keeping high humidity

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james99

james99

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I have a white's tree frog that I was given to me not too long ago. The lady had him in a clear rubber maid tub w/ lid the whole time she had him. I have an empty tank that i want to put him it that measures roughly 20"x18"x36", it's a very tall tank. I have fake plants, lights, bed-a-beast shredded wood substrate. The top is a sheet of glass that has a gap on each end to allow ventilation, about 1" on the left and 1" on the right, over the top of that i have a screen cover the covers the whole top to prevent the frog from squeezing through the cracks. Seems like a pretty good setup, BUT I can't keep the humidity up, I can spray it down really good, but i gets dry pretty quick. Anyone have any suggestions on ways to make the moisture stay in?
 
How deep is the substrate? Do you soak it? Bed-a-beast maintains humidity well, but it needs to be fairly deep. I like to keep about 2" in my amphibian setups.

You can also block off some of the screen area with plastic or glass. Ventilation is great, but it also allows your humidity to escape. Amphibians typically do fine with minimal ventilation.

What kind of lights are on it? Have you measured the temperature in the tank while the lights are on? If you have hot, incandescent lights, they will drive up the temperature, which dries out the tank and is also not good for the frog.

A large water dish helps to keep up humidity, especially if it has aeration or current in it. Unfortunately White's treefrogs are prone to drowning in deep water, but you can partially fill the dish with coarse gravel to help prevent that.

Automatic misters and foggers are also available, and they work well. If all else fails you can try one of them.
 
My substrate isn't that deep, i'll pick up another bag tonight and add it to the tank. I had the whole top covered at one time with plexi glass, then i read somewhere that there needed to be a gap for air to move so i started looking for something else to cover it, the plexi also warped from the moisture and heat. for lights i have a zoo-med 50 incandescent bulb and one of the small uvb spiral bulbs for petsmart, the temp never gets above 80. i also have a water dish and tried one of the ultra sonic misters, but it died within a month. would you recommend a gap for air to travel or should i cover it back up like it was before?
 
james99;3218388; said:
would you recommend a gap for air to travel or should i cover it back up like it was before?
Click to expand...

I haven't kept White's treefrogs, so I don't know how sensitive they are to airflow, but I keep my green and gray treefrogs under solid glass canopies. Airflow is definitely minimal. They do just fine. I would at least cover most of the gap, leaving maybe a 1/2" wide strip of open screen.
 
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