Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello
I have 4 mantellas (species to be detemined if i can ever see the little buggers!)in a 25 gallon, heavilly planted tank with lots of rocks and drift wood.
My problem is i never see them - maybe once in a few weeks. So, what i would like to know is - how can i make it so they come out more?
Some more info - the sides of the tank are not covered, but one is against a wall - there are green anoles and long tailed grass lizards in the tanks also (4 of them) - they get about 12-14 hours of light - i live in a basement apartment, so they have a cool temperature, but i do have a 60 watt light on the top, to one side for the lizards, but it doesn't affect the temp on the bottom.
Could the light be bothering them, or the open sides, or the lizards?

Thanks
Laura

The first thing you can do is take out the lizards.
Why would the frogs sit out in the open when possible predators are around??
I know people like to ad as mant different animals into one cage but it's not the best thing to do.
Int he wild it's different.
They aren't surrounded by glass.
The next thing you can do is don't plant your tank so heavy.
Have hide places but don't over plant and chances are you may see them more.
Lastly,
think about getting species that are bolder and not ones known to be shy.
I keep poison darts so I don't know about Mantellas but there are anumber of inexpensive darts that are known for being bold and sitting in the open..
My mint Terribillis and Centronells sit out all day long..

definetily take the lizards out. mantellas are endangered species, why would you do something like introduce predators to an allready threatened species? they are precious little frogs and you need to do more research next time.

do you have a pic of you tank? some peoples definetion of heavily planted is very different from mine so pics are always good. and where did you get them that they didn't know the name? never buy frogs from someone if they can't even id them. and you should check out amphibiancare.com/mantellas to id them. there is only a little over a dozen species so it should not be too hard. you could also add leaf litter if you have not allready done so, i would never keep any type of tropical frog without at least an inch or two of leaf litter. here is my tank of 3.2 mantellas viridis, they are supposidly shy frogs but mine are out all the time. and i think thats mainly due to all the hiding spots. pics are from 3 months ago, tank is much more grown in now:



-----
A room of herps.
www.freewebs.com/kapoktree