# Tinc Cobalts trying to escape?



## Finchfrogs15 (Apr 28, 2011)

My 2 tinc cobalts are always jumping and hitting their heads on the top of the glass like they are trying to get out. They are always climbing the glass and also trying to dig their heads where the glass and soil meets. Is there something wrong with my tank? It is a 15 gallon, heavily planted so there is a lot of hiding places and i mist the tank 3 times a day so it is always pretty wet. Is it possibly to humid and wet? Since it has gotten warmer the tank is usually around 83-86 degrees daytime and 80-83 nighttime. my one tinc has rubbed the color off its nose from trying to "dig" so much. Is this just their behavior or am I doing something wrong?


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## guppygal (Aug 23, 2007)

How long have your frogs been in this tank? If they were just recently introduced, there might be an issue with the tank, and it might require a rebuild.


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## Finchfrogs15 (Apr 28, 2011)

ive had them for about a month and they did the same thing when i first got them and then after a while they started to stop a little. A couple days ago there was a day it just got really hot and the tank went up to 90 degrees. Could this be the reason?


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## guppygal (Aug 23, 2007)

Finchfrogs15 said:


> ive had them for about a month and they did the same thing when i first got them and then after a while they started to stop a little. A couple days ago there was a day it just got really hot and the tank went up to 90 degrees. Could this be the reason?


Ugh - that's really warm for your frogs. Do you have any ventilation? What kind do you have? There are caresheets that show the min/max temp range for pdfs -


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## Boondoggle (Dec 9, 2007)

My guess is they are trying to find someplace 10 degrees cooler.


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## guppygal (Aug 23, 2007)

Boondoggle said:


> My guess is they are trying to find someplace 10 degrees cooler.


I have to agree with BoonDoggle. 

Sorry - I missed the part about you having Cobalts. NOTE to SELF: read posts more closely.

Is there someway that you can cool your tank? Possibly move it to a cooler room? Install a window unit? I'm thinking even a fan over the vent screen, assuming that you have one, might help. I wouldn't place it where it blows down, but blows across.

keep us posted -
kristi


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## heatfreakk3 (Oct 15, 2008)

guppygal said:


> I have to agree with BoonDoggle.
> 
> Sorry - I missed the part about you having Cobalts. NOTE to SELF: read posts more closely.
> 
> ...


Another great (and easy) way to cool the tank down is just raise the light a little bit. No matter what way you do it, the tank does need to be cooled down a little bit though.


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## deboardfam (Feb 7, 2011)

Yeah definately way too hot.. I freak out if my tank hits 81.. LOL

Also probably misting too much. depends on your part of the country. Do you keep track of humidity? 

I mist once a day.. sometimes not even that.. to keep all of my tanks around 80ish humidity.


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## heatfreakk3 (Oct 15, 2008)

Forgot to add about misting. I mist mine at the MOST every other day. For my non breeders I may go even longer without misting.. So 3 times a day might be a bit overkill.


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## jbherpin (Oct 16, 2009)

I didn't see anyone address that the skin has been rubbed away from the frogs nose... This should be checked and treated asap as the conditions of that viv will cause an infection quickly IMO. You should attempt to post some pics. Best of luck!

JBear


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## heatfreakk3 (Oct 15, 2008)

My tinc (cobalt to be exact) has done that exact thing with his nose. He rubbed the color off and it was while. My other cobalt had a pretty bad case of nose rub when I bought her. Its just nose rub, nothing big. It will go away after time. Just keep an eye on them.


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## bshmerlie (Jun 2, 2010)

Why don't you post a picture of your tank if you can. That might bring up more suggestions if its not just a heating issue. Sometimes there are other environmental reasons for captive frogs trying to escape constantly.


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## Finchfrogs15 (Apr 28, 2011)

thanks for all the replies everyone!
I raised the light a few inches off the tank and i added a fan that blows on the light constantly and it has definitely helped! Its a sexed pair, thats why i have been misting heavily, to try and get them to breed, but possibly too much misting? It only hit 90 one day. the other days its usually at 84-86. but i think that is still a little high. (my leucs dont seem to mind the mid 80 temps though.)
Im going to monitor the tank a lot tomorrow now that i have raised the light and added a fan. I will try and upload pics tomorrow to see what you guys think. I just got into the frog hobby in february, so i havent experienced keeping them in the summer. It was hard enough to try and keep them warm enough. Trying to keep it cool is definitely harder though.
Thank you all for the help


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## Boondoggle (Dec 9, 2007)

90? Yikes. 84-86? Raising the lights will help but really that's still pretty warm. Check out the onsite care sheet.

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/care-sheets/14606-dendrobates-azureus-tinctorius-novice.html

I have mine on a thermostat. Very rarely do things get over 80. If things hit 82 all the lights shut off. What are you taking the temps with? Temp guns are pretty useful for spot-checking micro-climates.


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## Finchfrogs15 (Apr 28, 2011)

trying to upload pics now


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## Finchfrogs15 (Apr 28, 2011)

I tried to upload all of my pictures but all of them failed except for this one.
Ill try and upload the rest later.


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## dartdevil1 (Apr 23, 2011)

i dont see a vent screen do u have any type of screen vent on that tank?if not that may help u out some.best of luck


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

The tank looks fine to me. How long have they been in there? In my experience, frogs typically try to escape (climb the glass) for a while until they get settled in. I'm guessing it was a temperature thing or they are not yet used to the tank.

Looks like some ventilation in the back? At any rate, when you open the lid, it sucks air in.


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## Finchfrogs15 (Apr 28, 2011)

I just moved the tank to the basement and the temperature shouldnt get over 81 degrees now. Im going to lowes tomorrow to try and find a window a/c unit, so i can keep the tank in the room that its supposed to be in. Ill check on the frogs tomorrow to see if they get better. Ill keep you guys posted and ill try and get some pics of the nose rub the female has. Thanks for all the replies everyone!

Ive had the frogs for about a month or so and they had the same behavior in the beginning and then it stopped and now they are doing it again because of the temperature i guess.


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## M_Rybecky (Mar 16, 2009)

I have some heat problems in the summer even tho I live in a basement. I dont like to run my AC all day so what I did last year was I switched the light cycle to have the lights on at night when its cooler and off during the day. It helps a lot.


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## Finchfrogs15 (Apr 28, 2011)

Just an update for you guys. They both continue to try and escape by jumping and hitting their heads on the top glass and by climbing the glass constantly. My temps never get over 82 now. Could they still possibly be stressed from the high heat that there used to be? They both eat great. Prior to the heat wave we had. They gave me a clutch of 8 eggs. So I'm assuming that they are all settled in to the tank. It must be the heat and I guess they are just paranoid that it might happen again??


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## GregF (Sep 13, 2009)

Finch, how much variation in temperature do you see during the day? Mine would act a little stressed if it was 80 degrees all day. I live in south Texas, and sometimes it only ever cools off to 80 degrees at night, OUTSIDE.

When things get really hot here, I usually take two of the Coleman Ice Packs (Coleman works the best...they have them at Walmart) and cover them with a "six-pack" size soft cooler. Put the whole thing on a strip of eggcrate, and viola! The temp will drop about 8 degrees, and slowly rise. I have tons of ventilation on top, and it takes about 10 hours to warm back up. Closed systems like yours would probably stay cooler longer.

If you put the packs on one side, you'll probably get a decent temp gradient in the tank. They can move around if one spot is too cool or warm.


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## GregF (Sep 13, 2009)

If you set something on the glass to indicate that it was not "clear sky", I wonder if they would still hit it? Kind of like those translucent stickers that people put on sliding patio doors so that kids/pets know it's closed?


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## Dendrodaved (May 4, 2010)

I've had the same problem with my Patricias, but it turned out to be the distance between the tank lid and the substate floor, even though it was a 20gallon tank, I had a thick 3" layer of pebble gravel and about another 2" layer of soil and then some orchid moss, leaf litter. so the distance between top and substrate was about 7 or 8 inches, so they were always jumping and bumping there heads on the glass top like they were mini kangaroos, so I took alot of the gravel out and a little of soil out also, and now they have settled down 100%. don't know how much space you have, but if they laid a clutch already under those conditions then they can't be that stressed.


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## Dendroguy (Dec 4, 2010)

my auratus did the same thing,after awhile i put a few branches it the tank for them to climb now they dont jump around and hit their face anymore,but your tank looks llike it has branches,hope they shape up and stop acting odd,best of luck


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## Finchfrogs15 (Apr 28, 2011)

Greg, my temp is usually around 80 all day and it will drop to 78ish at night. Your idea sounds great! and i am definitely going to try it for those really hot days. 

Dave, I think i have the same problem as you. I have a 15 gal. with about 2" for the false bottom and another 2-3" for soil. They could be feeling a little claustrophobic?

Im thinking about getting a 27 gal Cube since it has a lot of land space and a lot of height as well. and i can also make a background that they can climb around too. Do you guys think that would be an ideal tank? I want to make my frogs as happy as I can. Thats why i got a window a/c unit for them and we dont even use our a/c for ourselves lol.

A little off topic and i hope i dont hijack my own thread but, Whenever i mist my tank and water gets on my frog's noses they frantically wipe the water off like it burns or something. so I tried to avoid full contact misting them. They have nose rub, and ill try and post pics but i dont think it is too severe of an issue.


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## Dendrodaved (May 4, 2010)

well me personally I would get a 29 gal (30x12x18) because there you have plenty of room floor and height, vs a 27gal cube which I can't even find the dimensions online, would probably be good for a pair of thumbnails or some of the smaller Darts. that's just my 2cents.


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## Finchfrogs15 (Apr 28, 2011)

Yeah I think the dimensions of the cube is 20x18x20 but I'm gonna look around some more and try and find a 30 gal


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## boabab95 (Nov 5, 2009)

Finchfrogs15 said:


> Yeah I think the dimensions of the cube is 20x18x20 but I'm gonna look around some more and try and find a 30 gal


that would be 31 gallons...I think a 27 cube is...[checks on google]...wow...the company is off on their gallon size.....then its actually a 31 gallon cube  which should be fine for a pair. 27 is fine too...


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