You have seen them in the pet store. You thought they were cute, but, well, you just never made the move to get "into" frogs that you see in a pet store. You might want to reconsider. Their scientific name is Hymenochirus boettgeri.
They have a tremendous tolerance for temperature range, and are great eaters (watch the over feeding. It's so much fun watching them.)
I keep five (yes, I did say five ) of these little guys in a two and one half gallon open top cookie jar! It is a fully self sustaining Biome. That's right. No filter, only live plants, some ram snails and the right amount of light. I would be remiss if I didn't share with you that it took me three months to get the Biome functioning totally on it's own. If your interested in trying your hand at these frogs you need to read the Care Sheetfor the whole story on how it works. Contrary to some popular information, a covered container does not have to be used. This is conditioned by the selection of the container and the amount of distance from the water surface to the top of the container. This cookie jar has proven ideal for those conditions, and is assisted by the shape of the opening. Breeding is not my objective at this point, so this size container suits my purposes fine, and suits the frogs as well. This is the entire set up! With just a little patients you can set up this aquatic habitat and enjoy sharing your cup of coffee each morning with a look into the aquatic world of the dwarf Frog.
The following two pictures give you a closer look at the Biome itself, and the lighting set up. The light works off a timer to balance the growth of the plants. Two species of plants, and some Duck Weed. The plants get pruned about every other month, with the Duck Weed needing culling about every two weeks. It's as close to truly self sustaining as I have engineered the setup. It's a minimal amount of effort and has held up through moving from one home to another. It has been operating now for six and a half years at room temperature.
As you can see the lighting is not very sophisticated. I use an inexpensive clamp on type lamp with a 50 watt narrow spot light. Yes, that is a hangar bent and twisted to hold the light in just the right position. It works just fine, and looks fine too.
OK! Let's see some more of those frogs.
Wow! What a shot! Four of the five guys (or gals, as the case may be) all hanging out together. Do you think it's feeding time? Let me give you a clue....YES! Check out those webbed digits. One of the unique features of this species is that both the front and rear feet of this clawed frog are webbed. These guys are just plain CUTE!
If you look closely in your backyard you just might find some spectacular animals that live with you. This is a Box Turtle that is probably in it's second year, and lost. It's name appropriately will know be "Lost".
