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Reed frogs

2K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  Fishies_in_Philly 
#1 ·
I believe some of you have considered it before, but has anyone gone ahead and housed any hyperoliid reed frogs in a riparium? This is a very diverse family of small tree frogs found in the mainland Afrotropics and Madagascar, and it seems like they'd do great (with targeted feeding of small crickets or fruit flies) in a closed-top riparium with a combination of tall sedges like Cyperus and broader leaved plants like Anubias.

A lot of the herp boards seem to be hugely wary of drowning potential, but I'm wondering now whether that risk isn't very much overblown. I mean, many Hyperolius in particular are closely associated with lily pads and other floating pond vegetation, papyrus swamps, and the like (the "tree" can be something of a misnomer). I've heard it reported that most of these guys will actually dive into water when startled and remain on the bottom of their own volition until the threat passes -- which shouldn't be problematic in tanks without very strong flow ... or large, predatory fish.

Examples of reed frogs in paludaria with extensive water features here and here
 
#4 ·
I had some tree frogs for about 5 years. They were in a huge terrarium that included a 20 gallon water section. For the most part they did not bother with the water, except at night they would sit with their heads out of the water and their bodies submerged. And like you say, if frightened they would dive into the water. I was very surprised at how adept they were under water. The kind of sunk to the bottom then they would crawl around as if on land until they found a hiding spot. I had a little bit of flow on half of the water section, and they would get "churned around" a bit, but as long as there was enough open water they seemed to just ride it out to the bottom and then they were fine.
 
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