Introduction, pics and plants

J

JamieMT

Registered Member
Jun 19, 2008
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Billings, MT
www.thevarietypages.blogspot.com
Greetings, all! I'm looking around the 'net trying to make up my mind on what plants to put in my "remodeled" 40 gal. long toad tank (Fire Belly Toads). I stumbled in here, read some posts, and it seems like a really nice community you have going. I'm planning to read more after posting this...

Here's my newly remodeled toad tank - after years of using it for freshwater fish, I decided the toads would "inherit" a nice new big home. Easier maintenance for me than the 20 gal. high they've been living in, and I think I'll add 4 more toads for a total of 6. I've been keeping FBT's for...uh...around 8 years now, I think?


I know it looks bare - I just moved my two toads in on Tuesday night (there are three platys too...leftover from the aquarium). The water area is 12 gallons, about 4 1/2 inches high or so. I have a long list of plants waiting to be ordered from Black Jungle when I get paid at the end of the month (jewel orchids, and tillandsias for the back wall). The waterfall is the filter, and I'd like to get a small pump attached to a spray bar for the other end of the tank. Gotta wait for the budget to catch up though...

It's all designed for ease of maintenance - the "islands" are plastic plant trays (cheap) with aquarium rock in the bottom for drainage, and coir fiber for planting material. I wanted them to be removable for changing the substrate when necessary, and easier tank cleaning. My Nepenthes ventricosa is in the center, and will be pegged to the back wall as it grows. The vine in the water is Philo. scandens, but will probably be removed once I find some floating plants to replace it with. For now it will help filter the water, and gives the toads those nice big leaves to float on. So far, the toads are loving it, and I love how it looks, even now while it's still bare.

I have one other vivarium - for Cleo, my leopard gecko. She "inherited" a 40 gal. breeder when my bearded dragon died this spring (he was 14 yrs. old). Here's a picture of that, for anyone interested:


I'd like to add a birds nest sanseveria to her tank, and possibly a low-light vine of some sort, but I haven't quite gotten around to it yet. Her humid hide normally sits at the front of the glass on the warm side, I took it out so she'd be visible in this picture. :-)

Anyways, as I said, I'm trolling for planting ideas while trying to make up my mind on things for the toad tank, so any suggestions are welcome. Because the islands are separate, I can control the moisture level of the substrate to a degree, so while the middle one will be kept moist constantly for the Nep, the other two can be drier/wetter as needed for different plants.

Back to reading - there are some great ideas on this forum! :-)

Jamie
 
I like the idea of islands that you have right now for your toads. Its different, I like different. Definitely check out the other FBT tanks that have been posted recently. One is in the "Battle..." thread, another right below yours.

I think the question you have to ask yourself is, "how serious do I want to go with this?" If the setup you have right now is easy to keep clean, you like it well enough, and the toads enjoy it, I see no reason to change it. If, however, you want to make something more... exciting(who doesn't want to build their own piece of paradise in their house?), what if you take about 1/4-1/3 of that tank and turn it into a land portion? Add some java moss, Anubias, maybe a banana plant in the water, some frogbit for the water, and you would be good to go!
 
once i did one of those islands, but it was gravel and in a tubeware container. what uv got is nice tho. i love tilansia, ther all around here and i just found a place with tons of butterfly orchids just growing all over. that small duckweed would look cool, as long as it didnt over multiply
 
Thanks all - that butterfly orchid is beautiful! :-)

I've done the 1/3 land-2/3 water thing...that's basically what I've had since I started. In my experience, it's just difficult to truely keep cleaned pruned, and change the substrate when needed. It was hard to keep the substrate out of the water too - this way I have the substrate below the level of the "island walls", so once my groundcover grows in, it will be virtually impossible for the substrate to get into the water.

Granted, I was working in much smaller tanks (10 gal, 20g long, 20g high) before, but I just don't want that level of complexity to deal with anymore. I don't want anything "permanant" either, because the thought of having to potentially rip it all out at some point due to breaks, leaks, or missing toads just doesn't amuse me at all. I do like how natural conventional setups look, but for me, the name of the game is easy maintenance at the moment, while still creating a semi-naturalistic setting for the toads. I think when the plants grow in, this will still look naturalistic for the most part.

I am thinking about getting some coir mat for the sides...we'll see. I want to get the rest of my plants in first, and growing, and then re-evaluate what I want to do next. I've been thinking about getting more of those plastic trays, and covering them with aquarium rock to make the islands a bit sturdier, and more natural looking. Then I could slope the sides out to for more of a "beach area" for the toads, while still maintaining the ability to remove them at will for cleaning/maintenance. We'll see...that shouldn't be too expensive of a project, just time consuming. Has anyone done something like that?
 
Thanks Rachael. I got them the lazy way - off the internet. :-) Cleo's tank is a "fossil background" that I ordered from reptilesupply.com, and the two in the FBT tank are actually exoterra backgrounds for thier rivertank kits, laid on thier sides to fit my tank (they're actually meant to stand up tall). I ordered them from Petsmart.com, since our local store doesn't stock them. They're a bit short (about 2 inches on each side), but I plan to fill the gaps with either vines or coir mat and plants. I did have to glue foam into gaps in the back meant for running tubes and such through - I didn't want the toads to find thier way back and get stuck.

Both are just foam...and the foam is black, so when I punch holes to mount things, it shouldn't look too bad.
 
Your idea sounds like it should work out just fine. It doesn't sound THAT expensive(you have most of the expensive things already!), the only thing I could say is that I dunno, maybe the sloped thing on both sides might look a bit odd. Just get some stone and play around (no no, I didn't say get STONED, i said get some stones) with it.

I think the tank will look outstanding once your plants fill in and you start pinning them to the background. I don't know what kind of lighting you have, but what about adding some Riccia Fluitans? I am trying to keep some for the first time myself(only had my tiny bit for a week), but that could look kind neat if you can get it to grow up and out of the water onto your "islands." Keep us posted on how it goes!
 
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