55g Himalayan Foothills Paludarium

[WhistlingBadger]

The ones from buceplant.com are zinc magnesium alloy. I bet they're pretty when you light them on fire.
(I can say things like that now that I'm not a moderator anymore)

 

[MuddyWaters]

Doing a water change this morning, in hopes of getting some video for TOTM later, and every thing is falling apart! Chunks of rockwork falling off, anubias falling off, driftwood busting loose and floating. It's almost enough to discourage a guy!

LOL!! not laughing at you, laughing with you. Misery loves company. Here's my similar experience.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I miss my firebelly toads. I last saw Malcolm, my final one, a few days ago. I have no idea what happened to them or what I did wrong; this should have been a perfect habitat for them, and I never found any bodies. No idea. They're just gone.

Fish are doing great. But man. I really liked those frogs.

 

[jaylach]

I miss my firebelly toads. I last saw Malcolm, my final one, a few days ago. I have no idea what happened to them or what I did wrong; this should have been a perfect habitat for them, and I never found any bodies. No idea. They're just gone.

Fish are doing great. But man. I really liked those frogs.

Don't lose hope as you never what goes through a toad's mind. Mayhaps they went on a retreat.

Seriously critters can be weird and we won't ever totally understand. For instance my rope fish will totally disappear for a week or longer then be all over the tank the next week.

One thought though. Do they have suction cup type toes such as some toads/frogs like peepers? If so is it possible that they may have left the tank by climbing the glass? How tight and secure is the hood?

 

[jaylach]

Just did a quick search and, sure enough, these beasties can climb glass. Toads do not have the proper type of toe to do this but fire belly toads are actually frogs and can do so.

From a little reading they are actually quite good at climbing glass and other smooth surfaces. Taking a quick scan of a care guide it is considered to be important to have a tight lid with no openings through they can fit.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I saw them climbing the glass a few times, but they only could make it up an inch or two before they'd fall back down. They don't have suction toes like tree frogs; I think they just stick to the glass because they're wet, sort of like living vinyl decals. Once they get a couple inches above the vegetation, they seem to realize that things are getting a bit dry, and let themselves fall back down.

Nevertheless, I plugged the pump intake hole with filter floss just to be sure, and there really isn't anywhere else they could have gotten out. Also, we have been thoroughly sweeping our floors several times a week, and haven't found any frog jerky. So unless Scotty beamed them up, I don't think that's it.

 

[MuddyWaters]

I miss my firebelly toads. I last saw Malcolm, my final one, a few days ago. I have no idea what happened to them or what I did wrong; this should have been a perfect habitat for them, and I never found any bodies. No idea. They're just gone.

Fish are doing great. But man. I really liked those frogs.

I can relate. Twice in about a week. I bought 6 sunshine neon tetras. Drip acclimated them, etc. They were happy. Next day there were 5. No body, nothing- just 5 left.

Two or 3 weeks ago, I bought a second Mexican Dwarf Crayfish. He's been doing well. Today I look in the tank and he's rolling around on the bottom with the current. DEAD. WHAT? The other one is (and has been ) happy as a clam for at least a month!

Of course, immediately think, "he starved!" and put a few grains of Shrimp Cuisine in the tank. I gotta stop thinking everything is starving LOL.

Anyway, I feel your pain- it is awful to lose them and worse when you're not even sure because you just can't find them.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I can relate. Twice in about a week. I bought 6 sunshine neon tetras. Drip acclimated them, etc. They were happy. Next day there were 5. No body, nothing- just 5 left.

Two or 3 weeks ago, I bought a second Mexican Dwarf Crayfish. He's been doing well. Today I look in the tank and he's rolling around on the bottom with the current. DEAD. WHAT? The other one is (and has been ) happy as a clam for at least a month!

Of course, immediately think, "he starved!" and put a few grains of Shrimp Cuisine in the tank. I gotta stop thinking everything is starving LOL.

Anyway, I feel your pain- it is awful to lose them and worse when you're not even sure because you just can't find them.

Yeah, I'd actually feel better if I had found bodies. Then I could talk with my source, tell him what I see, figure out what went wrong. But when they just disappear like this? Bleah. Worst of all, maybe they're still in there and I just can't find them, in which case they're probably starving to death because I can't feed them.

First world problem, I know, and not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. But still...I liked my frogs.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I managed to wrestle the circulation pump out from behind the waterfall yesterday. Wow, I should have made the opening bigger; it was three times as hard as it should have been. Water flow has been steadily decreasing, and as suspected, the impeller was full of gunk. What I wasn't expecting was to find the manifold and pump intake full of snail shells! I don't even know how they got in there; I guess some of them crawled through the sponges when they were new-born? Weird.

Anyway, boom, river flow restored! Looking for frogs. Might have to get some new ones once I have some money. If I can't find (or afford) firebellies, I might try one or two of these:

Green Paddy Frog / Asian Greenback Frog (Hylarana erythraea) Caresheet Care Guide - Reptile Cymru

A guide to keeping the Green Paddy Frog (Hylarana erythraea) in captivity, including housing, heating, lighting, diet, handling and more!

www.reptilecymru.co.uk

Still hoping for some fire bellies to turn up, though. They're diurnal, and the greenbacks are nocturnal so not as fun to keep.

 

[Magnum Man]

at least you didn't find your fire bellies in the impeller??? or is that a different tank???

 

[WhistlingBadger]

at least you didn't find your fire bellies in the impeller??? or is that a different tank???

No, same tank. And no, I still haven't found any bodies or sign of anything. I still dump in a few fruit flies every few days just in case they've gone nocturnal or are semi-hibernating. I'm about half tempted to just take out all the moss and see if I can find them...

 

[rebe]

@WhistlingBadger Sounds hard, sorry about your frogs

 

[Tacocat]

Can we get a full setup picture? It seems we haven't got one since January 2. Is there any posisblitiy they may have hopped out of the tank?

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Can we get a full setup picture? It seems we haven't got one since January 2. Is there any posisblitiy they may have hopped out of the tank?

I put this one in the TOTM thread, but never posted it here! Here you go!
Oh, and unless the frogs can levitate or beam through glass, I don't see any possible way they could have escaped. We haven't found any frog jerky on the floor.

 

[Tacocat]

What if you tried newts or salamanders? I'm not sure about their compatibility with fish but if it's possible they might be fun.