Description I. Range is Southern Mexico to eastern Panama. II. Size: Red-eyes can reach up to 2.2 inches (Snout to vent) with males considerably smaller.
III. Color a.) Southern Mexico - Guatemala smaller and display light blue flanks b.) Nicaragua + Costa Rica larger display dark blue flanks.
IV. Sex I have found no correct way of sexing Red-eyes. With juveniles it's a wild guess. With adults, Females are larger.
v. Feeding
Insects, the most common being crickets. Feed 2-3 times a week. Gut load crickets with fish food (once I started this... it was just weeks before they breed). Dust crickets once a week with calcium supplement and vitamins (Rep-cal and Herptivite, are the 2 that I like. I like Herptivite because it has beta carotene instead of vitamin a, allowing the animal to make only as much vitamin a as it needs. Prevents poisoning.) Use the shake and bake method to dust the crickets. VI. Enclosures
A.) First I will tell you what the books recommend; You can use a thirty gallon terrarium to house a small group of red-eyes. Optimum temp is 60-80 degrees F., humidity at 30-80% when not breeding. Give them a water section either by siliconing glass in the tank or by a water dish. And, mist the tank as needed to keep the humidity in its range. Make sure to de-chlorinate the water (easiest way is to let the water sit for over 24hrs.). The best thing for all amphibians is to make the enclosure as naturalistic as possible. That means lots of plants, substrate (something like orchid bark). If you are going to use plants then you have to think lighting! Use a Full spectrum light. You should use 2 or more depending on how big an enclosure you use. The frogs should have 12 hrs on and 12 hrs off. this can easily be done with light timers.
b.) Okay, that's what they recommend, and here's what we came up with. I built a 6' X 4' X 2' enclosure out of wood with 2' of the bottom as a cabinet. Since, I lived in an apartment I put it on a total of 6 caster type wheels. I painted the entire thing with 2 coats of latex paint (guaranteed to be none toxic, that means if I drank it or licked it, nothing would happen. You also want it to be water proof once dry) and made the inside bottom 1/3rd recessed to hold water. Now the hard part! I lined the entire inside with a pond liner and closed up the front with a storm window, I got from a hardware store on clearance for $15. Before putting in the pond liner I ran all the tubes, to pump from the water reservoir down to the Mag filter in the cabinet, up to the top to a bio wheel that makes a good waterfall. Shape the pond liner to shape (to keep the water in its place). on mine the water fell from the bio wheel, 4' to a little pond that had a stream winding from it to the 10 gal water reservoir. Next I bought an automated misting system (a rainmaker, about $300) it was a 5 gallon bucket reservoir, tubes to the pump, then to the misting heads at the top of the enclosure. This was controlled by an electronic timer that could be set for different days and times. Since this adds water, the whole thing would overflow. To get past this, I drilled a hole at water level and added a tub to another 5 gallon bucket at the bottom in the cabinet, to catch the overflow. I cut most of the top and screened it, to allow the 2 lights and the small red light (for night time viewing). Both were on separate timers to turn one on when the other turned off. Then I altered an ultrasonic humidifier to make it a fog machine. Surprisingly it would fill up the entire 4' X 4' X2' space to where you could barely see in. Next I made barriers everywhere I wanted substrate, as well as the waterfall, with insta-foam with drainage tubes to the water reservoir. Painted the insta-foam black and sponged it with grey to make it look like rocks. I added the substrate, branches and plants (pothos and that type as well as bromeliads). Let it run without animals in it, to make sure it didn't leak, and to decide if I wanted to rearrange it. Then I started adding frogs. After that, I just left the frogs alone and just added crickets. The misting cleaned the inside glass, plants, and substrate and it just drained to the bucket bellow. I just had to change the timers to get the climate that I wanted. This setup worked great for me and was a centerpiece in my living room. but if I were to do it again, I'd learn about fiberglass and line it with that instead of a pond liner.
Vii. Breeding
Feed your frogs a high-nutrient diet before attempting breeding! Keep them dry (not desert dry, just dryer) for awhile then start the rainy season. The books recommend 5pm-12am for rain and say it works best. I varied my raining during those times as well as one during the day. And, fogging at times when it wasn't raining (not all times, too much moister will kill them). Amplexus started almost from day one, but it was almost a week or more till I had eggs . Mine and Chris's notes on red eye breeding it is also recommended to make a loop tape of red-eye calls to induce amplexus. To record these Sounds click on this link and select save to, or if you have the new windows media player right click on the link and select save target as. I have taken these sounds and mixed it with a thunder storm sound and made a 70 min. cd. If interested email me. I don't plan on selling it at this time. But, if the interest is high enough. Who knows. But, if you'd like to pay for a blank cd-r and shipping, I'll be happy to send you a copy! For zoos I'll give it to them free at their request. I'm curious to see how it works .
viii. egg and tadpole care keep eggs at 74-78 degrees f. in order to avoid competition divide them into small groups. Keep the water level at three to five inches. If you are going to use a filter, use a sponge filter. I would still change the water daily, make sure the water sat out for over 24hrs. feed the tadpoles 2-3times a day. I used Sera Micron (hard to find) as well as pulverized flake food, both are fish food. when their legs start emerging lower the water level and have an easy to access platform for them to climb onto. you will need to feed froglets pinheads . Bibliography Red-Eyes and Other Leaf Frogs (June 1996) by Jerry G. Walls Care and Breeding of Popular Tree Frogs : A Practical Manual for the Serious Hobbyist (General Care and Maintenance of Series) (January 1, 1997) by Philippe De Vosjoli, Robert Mailloux (Contributor), Drew Ready (Contributor), Amphibians in Captivity (October 1995) by Staniszewski, Marc Staniszewski, John Coborn Tropical Fish : Setting Up and Taking Care of Aquariums Made Easy Definitions | Conversions | WebCam | Search | Guest Book | Forum | Calendar
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