toad buffs out there have any advice?

I'll be honest with you, I don't think there are anything but wild caught Marine Toads available out there! The key to keeping Marine toads is the following:

Space ~ don't over crowd the tank. One large Marine Toad to a twenty gallon long.

Cover ~ Marine Toads like to spend the day hidden and definately do ALOT better with a secure hide box. A deep substrate is sometime adequete if its deep enough for them to burrow completely under.

Sub-Strate ~ I use ground up Pine Bark Mulch. This can be bought at garden centers (at least where i'm at in Massachusetts). This is the perfect medium for burrowing and the acid balance is high keeping down fungus levels.

Don't use a water bowl ~ thats right! I don't use water bowls for any of my toads and I keep alot. I saturate the pine bark mulch and then allow it to dry out almost completely. When the substrate become almost dry, I do a heavy saturation again. Once every two weeks, I soak the toads in a clean tub of water for an hour. Thats it.

Don't handle your Marine Toad too much. They become stressed with alot of handling, especially if they haven't been in captivity too long.

Lastly, don't leave food in the tank with the toad for long. Crickets will chew on Marine Toads and ultimately kill them. Feed the Toads larger prey items, Beetles, Pinkies or Crawlers.
If you can keep small toads, you can keep big ones ~ just keep them the same way.
E-mail with questions if you like. Thanks, Leo
Skin & Scales

thanx for the advice! i use top soil rather than wood , they love to burrow in it. and i will heed your advice and j/ soak the lil' buggers every couple of weeks. diet wise they have only taken crickets and do so greedily. i have tried pinkies, discoid roaches, and crawlers but they have yet to take to these food items for whatever reason.