Fire Bellied Toads Questions

[Chrisinator]

So, I've got the go-ahead from the 'rents to get fire-bellied toads for my 10G paludarium. The paludarium used to house Vampire Crabs until they all died off. I have a few questions regarding the fire-bellied toads themselves.

A quick description of the tank:
10 gallons split in half (more like zig-zag, but it comes out as a half)with a divider.. There is about 5 gallons of water and it is about 6 inches high. There is hardscape on one side of the water. The rest includes java moss and a tiny driftwood.

On the land side, the groud cover is some moss that I found outside with peat soil underneath. It has been growing for a few weeks now. There is also a VFT, Dracenea and Pothos plants. As for tankmates, there are Red Cherry Shrimps, Babaulti Shrimps, Snails and Juvenile guppies.

1. What's the average life span of the Toads?

2. How many toads would fit in 10g with 50:50 land and water?

3. How often do they need to be fed, how much and with what?

4. Are there any alternative foods than cricket just in case I can't always
make it to the pet store every two weeks?

5. What are good supplements for crickets (calcium and vegetable wise)

6. Would my Babaulti Shrimp and Red Cherry Shrimp be okay with the toads in terms of toxicity?

7. Would they eat juvenile guppies from time to time if I need to remove some from my main tank?

8. Is there anything else I am forgetting?

I'll post a pic of the tank in order to get a better view of the tank.

Thanks! More questions will probably arise.

 

[user_name]

1. What's the average life span of the Toads?
I'm not sure, but I think 2-3 years.

2. How many toads would fit in 10g with 50:50 land and water?
2-3

3. How often do they need to be fed, how much and with what?
I feed mine two bloodworms each monday, wednesday, friday. I'm not sure how great that feeding schedule is though...

4. Are there any alternative foods than cricket just in case I can't always
make it to the pet store every two weeks?
mealworms are great, just make sure they stay int eh fridge after your done with feeding.

5. What are good supplements for crickets (calcium and vegetable wise)
no clue.

6. Would my Babaulti Shrimp and Red Cherry Shrimp be okay with the toads in terms of toxicity?
I think they should be fine, but I'm not 100%.

7. Would they eat juvenile guppies from time to time if I need to remove some from my main tank?
They may eat a few from time to time, but don't expect it to be a regular thing.

8. Is there anything else I am forgetting?

Nope, just keep the humidity up and you should be fine.

 

[Chrisinator]

Yeah, I have a hood thats good with keeping the humidity up. Thanks. Still looking for more input.

 

[DirTDeezl]

I wish I could give you some info on them, but I dont have experience with them. However I have a friend, Michael, who owns New England Herpetoculture in New Britain, Ct. He is very knowledgeable about frogs and geckos. He is also very friendly.
http://www.neherpetoculture.com/index.htm

try getting in touch with him, he will even do his best to find out for you if he doesnt know for himself. ( tell him Clint the tattoo artist directed you to him!)
I hope you find what youre looking for! good luck.

 

[bluekrissyspike]

my fire belly toads only eat crickets. i've tried feeding them meal worms and bloodworms and they were not into that at all. i order my crickets online and go through about 600 small(just bigger than pinhead) a month for three toads. i have a seperate tank set up for crickets and scoop out random amounts to feed them at least every other day. they don't seem to eat fish, snails or shrimp although they for sure don't like fish touching them while they are swimming. make sure the lid is super tight or they will escape. especially if they are hungry. they tend to climb the glass and try to get out in search of food if not fed every other day. i have mine in a fifty gallon tank that is 3/4 full and has a large floating 'island' for them to live on. with the moss in your tank the crickets will probably be able to live in there if you dump them all in at once. the frogs will catch them as they come out at night. they really, really enjoy live plants. i have pythos, some spider plants, lucky bamboo and purple waffle plant growing in the top of the tank and they love, love, love floating plants especially water sprite which i have issues with in another tank so i throw it into their tank for them. they tend to go through a lot of it cause it sticks to them when they get out and dries up. i think the crickets eat it once it's dried. anyways, they are really neat. i have some calcium/vitamin dust that i put on their crickets before feeding but prefer to feed the crickets 'cricket quencher' that is enriched with vitamins. if you can breed your own crickets it would probably be easier but it doesn't seem to be working out very well for me so i can't help with that. they change colours too. when they stay in the water for a long time they get pretty dark and after they 'sun' themselves on their island for a while they turn bright green. they are fun to watch. they wrestle around. the males are pretty noisy at night but i like the sounds they make so it doesn't bother me.

 

[Chrisinator]

thank you so much for the info guys
Regarding crickets, would i really need to get 600 crickets? Thats seem way too much to me for 3 toads.

 

[Chrisinator]

?

 

[user_name]

I don't think that you will need 600 crickets a month... I go through about 50 mealworms a month (a little less than that). A 50 count of mealworms is only 2-3 bucks, and the price is better if you buy in larger amounts.

 

[Chrisinator]

I don't think that you will need 600 crickets a month... I go through about 50 mealworms a month (a little less than that). A 50 count of mealworms is only 2-3 bucks, and the price is better if you buy in larger amounts.

I've been reading a lot about what to feed FBTs and most say that be weary of the mealworms since they have harder shells. I think what I'm gonna do feed the FBTS 3 crickets each (or more, depending) and then having some mealworms when I'm unable to go to the pet store.

I just calculated about how much I'll spend yearly for the toads with crickets and it comes out to a whopping $144. That's pretty expensive. I think I'm going to just stick with 2 toads for now and see how the budget is.

I'll be getting the toads possibly on Saturday. Gonna get two Green Fire Bellies! A new thread will be up soon as soon as I am done tweaking their tank.

 

[bluekrissyspike]

that's just how many mine eat. your pet store may have more variety when it comes to sizes. mine has teeny-tiny or full size crickets with no inbetween. my next order online i will be moving up to 1/4 inch crickets and maybe some half inch. i know the big ones are way too big, they can't chew them. i've also had some success feeding them small earthworms but patience is required for that because you can't just put the earth worms in and leave them because they are stupid and fall in the water. not sure what the prices for crickets are where you live but i spend a lot more than $144/year on crickets. usually i order by the thousand and it costs about $50 including shipping.