cube. They're settling in nicely and I anticipate adding a couple more in a week or two when the shop gets more stock in. Apparently he has had something of a rush on Fire Bellied Toads recently, so only had the 3 when I went in.I did a fair bit of reading about the Fire Bellied Toads prior to purchase, as any new owner should. I won't rehash everything else out there, there are plenty of caresheets available for Fire Bellies available.
It does seem there is a lot of conflicting advice available about keeping these little toads. I'll summarise my own setup here as it evolves, rather than trying tell you what is right or wrong.
The Enclosure
My Fire Bellied Toads are kept in an Exo Terra 45cm cube. I had considered a 30cm cube, but felt that would restrict the number I could keep to maybe a pair. I was keen to have a small group so went for the bigger terrarium.
Originally I had probably 60/40 split water/land split. I built up an area of "land" by using large pebbles from B & Q. The little fire bellied toads seems to spend most if their time out of the water so I decided to try an alternative setup.
It seems a lot of enclosures I've seen online for Fire bellied Toads have minimal hiding places for the toads, which is great for viewing them, not so great for having relaxed and stress free toads. I'm after the latter. Si I have a number hides and artificial plants to provide my toads with cover.
My Exo Terra 45cm cube now has a substantial layer of substrate (I forget the name of it) that I landscaped so it isn't just flat.
In my Exo Terra Fire Belly Toad enclosure I have 2 'ponds'. These are sold as reptile water dishes, but they work out nicely for my fire bellied toads. The bigger of the two is deep enough for the toads to swim in if they wish - they don't generally, but they do seem to enjoy a soak.
I have an Exo Terra digital thermometer and hydrometer combo mounted in the canopy/lighting unit. Keeping the humidity up is important for any amphibian, being able to keep an eye on it may prove useful, but given I have two "ponds" I can't see drying out being an issue. I will aim to keep humidity above 80%.
In terms of temperature, I'm aiming to maintain in the low 20s (C). The terrarium is currently hovering around 20C, I added a Reptiglow 2.0 bulb to the setup and see what affect that has on the fire bellied toads behaviour.
Cleaning
Daily - Spot cleaning should be regular, daily ideally. So removing dead crickets, bits of dead plant and so on.
3-4 days - Complete change of the water in the bowls and wipe out any detritus in them
6 months - Full tank clean down, changing substrate, wipe down glass etc
For the water changing clean, rather than removing the bowls I purchased a manual pump/syphon from Amazon that makes things easier.