Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just created my very first terrarium and I realize now that it may be a bit small for everything in it but I will be upgrading the size soon. I currently have a 10 gallon tank with one japanese Fire belly frog and a fire belly newt. I also included a betta fish and 3 orange belly tetras in the 4 gallons of water. I got some baby guppies to feed the frog and out of 4 in a week he has eaten 3! I am having a big problem with the tank, it is generating this slimy brownish clearish (I know thats good) film that I cant figure out. The filter I have is for a 15 gallon tank and its a whisper filter that creates a little waterfall. I am waiting on delivery of 2 plants I ordered online from Black Jungle...One is a moss and the other is a leafy plant. I completely emptied the tank today washed out all the gravel, fake plants, river stones, filter, and other decoration with really hot water because I didnt know what else to use. I resituated the tank and everyone is back in now. Any suggestions? And is this set up a bad idea?

once you cleaned everything, did the foam/slime come back?
below is my old 29 gal. long setup. for fbt and fbn. next post will have pics of my new setup.

dude or dudett, i dunno know, you have to stop going around telling people about your community tank. they don't work, all animals have different requirements and most newts and toads have toxins that will kill other species. and while your might have worked, obviously other people's don't so don't go around telling people that it's ok to throw a bunch of animals in a tank and hope they live.

http://amphibiancare.com/frogs/articles/communitytank.html
and this dude knows a lot more than you do about herps, thats for sure.
http://exoticpets.about.com/od/reptilesandamphibians/f/mixingspecies.htm

this is my new 40 gal. breeder setup with 5 fbt, 1 Japanese fbn, 1 chinese fbn, 1 yellow bellied toad, and one rough skinned newt. the tank has several live plants both submerged and above the waters surface. there are rosie reds, leapord danios, zebra danios, and white clouds in the tank as well. they are for feeders as well as maintaining healthy plants and good water quality

and two more pics

After cleaning it out the filter is slowly losing suction due to build up of the slime again so I dunno what is wrong. Also one of my newts died like 2 days after I got it and so did my albino mini catfish I got to eat the poo in the water. Ummm I dunno if my newts are chinese or jap and niether does the stupid shop I bought them at so they are idiots. LoL but I need to KNOW! I think it is dying from starvation it wont eat the frozen bloodworms I got for it I am goin to get meal worms now to try to hand feed the re-re I dunno what to do.

the reason it died was probably due to the fire belly toads, they have a toxin in their skin, that kills most animals in the same area as them.so other than fish and the fire belly toad i would take the rest out.

I AM BY NO MEANS SAYING THAT THIS IS PROPER OR EVEN A GOOD IDEA, IF YOU TRY THIS AND IT FAILS IT IS OF YOUR DOING IAM JUST PROVING A POINT.

THE TANK BELOW CONTAINS 5 ORIENTAL FBT, 1 YELLOW BELLIED TOAD, 1 CHINESE FBN, 1 JAPANESE FBN, 1 ROUGH SKINNED NEWT, AND APPROX 40 FISH (LEAPORD AND ZEBRA DANIOS, WHITE CLOUDS, AND ROSIE REDS). THIS TANK HAS BEEN TOGETHER FOR 6 YEARS WITHOUT INCIDENT.

THE POINT IS THAT CONVENTIAL INFORMATION FROM DECADES PAST HAS BEEN PROVEN FLAWED AND/OR OUT RIGHT WRONG MANY TIMES. THE INDUSTRY AND KNOWLEDGE HAS CHANGED AND IT HAS DONE SO THROUGH EXPERIMENTATION, THIS EXPIREMENT SHOWS THAT UNDER THE PROPER CIRCUMSTANCES, HIGHLY TOXIC SPECIES ARE AT HOME WITH ONE ANOTHER, BUT ONLY UNDER THE PROPER CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD THIS BE TRIED.

MIXED SPECIES TANKS ARE VERY DOABLE AND I ENCOURAGE THEM, PROVIDED YOU DO THE PROPER RESEARCH FIRST.

wax worms or earthwoms are better than mealworms when trying to entise an amphib to eat. if you removed everything from the tank and cleaned the tank and the items in it , then it is safe to say that something in the tank is causing the issue. a piece of driftwood may have a fungus issue or something like that. check you water quality and try buying some bottled water and not using tap water to see if that makes a difference. what is filter media are you using and did you rinse it prior to using it? post some pics if you can of the tank with the slime to see if it can be identifed.

check www.caudata.org or for fbn pics to compare the species, they are quite different in coloration and pattern on their bellies

wo, first off, any types of frog and newt should never go in the same tank. i know some people say that they have done it sucessfully, but both animals secrete toxins and eventually one will die from the others toxins. it might not be for years, but eventually... my fish knowlege isn't all that good, but arn't orange bellied tetras not that hardy? you're better off with just guppies which will die anyway from getting eaten. the brown film is probally from overcrowding the tank. do you have soil in the tank? sometimes it creates a film. or dead bugs or fish? that does that too.

I actually got the film cleared up they are in a 20 gallon now and I have a separated island that I made with plexi glass and aquarium sealant that is filled with soil and all live plants. The newt and the frog are alive and perfectly happy, eating healthily swimming and basking. I have 3 orange bellied tetras which are small but too big to fit in the frogs mouth he has shown no interest in eating them, I feed him little guppies and he eats them within minutes of them being in the water. I also have a semi-aquatic frog and he is just fine as well, eating guppies too. I also have 2 zebra danios and everyone is happy, humidity is happy I have two filters each for a 30 gallon in there now and there is absolutely nothing but clear sparkling water along with my total of about 18 live plants. Thanks for the advice everyone.

i'm glad you fixed the water problem, but there's still the problem of all those animals together. just cause it's fine now doesn't mean nothing will happen, in the future, tanks with that many species are not a good idea.