Thank you SO much for posting, Steve! I had been wondering if I needed one of those special lights, and was also somewhat concerned about the crickets. I find them gross more than anything else, and was hoping I could find a way of not touching them. Guess I could wear gloves. . . or get really good with chopsticks. =) I was planning on keeping them in a small tank underneath the main tank, hidden in the stand. I still think I'll do this, making sure I have a tight-fitting lid. How high/far can crickets jump? The last thing I want is escapees. . . ugh! My son might even try to eat them if he finds them hopping around on the floor! Grosser and grosser! =P Worms I actually like, so I can't bear the thought of chopping them up while still alive and handfeeding the wiggling pieces to the frogs. Poor worms! =( I'll proabably just go to the pet store twice a month to get some crickets, and hopefully that way avoid the surplus crickets issue. I know about gutloading them and feeding them carrots to help the fire-bellys maintain that nice red belly, and dusting them. I'm sure the PetSmart near me carries all those supplies (except the carrots of course). =) I do have a question though: how often do FBTs need to be fed, and how many crickets at each feeding? I've read on the Internet anywhere from 5 crickets per frog per day to 5 crickets a week. Which is right? I plan on having three frogs to start with, hopefully two females and one male (though I know it's really hard to tell which is which). Oh, and I want the orientalis, not european ones. Oh yeah, also, how does one clean a cricket cage? I mean, where do you put the crickets while you clean the cage, and what cleaners are safe to use? Just regular dish soap, and rinse very well? Plus change the towel and clean the water dish and all that?

I defininitely also have experience with the pain-in-the-butt water changes! I'm really working on making this as hassle-free as possible. So far, my general idea is to have a false bottom in the main tank. This will catch all the frog poop and stuff, and it will be used by the plants in the tank via wet-walls/rain walls. The two back corner walls will be set up like this. I will probably also water the fake tree trunk in this way, since it will also house a number of epiphytes. To add fresh water, there will be a misting system, on it's own separate system of clean RO water. (Which brings me to another question: RO water or dechlorinated tap water? Some sites argue that a total lack of minerals in RO water is bad for the frogs, while others say that tap water is terrible, and should never be used at all. My local tap water is quite hard and full of bad stuff, so I would probably use a mix of dechlorinated tap water and RO water, if pure RO water is bad). In order to avoid raising the water level by the extra water added by the misting system, (which will probably come on for a minute or two every two-three days), there will be a stand-pipe in the tank, slightly higher than the desired water level. Any overflow will go into this pipe, which will drain into a sump tank underneath the main tank, hidden in the stand. There will be additional filtration in the sump (charcoal, bioballs, a sponge, whatever), and it will have the capacity to hold the extra water that will come in when the misting system is on. All I'll have to do is periodically remove the excess water in the sump, which is no problem, because I already do that anyways with my current terr, and I use the water to water my orchids every week. Only in my current set-up, it's a real pain, because I need to lift the hood, move the lights, remove the glass top, and hold a bowl under the waterfall to collect the extra water. I hate doing it! So yes, lots of thought into making maintenance as easy as possible.

Thanks for any input!

are FBT nocternal becauce all of mine are in the cave all day and they only come out at night. also is this bad because they dont get any uv rays in the cave

No, FBTs are not nocturnal, they are diurnal (can be active in both day and night, but usually sleep at night). Just some guesses, but they might be staying in the cave because it has the highest humidity, or they find your lights too bright. Don't worry about the UV rays though. FBTs don't actually need a UV light. Just use a good vitamin and mineral dusting powder on their food. I assume you are using a screen top, because a glass top would block all the UV rays. A screen top, however, will NOT allow you to keep the humidity high enough. So I'd replace the screen with glass or acrylic, especially since you don't even need the UV.

I use a screen top the humidity is about 85% even though I have a screen top it is almost compleatly covered by the light hoods

Well 85% humidity is definitely high enough, so I have no idea why your FBTs are behaving in this way! Try emailing Steve.

I am planning on raising insects inside the vivarium with frogs and reptiles. Is this easy? How would you go about 'dusting' the insects?

Sorry josh, but raising the crickets in the same vivarium as the herps is not possible. It simply defies all logic.

If you really want to raise your own insects, you'll need to do it in a seperate container with specific conditions.

Sahoy: Be sure never to get in the position I am in - ordering 1000 crickets every other week!!

I have special 12" tweezers made for picking up crickets. They don't hurt the crickets at all (unless you squeeze too hard!). I only use them to handfeed certain animals, but you could definatly use them to avoid touching the crickets.

If I were you, I would go to petsmart once weekly and buy a few dozen crickets. You could keep them in a plastic critter cage and use the tweezers to transfer some to the the frogs' cage daily. When you run out of crickers, you could take a day to clean the cage with hot water and then re-stock your supply.

I honestly don't know why everyone makes such a big deal about the crickets. Yeah, they're gross, but it's not rocket science. In my experience, you just need to keep the crickets alive in their cage with plenty of food and water, and then clean and re-stock the cage when you run out. It's that simple.

BTW, my firebelly eats up 3/4th inch crickets, has no UV light, and is has been going on strong for 5 years now.

I don't understand- why is it not possible to raise insects in with Herps? will they eat everything? i figured they would eat thier fill, and the rest of the insects would breed.

Crickets can be destructive. They will almost certainly kill your plants, and sometimes will even eat your animals.

-DH

Let me re-phrase: Raising some types of insects inside the vivarium (like springtails) is possible. But, it isn't possible to raise crickets inside the vivarium. And, if you want to keep anything besides dartfrogs and some very small other types of herps, you'll probably end up having to use crickets.

There are a million + things that could go wrong if you tried to raise a sustainable source of crickets inside the vivarium. Trust me, it just won't work.

i picked out a green fire belly toad at the pet store. when i got him home he turned brown. some of the other frogs in the tank at the pet store were brown too, but like i said, i picked out a green one. i called the pet store and the guy told me in order to keep them looking green i needed a special terrarium light. i purchased the repti glo 2.0 that is a full spectrum daylight lamp with uva and uvb. i haven't had the light on for very long, but has anyone heard of the frogs needing this special light to stay their beautiful bright green color?

Please post how the full spectrum light works out. We got a couple of frogs yesterday and the pet store staff said that FBT color is temperature related. The store reportedly got some green frogs in and within 24 hrs they had turned brown due to the low temperature. We have a tank at ~74 F and they are still brown.

mabe you should try stronger lights and put some green plants in your tank,some frogs turn lighter in colour if they are happy/well fed, how much do you feed your frog?

some fire bellies change color because of limestone (which is bad because it will make them turn brown) or their lighting or just an occasional color darkening. Some may appear a light brown similar to a wood color. Also since amphibians dont fight (except in breeding season over a female) you could have males together without females.