Dart frogs for beginners.

June 8, 2012 11:10 AM

I've been gifted a vivarium. Help an amphibian noob decide about a new pet.

I am unexpectedly the new owner of a 45x45x60cm Exo Terra vivarium. I am a competent aquarist, and have a little bit of experience keeping reptiles, but I think I'd like to set it up as a paludarium, with dart frogs and small fish. Are dart frogs a reasonable place to start? Am I setting myself up for a humid swampy hell in the corner of my room? What if the frogs escape? What should I read before committing to frogs? Is there something more sensible that my 2 year old (human child) might enjoy more?

posted by roofus to pets & animals (7 answers total)

My fifth grade class had newts. I don't know much about them (they couldn't have been terribly hard to take care of, though), but I remember everyone really liking them. They were really cute and would play around and splash with each other.
posted by phunniemee at 12:13 PM on June 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

Frogs are surprisingly annoying pets. They make all sorts of noise, at awful hours, and can't be trained. They're not affectionate. They don't do very many interesting things. They're wet.

My husband's research, for years, was in frogs, and he kept many of them. After he finally got rid of them all he said, "You know, I am so glad those damn frogs are gone." He explained that he thought he had to have them, and it kind of bugged him that he didn't like them. He gave them to an ex-girlfriend, with maybe a hint of maliciousness.

Never had newts. Might be more fun than frogs, and quieter.
posted by Capri at 12:35 PM on June 8, 2012

NEWTS ARE AWESOME.

Really, they are the coolest little buddies, and super-fun to watch and feed. I had two Firebelly newts, Ernie and Bert. One day I left the lid slightly off the top of their habitat and they escaped, which was very, very sad.

I found Ernie, who had tragically died, the next day. We buried him in the back yard. It wasn't until a year later, when we were moving out, that I found Bert, under the hall rug adjoining a radiator. He was perfectly fossilised, so I had him dipped in gold and wore him as a broach.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:56 PM on June 8, 2012 [6 favorites]

I've always found issues with water-based pets (fish, newts, turtles, frogs)...

Our vivarium currently houses a couple bearded dragons. I was incredibly skeptical about getting these for my kids ... because, after all... they gotta be stupid and have no emotional attachment capability, right?

Turns out, they are wonderful pets, silent, non-smelly, low-upkeet - and they are like little dogs - they actually like interacting with people, being petted, picked-up, etc. They even recognize and attach with different people.

The only thing I wish I had known earlier, was using an under-tank heating element, instead of lamps... Would have saved quite a bit of $$$ in electricity costs.
posted by jkaczor at 1:25 PM on June 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

Although not real exciting, Toads are pretty easy to maintain.
posted by HuronBob at 1:37 PM on June 8, 2012

If you had experience with reptiles though you should be able to handle most commonly available frogs with no worries, keeping the humidity right is the hard part there is a lot of god info online on the needs of various species, all the ones I've ever had would only take live feed and crickets etc can get expensive. The tank sounds like a great idea, it is pretty small so you'd want to work hard at keeping it clean, dead crickets and frog poop in the water and all that, but again if you've had fish you understand the whole good bacteria/filtration thing. Cleanliness is your friend in a warm humid environment.

Escaped frogs are surprisingly easy to catch, I just looked in the corner the cat was staring fixedly at, but then again I had rather large tree frogs that were built like Jaba the Hutt so they didn't really hurry anywhere. Its when you drop a box of crickets and the little bastards are chirping away for the next few weeks from every corner of your house that you'll curse.
posted by wwax at 1:52 PM on June 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

Before you go dart frogs, I would try firebelly toads and/or green tree frogs; more durable and lots cheaper. Also seconding the newts suggestion. Newts rock, being basically amphibian otters. A paludarium with flowing water can be a great addition to a home, with live plants and whatever else; I had snails and earthworms as well as a mourning gecko which would sometimes have parthenogenic offspring. You might consider trying to duplicate, as best you can, your own local environment; I see for you that's London, so maybe a trip to your local wasteland/swampy area (Thames?) and collect mossy rotting logs, local plants, any local bugs and water-life you can include, and see what you get? Be sure to abide by laws re collecting in endangered areas, but that can be a great example for a kid, to see the fascinating life that lives, literally, right outside your doorstep. Gerald Durrell and Konrad Lorenz are good reading to accompany this.
posted by The otter lady at 7:51 PM on June 8, 2012