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3rd grade classroom

cwolf Apr 18, 2009 11:27 PM

My wife is a middle school science teacher and will be moving to third grade next year. She has successfully maintained and bred lots of reptiles in her classroom, and amphibians have been really tricky for us. We had a pacman frog for 2 years and it suddenly died on us. Ever since we have tried 2 more pacmans and neither of them would eat and eventually also died. As far as we could tell we had them setup properly. We tried both full aquatic setups, to coir, and the decorative sponge things. We also had tried them on various lighting on timers, and had a mid 80 warm side with room temp cool sides of 72-75 depending on time of day. The tap water at the school is to put it nicely hideous, so we hauled water in from home that we dechlorinated. She has put me on a quest to find somthing else to maintain since one of their main science subjects is the difference between reptiles and amphibians. The kids really liked the pacman frog, but he was always invisible and hidden away, until feeding time. I have read that the fire belly toads are more active, somewhat social, and are easy to keep. Im wondering if we could get any input either about a fool proof setup for them, or if you might reccomend somthing else? Food supply is also a slight problem since there isnt anywhere within an hour drive for us to get small crickets, so I am a bit aprehensive about the fire bellys. We can get red wigglers and mealworms easily, and I maintain a small colony of rodents. We have alot of terrariums to use for this as well, everything from a 2.5 gallon tank to a 75 gallon. So size isnt much of an issue for us in that respect. I have read about larger toads but really dont know where to go with this. We are looking for somthing that will be easy to keep, visible during the day, and somthing that wont need a water resivoir larger than a water dish, and somthing that wont hurt the kids Any input would be awesome!

Thank you
Chris

Replies (4)

bskinner88 Apr 19, 2009 09:39 PM

When I had Firebelly toads, they were escape artists. But it was a LONG time ago and probably had a bad setup for them. I think anoles would be good for a class room, but finding a healthy one from a pet store isn't the easiest. If you do find a healthy one (or a few in a bigger sized tank), they are fun and easy to keep.

-Bradley

otis07 Apr 30, 2009 10:46 PM

i would not go with anoles, they require uvb light which is not cheap.

fbt- one of the best starter amphibians, they are cheap, hardy, and you could probably find them locally. not sure what you mean about them being escape artists but as long as you have a tight fitting lid you should be fine. i use glass lids to keep humidity up and they work fine.

what were you feedin the pacman? i have heard of them dieing prematurely due to a high fat diet (feeder fish ect)
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A room of herps.
www.freewebs.com/kapoktree

cwolf May 01, 2009 12:39 AM

We were feeding the one pacman that lived 2 years earthworms, crickets,superworms, he didnt like mice of any size. The other two we bought would not eat anything.

Thanks for the advice
Chris

otis07 May 04, 2009 09:44 AM

Hmmm, nothing jumps out at me but the more info you can give us the better the chance something will stand out as being the c.o.d.
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A room of herps.
www.freewebs.com/kapoktree

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