Hi everyone,
My name is Danielle and I am from SK, Canada. I have recently become the inadvertent owner of a young Pacific Chorus Frog, Pseudacris regilla. I am/was primarily a plant person but recently took on a new project building a paludarium which is to house plants and a few fish.
Earlier this summer, I bought some floating pond plants in anticipation of starting my paludarium. They came in a plastic tub. When I brought them home, I was about to put them in the water, when I noticed two tiny tadpoles swimming around in the tub! They must have been very recently hatched because their bodies were only the size of a plastic pinhead. I figured I'd put them into the holding tank where I have been keeping my plants and see what happened, since I doubted the plant nursery would want them back. I called the nursery and found out that their stock is from BC. I knew I couldn't release the tadpoles into the wild because they were not local frogs and I didn't know if they carried any diseases.
It has been several months and one of the tadpoles has fully metamorphosed into a bright green frog about the size of my thumbnail (the other one met with an unfortunate incident when I took it to work in the hopes that our herp expert could help me ID it :(). It has been out of the water for about a week and a half. I have been reading as much as I can about raising frogs successfully to try to give this one the best life it can have, since it can't go back to the wild. There is not very much information for keeping wild-caught temperate North American species as pets, presumably because it is not normally advisable. Right now it is in a temporary 10-gallon with a soil substrate and some plant cuttings, and a little dish of water. I've been throwing isopods/pill bugs in there but I'm not sure whether it's eating or not. It is very shy and hides on the glass near the top of the tank all day, though I believe it is more active at night.
Unfortunately, I can't put the frog in my paludarium, as it was never intended to house a terrestrial inhabitant and has way too much water for it to be happy. I am looking at revamping the 10-gallon with an egg crate false bottom, a small water area, and more climbing/hiding spaces for the frog. I will use a modified ABG mix for substrate, with boiled oak leaves on top for litter.
My questions:
If anyone knows anything about Pacific Chorus Frogs, does this sound like an okay setup? I am primarily concerned with whether 10 gal will be enough space for the little thing, especially since it likes to climb. I have a taller 20 gallon which currently houses plants which I *could* use for the frog, but if it would be just as happy in the 10 then I'd rather keep it there. I also need to figure out a better food source than just the isopods, but I am pretty sure that normal-sized crickets would be too big for it, and the pet stores near me don't carry pinheads or fruit flies or anything. I guess I also need to start dusting its food with calcium/vitamins, is this correct? Any other habitat or nutrition concerns I should be aware of?
My other concern is that I've read Pacific Chorus Frogs can be passive carriers of Bd/chytrid. I don't have any other frogs so am not particularly worried about it within my home, but I am worried about spreading it to frogs in my area. I only just read today that I should have been bleaching all my waste water before disposing of it :(.
With the current setup that I have, and considering the possible issues with chytrid, is this frog worth trying to keep? Can I provide it with everything it needs and make it happy? Are local amphibians at risk due to my keeping it?
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
My name is Danielle and I am from SK, Canada. I have recently become the inadvertent owner of a young Pacific Chorus Frog, Pseudacris regilla. I am/was primarily a plant person but recently took on a new project building a paludarium which is to house plants and a few fish.
Earlier this summer, I bought some floating pond plants in anticipation of starting my paludarium. They came in a plastic tub. When I brought them home, I was about to put them in the water, when I noticed two tiny tadpoles swimming around in the tub! They must have been very recently hatched because their bodies were only the size of a plastic pinhead. I figured I'd put them into the holding tank where I have been keeping my plants and see what happened, since I doubted the plant nursery would want them back. I called the nursery and found out that their stock is from BC. I knew I couldn't release the tadpoles into the wild because they were not local frogs and I didn't know if they carried any diseases.
It has been several months and one of the tadpoles has fully metamorphosed into a bright green frog about the size of my thumbnail (the other one met with an unfortunate incident when I took it to work in the hopes that our herp expert could help me ID it :(). It has been out of the water for about a week and a half. I have been reading as much as I can about raising frogs successfully to try to give this one the best life it can have, since it can't go back to the wild. There is not very much information for keeping wild-caught temperate North American species as pets, presumably because it is not normally advisable. Right now it is in a temporary 10-gallon with a soil substrate and some plant cuttings, and a little dish of water. I've been throwing isopods/pill bugs in there but I'm not sure whether it's eating or not. It is very shy and hides on the glass near the top of the tank all day, though I believe it is more active at night.
Unfortunately, I can't put the frog in my paludarium, as it was never intended to house a terrestrial inhabitant and has way too much water for it to be happy. I am looking at revamping the 10-gallon with an egg crate false bottom, a small water area, and more climbing/hiding spaces for the frog. I will use a modified ABG mix for substrate, with boiled oak leaves on top for litter.
My questions:
If anyone knows anything about Pacific Chorus Frogs, does this sound like an okay setup? I am primarily concerned with whether 10 gal will be enough space for the little thing, especially since it likes to climb. I have a taller 20 gallon which currently houses plants which I *could* use for the frog, but if it would be just as happy in the 10 then I'd rather keep it there. I also need to figure out a better food source than just the isopods, but I am pretty sure that normal-sized crickets would be too big for it, and the pet stores near me don't carry pinheads or fruit flies or anything. I guess I also need to start dusting its food with calcium/vitamins, is this correct? Any other habitat or nutrition concerns I should be aware of?
My other concern is that I've read Pacific Chorus Frogs can be passive carriers of Bd/chytrid. I don't have any other frogs so am not particularly worried about it within my home, but I am worried about spreading it to frogs in my area. I only just read today that I should have been bleaching all my waste water before disposing of it :(.
With the current setup that I have, and considering the possible issues with chytrid, is this frog worth trying to keep? Can I provide it with everything it needs and make it happy? Are local amphibians at risk due to my keeping it?
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.