Just call me a MILF
(man, I love frogs)
Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE frogs. I’m totally a frog lady and I’m not ashamed of it. Ever since my fiance and I rescued a grey tree frog from our basement I have been fascinated with frogs - so much so that I now have seven frogs. My obsession with their care led me to learning about what it means to make a bioactive terrarium for amphibians. Basically, when you add live plants, a proper drainage layer for water runoff, and a cleanup crew (springtails and isopods), you create a totally self-sustaining environment for your frogs. I have done this for all three of my tanks, and they’re doing so well, that even mushrooms have been popping up occasionally, which is a sign of a healthy ecosystem! If anyone is ever interested in learning about terrarium bioactivity, I love to talk about it, so let me know! I also have a MistKing misting system set up that automatically mists the tanks at certain times of the day. The obsession is real!
I also enjoy occasionally learning how to code with Raspberry Pi and Arduino. For all of my bioactive vivaria I remotely monitor each tank’s current temperature and humidity using a Raspberry Pi zero W and a DHT22 sensor. The sensor sends data to a website called “Thingspeak” and spits out a graph of data points that updates every 45 seconds. I have included the nearly real-time data below each froggy profile if anyone is interested in seeing the current readings (and feel free to yell at me if anything looks off!). Just hover over the graphs to see the data readings.
Speedracer
Speedy was my first frog (alongside Frog Boi who unfortunately passed away). She is a very shy American green tree frog I bought in August 2020. She usually hides up high behind her temperature/humidity sensor or digs below into the dirt for comfort. Of all my frogs, she is definitely the most vocal - if there’s ever a question about whether it’s going to rain, she knows the answer and lets me know!
Sweet Jane & Fat Bottom Betty
These two White’s tree frogs are such a joy to have. I bought them in July 2021. They’re just so derpy and active and have a voracious appetite for crickets. They literally wait by the front of the tank for me to throw some in when they’re hungry every other day. If anyone reading this is a cigar aficionado, they’re named after my favorite Drew Estates cigars.
Pancake
I fell in love with a very round pacman frog at a local petstore that I couldn’t resist. I’m pretty sure Pancake is the largest pacman frog I’ve ever seen – she could barely fit in both of my hands. As soon as I put Pancake in the terrarium she started digging up that plant behind her, much to my dismay, but at least she’s found her own little happy place.
Pancake has been interesting to care for so far. I’ve learned that these frogs are very sensitive to temperature and humidity changes. I’m hoping to one day put a misting system in her tank to keep the humidity spikes constant rather than hand misting. Pancake hid under the substrate for a long, long time before I realized her humidity was way below what it should be. So a word of advice to other pacman frog owners — if your frog buries for an alarmingly extended period of time, don’t fret. Sometimes a little environment adjustment is all they need to be happier.
Crazy Alice, Leather Rose, & Baby Jane
I’ve always wanted Amazon milk frogs. Like, really bad. I promised myself when I went to the 2022 Long Island Reptile Expo that I wouldn’t come home with any more frogs. Well, three Amazon milk frogs, a pre-made fully-established bioactive vivarium, and a very unhappy wallet later, here we are. I decided to also name these little guys after some more Drew Estates cigars.
Since their purchase I upgraded the milk frogs to a much larger vivarium fitted with bromeliads and snake plants. The frogs are as happy as can be in their new enclosure.
I am still working on finishing up their temperature and humidity sensor — stay tuned!