Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[StevieJ]

Hi,

I have a 4ft tank that I wish to use to create a semi aquatic set up for FBT's. After reading a couple of books and much on the web and forums I find there isn't much consensus on whether to use gravel as a substrate.

I want an attractive set up that is also great for the toads. Some people say to use gravel, others talk of Toads swallowing gravel. What's the truth? What are the alternatives?

Current plan for the tank is to keep plants in the water and above water if practical. I plan to use a biological water filter and full spectrum fluorescent lighting (same as in fish tanks). Apart from that everything about the design is still undecided and open to suggestion (in fact I'll also take advice on any of the above too!).

Thanks in advance for any thoughts and suggestions.

Steve

[Peter Parrot]

Welcome to the forum steve . I`ve never had any problems with using gravel in the water section. The toads don`t feed from the bottom of the water section so there should be no opportunity for them to ingest it.

Enjoy setting your tank up. Sounds good to me.
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[Rickeezee]

I use gravel and mine have never eaten any.

The rest sounds all good to me, some land some water, there are a few ways to set up an FBT tank and a few different materials that you could use, such as moss, gravel, moppani woood, exo terra cave, mine love their cave, live plants etc. I either use an arcadia freshwater light or just a 2% uv tube.

Good luck with setting yours up.
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[negri]

My tank is mostly made up of Gravel, Moss, Plants, in and out of water and like rick an exo terra cave.

My cave is out of the water on moss but they dont seem to use it very often.

Not had any problems with them eating gravel but i have seen them eating alot of moss.

This is a picture of another person on here's tank and i think it look pretty good and seems to be the general layout for them.

http://www.captivebred.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4128

xxx
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Eyeless frogs welcome...

Crested Geckos 1:7:4 + 8 Eggs
White Treefrogs 0:1:0
Green Anole 0:0:1
Fire Belly Toads 5:6:0
Bearded Dragon 0.1.0
Leopard Geckos 1.1.2
Albino Cali King 1.1.0
And a Fish Called George...

[Pollywog]

When I use substrates with them I use gravel both in and out of the water and have never had any problems with them ingesting it. I don't normally use a substrate at all as it makes things easier for cleaning.
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[Rickeezee]

I don't use moss for my adults, just gravel as polly wolly does. Both in and out of the water, my exo terra cave is just within the water boundary, they use it quite a lot. I place their food on top of the exo cave.

Here's a few set up pics.
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[Rickeezee]

Last one, cutest till last!
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[negri]

Wow.

U hardly have any dry land. Ours are always in the water but always thought we should still have quite abit dry land.

Like i said we have moss 2 but it always looks horrible after a few days. Think i might have to suggest taking some of it out.

We have quite a few flat rocks in the water and just above water level that they are usually on so i guess that kinda counts as a dry place too.

xxx
_________________
Eyeless frogs welcome...

Crested Geckos 1:7:4 + 8 Eggs
White Treefrogs 0:1:0
Green Anole 0:0:1
Fire Belly Toads 5:6:0
Bearded Dragon 0.1.0
Leopard Geckos 1.1.2
Albino Cali King 1.1.0
And a Fish Called George...

[Rickeezee]

Everywhere is wet or at least damp in my set up the water is only like a couple of mm's at the left hand end and I have mounded the gravel up, so I class this as the dry end. They also sit on top of their cave quite a bit. Behind the cave is also a dry area. To the left of the cave nil water.

90% of the time they like to sit in just a few mm's of water, this has been my experience with my FBT adults. The cave seems to be their main hang out point, just near the entrance.
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www.rickslivefood.co.uk

[negri]

Yea looks good. Think we're gonna try changing it about as the sit on one rock thats under another, which means they are in water but only a little bit.

And we never see them until feeding time.

xxx
_________________
Eyeless frogs welcome...

Crested Geckos 1:7:4 + 8 Eggs
White Treefrogs 0:1:0
Green Anole 0:0:1
Fire Belly Toads 5:6:0
Bearded Dragon 0.1.0
Leopard Geckos 1.1.2
Albino Cali King 1.1.0
And a Fish Called George...