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Tree Frogs and Skink Enclosures

  • Thread starter PA Woods
  • Start date
Hello,
This storyline will be for my exotic animals that I own. I will showcase my White's Tree Frogs in their new enclosure, Southeastern Five Lined Skinks that are soon to get a new enclosure, and my newest group in my care the southern United States tree frogs. Squirrel tree frogs and Cope's gray tree frogs will be the only mixed frog species for this trio of enclosures. I hope to provide entertaining information about my animals that may be applicable to you if you own or are thinking of owning one of these species.

Another goal is to share their lives with all of you. I hope that my experiences with feeding, husbandry, parasites, and many others things that come up will be useful to you as well. I will be posting many pictures and maybe links time from time to videos that I make featuring these animals.

Next I will be breaking down the enclosures and the lighting I will be using for these animals.

Exo Terra XL 36x18x36
White's Tree Frogs
Southeastern Five Lined Skinks

Exo Terra 18x18x24
Southern Tree Frogs

I really enjoy Exo Terra Terrariums with the dual doors, and their look. I really like having something I can open the doors to grab my skinks if need be. All of the animals like the terrariums better then aquariums as well. I also like the sizes these terrariums come in. I am going with the largest size for my large trio of Dumpy tree frogs that I call "The Dumpy Family" and another one for my skinks that I call "The Skink Dynasty." This enclosure will allow both groups to spread out and enjoy a spacious habitat. I am unsure of the Southern Tree Frogs because this is the first time for me building them a vivarium and I am unsure how big they need a habitat. If I need to go higher for them I will.

Lighting will be unique for all three vivariums. I will use the Exo Terra Canopy 36" light that will split the difference between the two XL enclosures. This fixture has heat and UVB bulbs that are essential to both groups of animals. Next is a 48" Odyssea T5 quad fixture. This light fixture will come on and off and will also provide heat. Hopefully these two fixtures will provide a lot of lights, look nice together, and keep the enclosures warm and toasty. I will be using compact Zoo Med bulbs with UVB and another clamp light for the 18x18x24 enclosure.

All three enclosures will have a Monsoon Multi hooked up to it. One monsoon will control misting for all three builds. Two sprayers will be placed into each terrarium and I will possibly set the misting system up on a timer and cycle it depending on the season, or I'll just turn it on when I feel like it. I am hopeful all the animals will like this and it will spoil them. I love this misting system and it's just enough fo each enclosure to get misted.

All three enclosures will be kept together side by side on a stand made for them. I am hoping to hear many different frog calls while building and caring for these animals. I am excited to share their stories with you and I hope moving forward building all of their enclosures it will be beneficial to anyone who reads this. Below are pictures of the animals.

Let the Exotic Animal Storyline Begin!

Thanks!

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So we have a new update and it is a big one...

I have been moving my enclosures around to attempt to get everything ready to begin creating the permanent enclosures my exotic animals will live in. This is where the problem started, or I should say the realization became clear to me. The 125 gallon which was set to be built for the gray tree frogs I discovered will not fit in my room. I was left with two options to sell it or move it. I decided to use it for an exotic enclosure instead of the gray tree frog enclosure.

The Pine Barrens has conquered the exotic animals storyline. In various circumstances the Pine Barrens which will house the Southeastern Five Lined Skinks is soon to be created inside the 125 gallon. This large enclosure has pushed out the frog forest which was going to be the southern tree frogs. Since the large enclosure must be used, the southern tree frogs will now join the skinks in what will be the most biodiverse enclosure I will have created. Decreasing the amount of exotic enclosures from 3 to 2 will mean less maintenance for me, but also more time consuming stewardship of the Pine Barrens.

The 125 gallon is sure to be packed with life, but it will not be overstocked. It is important for me to share that because it could sound like I'm just placing anything I want and can in this enclosure, but that is not the case. All of the animals are from the south and they generally have been living together at some point. I will have to change my lighting around for this enclosure to accommodate the larger size.

The inhabitants so far:

Skinks (Pharaoh, Amsi, and Ruby)
Squirrel tree frog (Florence)
Cope's gray tree frog (Baby Cope's)
Mosquito fish
Large Snails
Bumblebee Millipedes
Canyon Isopods
*Maybe Leopard Slugs
*Surprise animal

This list could grow larger with hopefully a female squirrel tree frog for Florence, and other Cope's gray tree frogs for the baby. I'm looking forward to seeing how these creatures will interact with each other. How will Pharaoh rule the enclosure? Will he maintain control of the Skink Dynasty?

The emergence of Ruby can change the Skink Dynasty. A sighting of Ruby for the first time in over a year has just occurred. Thought to have ran away or died, this rediscovery was very surprising in a good way. I have to confirm it is Ruby and NOT Amsi, but the only real way to find out is to either catch Ruby, or get pictures and try to differentiate between mother and daughter skink. Ruby hopefully can continue to appear and if I can get her to be more interactive than we might have even more unique storytelling.

I sent in a sample to the vets, so hopefully we find out the status of the Dumpy Family. The trio have been doing normal and have been eating well. I will be attempting to build their enclosure first out of the four. Their enclosure (Exo Terra XL 36x18x36) will support the family and Finn the Betta Fish. All of the group is doing well and are set to have an episode feature them soon. They will carry the load for a while and especially in the winter months. I'm hoping tomorrow to hear back from the vet that the Dumpy Family is clean or at least made progress. I want them to be the next group clean if possible.

I just wanted to announce the change of plans for the Pine Barrens which altered the Exotic Animal Storyline and them as a community. Hopefully we can spot Ruby, and the Dumpy Family is doing better than last time in the next update.

Max is pictured below
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Sorry for such a long wait...

Hey guys sorry for being absent from posting for a while! I have been working on a bunch of stuff, school got moved to online because of the coronavirus, I've been building my brand, and so on. But I wanted to take this time to share with you all what's been going on with this group of animals.

The Five Lined Dumpy Family is hanging in there and there is some good and some quarantine happening. We will start with Max and the Dumpy Family. These guys are doing well, but have pinworms. Even though this is a serious parasite I'm actually happier it's this one compared to the others. I have had success quickly eradicating it in other animals in 2019. So the quarantine will soon begin and I'm looking forward to getting these guys healthy. I have their 36x18x36 in the basement and on deck for a full bioactive build. I'm hoping this time around to not have to destroy and rebuild like what's happened since 2018 for all my builds.

Max appears to continue to be doing the best and Jeremiah seems the worst. So my moving quickly might save Jeremiah's life. All frogs have gained weight and Max has made the biggest jump (nearly 23g+), but it all means nothing if we cannot get the Dumpy Family clean. After the upcoming Gray tree frogs video I intend to record and show the Five Lined Dumpy Family for a while.

The Skink Dynasty is my last standing vivarium that's not quarantine. Those days are numbered I'm afraid. Because I've had such tremendous trouble with my toads and the Dumpy Family, I haven't been able to test the skinks yet. Soon they will have the opportunity that the others have. With my gray tree frogs healthy and soon to brumate, and the Dumpy Family hopefully soon to rebound in the spring, there is optimism for the quickness of time getting the skinks in and out of quarantine. I'm hopeful they test negative for all parasites because they are reptiles and cannot contract the same parasites as frogs.

One change is the enclosure for the Skinks. I'm unsure if they will inherit the 125 gallon tank or I get an exo terra 36x18x36 for them also. I'm up in the air about it. The best details I can give you is that the Skink Dynasty will be 100 gallons or bigger. That's something to look forward to.

There will not be a Southeastern tree frog viv because if I keep the 125 gallon I feel it's more then the amount of the size the tree frogs and skinks can cohab with. So they are looking to remain together. This news means the reforming of the Five Lined Dumpy Family because these are the two enclosures featured, but in new setups and very different ecosystems.

As for my channel I am looking to post videos for this series in 10 minutes or less. My slogan for this time around for these animals is "The most exciting story in 10 minutes or less," so you can see that im really hoping to get the best footage possible and keep it moving with this storyline. We will see how you guys like a shorter video runtime for this storyline.

Please be patient with all of this to be set up because of the sick animals I'm kind of forced to work on their time to ensure they remain healthy, or continue to get better.

I have made a website to post about my stories, to educate the public, and many other reasons, and I wanted to invite you to support and checkout the website. It's not done, and I don't have any articles on the site yet, but I will soon. It's close to done.

https://www.pawoodsandforests.com/

Checkout the new logo!

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Sorry for the weird font guys! I don't know how this happened but I'm on my phone and cannot fix it.

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Nice photos. So - you have a tree frog named Max, huh? :-D Good luck with your parasite treatments!
 
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Nice photos. So - you have a tree frog named Max, huh? :-D Good luck with your parasite treatments!
Lol yes! Max is basically the star of all the White's tree frogs.

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Reorganizing the priorities and storylines!

Hey guys it's been a little while. I have some big news to share with you all and I am very hopeful that you guys will be excited and maybe even comment on what is in this update.

I have done so much reorganizing with my Storylines and on my YouTube channel that has most control over how these posts go. I was thinking about how much I'm going to do with the Gray Army and how I could potentially come off as I'm not as interested or I don't like my two Exotic enclosures as much (Five Lined Dumpy Family), so I have decided to do something that is possibly complicated and simple at the same time.

I plan on merging the two storylines together and at the same time keep them separate. The simple answer is the Exotic animals will have their thread and updates on forums and groups, as well as have their own exclusive playlist on my channel just as everything is organized now. That's simple I'm going to have separate stories I report on with those specific animals, and everything will be organized.

The complicated area is incorporating the Exotics into the main story that's featuring The Gray Army and variety of different projects. On my channel I have in the description of the Gray Army's story that the playlist is about my terrarium keeping, so I got the idea to incorporate the enclosures that could potentially be an afterthought if I do not represent them well. So I figured that including them into the story of a general terrarium keeping playlist would help them stay relevant and avoid long absences from the channel. This also gives me more potential to create competitions and more creative crossover videos just for fun. I also get to talk about the Exotics in this storyline and the Gray Army in the Exotics storyline.

For the most part the updates will be separate because I already have threads started for both groups, and the updates would be too long for you to follow probably lol, but I hope that allowing crossover content will not only keep things interesting and fresh, but both fanbases of my different animals and their storylines have more interest in the other. It can also give people who follow me for the Exotics something to root for if we have versus videos and you have to vote for the winner of some competition. I hope to create more innovative ideas and to bring people together all while I tell their stories individually and together.

I hope that you guys are interested in this merge or crossover between the two storylines on YouTube. As I said before it will not effect on here as I share stories only about one group at a time.

The Giant Millipedes mated tonight
The Gray Army is preparing for hibernation
The Leafcutter Bees are sleeping and awaiting the Gray Army to join them in the hibernaculum.

The Five Lined Dumpy Family (Exotics) are in an odd place.

White's Tree Frogs are in quarantine and getting rid of ringworm

Finn is battling parasites

Skinks are inconsistent in activity because the cold weather effects the room they are in.

Florence is not as active either.

A video is coming to discuss the merger/crossover/co-op stories.

Checkout the channel and tell me if the home display on the channel is easier to understand and navigate!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4nG2pYgsr50aiDHpDE_CFg
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Gray Army begins brumation this upcoming week, video coming of the merger/crossover of Exotics and Gray Army storylines...

There are many angles to view everything in this update, but I have some good and some information that will make you a little sad if you are a follower of specific inverts.

Starting with the Exotics because this is their storyline update, I can say the Dumpy Family is soon to get a stool sample tested to see how they are. The hope is they are negative and we can see a string of negatives so we can guarantee that they are clean. I'm aiming for around 5-6 negative tests in a row. If they get all 6 negative over time then they will get to go home to a larger enclosure. I'm hoping by the end of summer and beginning the fall the Dumpy Family is back in business and will be a main attraction over the winter next year. Max fans she is doing great and she is hunting again! She will appear in the upcoming video soon to be out on YouTube.


Skink Dynasty fans I have good and bad news for you. Starting with the bad I am afraid I have to give my snails away to my girlfriend who actually thinks they are really cool and she doesn't even like invertebrates. So they are going to a good home. I bought them an enclosure and I will still be caring for them if need be, they just cannot stay. The Bumblebee Millipedes are with the snails. The snails could have been exposed to an amphibian parasite and I do not want to take the chance of them after Florence is checked by the vet. If he's clean it will be a miracle and also I will want him not not have any exposure to anything from the past.

The millipedes are so small compared to the giants and I am afraid Pharaoh will try to eat them. I also am moving away from exotic animals and am looking to get more involved with the Giant Millipedes. I hope to produce some Giants and to devote care and education to this which happens to be my favorite species. I'm sorry Snail and Bumblebee Millipede fans. There is good news for these inverts getting a good home and I will get to still see them and make sure they are doing okay.

The Skinks are good. They haven't been as active still because of the cold weather. When things change I believe Pharaoh will be active. He's been out inconsistently.

What do you guys think? Should we combine this story with the PA Woods and Forests Storyline and just talk about all the groups together or do you want separate posts about this group and separate posts about the Gray Army? I haven't asked you guys what you want and I want to hear your opinion as the readers? I can find a way to combine them if you want?

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Get the popcorn ready for this one...

We have some really serious stuff happening and to discuss with this update!

We last left off with much work to be done with the Exotics and Gray Army. I have been filming for a few days straight and I will have a lot of good content to choose from. This video coming soon will be equivalent to the Avengers movies from Marvel with so many animals and stories included. So many animals and stories to discuss; we are going to explain literally everyone but the toads in this upcoming video. There will be many answers to questions you may have had and I believe this specific update will explain the future for the animals, storylines, channel, and my presence on Forums and Facebook groups.

Let me end with the most exciting news to keep you waiting and so you read the entire post because if you skip you will miss something important. First we will start off with the Forums and Facebook groups. I have decided with how much busier I have become that I am going to either be leaving some Forums and groups, or I will be let's say a less then part time contributor. There are many reasons why I have decided this decision either because of being too invested in my work, personal life, school, and so on. With so many groups I will not be able to keep up with answering questions or creating posts. On some groups I did not feel as welcomed or taken seriously which is frustrating for me because one of my degrees I'm pursuing is herpetology. Overall I just feel more obligated to spend my time and invest it where I feel welcomed/needed/wanted the most because that will be more fulfilling to me. Don't worry because I am writing this to display my commitment to this group!

The Gray Army is half going to hibernate and half delay hibernation. The females weigh the weight I want and have fasted much longer then they should have so I am going to push to get them in the hibernaculum this week to avoid starvation. The males are underweight so I need to feed them heavy and then after some time and following through with the process I will chill them and then add them to the hibernaculum. Just wanted to give an update on them.

I hope that you are ready for the big news now. The main component of this post. You are not going to be ready for this. I'm not ready either! After some consideration and asking some biologists questions, and doing research on the topic I am going to attempt to do something you probably never saw coming. I am going to attempt to merge the Gray Army and the Skink Dynasty into the 125 gallon. There have been many questions and many steps thought out before this happens, but I am announcing the attempt at this.

I was supposed to build native southern and northern setups for the different groups, but after some consideration for the needs of temperature, humidity, and other factors it made some sense this should be at least considered. There are many variables needed to be figured out before this happens, but we are in the process of moving two historically important groups together into the same enclosure. Speaking of the enclosure; I will use plants from the north and southeast so both species have some familiarity with the terrain.

As for the Gray Army and Skink Dynasty we will have some must see videos because we don't have to have hypothetical faceoffs with these groups. We can have some very fun challenges and hopefully get some fans from both groups involved in the festivities. Hobbyist week looks pretty interesting with this storyline brewing doesn't it? How will four tree frogs that have no real hierarchy handle the dominant skink? Will Pharaoh show aggression or tolerate the Gray Army? When Meredith or Bane swoop down to assult a cricket what will the response of Pharaoh be? How will Florence handle the Gray Army? Will the Gray Army try to eat him? Will the skinks attempt to spoil the upcoming face-off between some Leafcutter Bees and the Gray Army?

All the animals will have to be negative for parasites and I will have to strategically figure out the answers to as many of the questions that I raised as possible.

With a true merger looming I will also at a later date combine the two storylines, YouTube playlists, and Web posts on the groups. Max and the Dumpy Family will be included in the storyline, but will not be merging with anyone. They will live happy Dumpy Tree Frogs only lives. So the YouTube channel, posts on here, and lives of the Gray Army and Skink Dynasty are changing as we know it.

What do you guys think about the upcoming attempt at merging the Gray Army and Skink Dynasty in the 125 gallon? Are you excited for the posts on here and the YouTube channel to include the three storylines for the animals and you can see what everyone is doing all In one video/post? What face-off challenge would you think would be interesting for the Gray Army vs Skink Dynasty (like who eats the most, who is the stealthiest, who is the better hunter for example.) Trust me I have many details to explain as we go forward.

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  • #10
Work has been underway for the upcoming video...

It's been a little while since the last post and I thought now would be a good time to catch everybody up to speed on the 3 different groups of animals how they are doing, the Skink Dynasty and Gray Army coming under one roof, the bees, and other stuff. I think I'm going to create a new thread soon to include both readers from the two active threads that have been going on.

As of now we have a lot of footage from the Giant Millipedes. I hope you are interested in seeing Giant Millipede sex. Finally we get a chance to showcase the male and wild Giant Millipede in this video. There are other millipedes in the video and I'm not sure of the species until I have a friend come over and sex them. The millipedes are doing wonderful right now and are very active. They will be ready day 1 to enter the 125 gallon Fringe Forest. I'll explain why it's a fringe later.

The Gray Army (gray tree frogs) are half sleeping and half eating! I am trying to fatten up the two males Bane and Dante before anything else happens. Both Bane and Dante have been calling and I'm sure they are happy to be eating again. I'm hoping not for long though so we can get the ball rolling for them to brumate as well. The girls are doing great. I'm going to check them after I write this. They won't be asleep that much longer. I am looking forward to having them back and I'm hoping they will bless me with Gray grandfrogs! You will see Melania and Meredith in the final moments before they went to brumate. Bane makes a great appearance and he is finally caught on camera longer then 5 seconds.

The Skink Dynasty is doing well. They are still in their bioactive enclosure and will sometime be awaiting quarantine once the gray tree frogs are back from brumation. Pharaoh will grace us in the video and he has been doing good. He's been more secretive lately so I've been watching him. He's eating really good. Amsi has not been visible in a while. She might be gravid again this year so she may be sitting on eggs. Let's hope that she can raise up some babies this year also. Florence and Baby Cope's are doing great but not much to report on for them here.

The Dumpy Family is doing well. I'm about to send a fecal sample of them and the toads to see where we are at. If it's negative that's the best case scenario. We need multiple negative tests for them to go back home. I'm hopeful they get a negative test. The sooner they are clean the sooner theirs and the 125 Gallon are built. See the Dumpy Family's enclosure will go where the skinks is now. So we will swap the terrariums once it's time. The video will be so big it will have to be two parts. I'm going to show you these guys in quarantine and just how they are doing. Max is doing well!

The bees are good and we are soon to put up the greenhouse. I'm looking forward to seeing the bees and offering them for the plants around the area. I'm also excited to see some of the males face off with the gray tree frogs.

The 125 Gallon Fringe Forest is going to be my equivalent to New York City. It will be the enclosure that never sleeps. Pharaoh and Amsi will rule while the sun's up, and an army of gray tree frogs, a copes gray, and squirrel tree frog will hop around the enclosure in the dark while the giant millipedes and giant canyon isopods scurry along the soil. I'm calling it the Fringe Forest because there are animals that will represent all around the United States. Mosquito Fish and Canyon Isopods from the west, Gray tree frogs and Giant millipedes from the northeast, Squirrel and Cope's tree frogs and Southeastern five lined skinks from the southeast. Part of the enclosure will be humid, damp, and luscious with plants for the tree frogs while the other part will be drier, warmer with mostly rocks and logs for the skinks. There will be small water features that parts will include the mosquitofish. I am going to pay homage to the north and south by using plants from the northeast and some from the south. Pothos might even make it into this build. I'm going to add plants that I've used before and I'm actually really looking forward to mixing up plants for this build. Let's hope it can happen in 2020. Let's hope I get to design the Dumpy Family's enclosure as well. I'll have more information soon.
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