# Sick Tinctorius



## btreyes84 (Feb 2, 2011)

I bought 4 tinctorius froglets from someone about a month ago, naively not knowing that I couldn't eventually keep them all in the same vivarium. I've been keeping them in a ten gallon and I just lost one yesterday and one today. The one that I lost yesterday seemed like he was hiding a lot and smaller than the others. Tonight I came home and found that another had just passed away. The dead frogs' skin looks fine, but they look a little skinny. I've been feeding them fruit flies but not supplementing them as much as I should. I haven't added anything to the vivarium for the past two or three weeks, so I don't think that they have been poisoned. The one that died today seemed like it was eating well until recently. I'm going to be religiously supplementing their food from now on and I just ordered some pinhead crickets. Are there any good links to p.d. frog diseases and health? Thanks.


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## billschwinn (Dec 17, 2008)

If you could post a pic of them and their caging that would be helpful in trying to make suggestions to help you. If you look on this site there is tons of info, the search feature may be a good place to start. For starters do they have ample hiding spots and are you offering enough properly sized prey on a regular basis? What are temps, humidity, is water provided, what kind of tincs? Have you contacted the seller? If it has been a month it sounds like maybe the problem is on your end of the transaction, just my opinion, not knowing all the facts of course. See if you can put up pics, Bill


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## earthfrog (May 18, 2008)

Sorry for your loss. 
Future steps to follow---quarantining your animals (there is a sticky on this I believe), getting fecal tests run, researching how many animals can coexist based on their individual species requirements...
I understand it being your first trial. On merely pet store advice once I overcrowded a tank myself, resulting in a stress-related death. 
Read all the 'sticky' links at the beginning of the Health and Disease section and you'll save yourself a lot of heartache.


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## Thinair (Aug 27, 2005)

It sounds like they were in quarantine (of sorts). Four froglets in a ten gallon for only one month? That sounds perfect as long as they have cover and proper humidity and temps. If someone isn't familiar with small froglets, it could be hard to notice things like possible short-tongue syndrome (missing flies over and over). Two frogs dead in two days sounds environmental or husbandry related.

Any crazy temp spikes?

In the meantime I might nuke that tank and start over. For quarantine I use a ten gallon with simple aquarium lid (but 99.8% sealed - flies still escape), long fiber spaghnum moss thoroughly dampened and plastic cups of various sizes cut in half for cover. I might throw a fast growing plant cutting in there (Tradescantias, etc). Sometimes I'll be lazy and not move the frogs over to a permament tank for over a year and they do fine like that...


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

supplementation doesn't mean anything if the supplement itself has an improper ratio of vitamins and minerals.


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## btreyes84 (Feb 2, 2011)

Sorry for the late response, I've been really busy all weekend.

I do not have pictures of the dead froglets, but they appeared slightly emaciated with no visible growths or discoloration on their skin. I had just seen the larger one eating flies the previous day. I've been feeding them wingless fruit flies that I had occasionally been dusting with vitamin-calcium powder for frogs. My tank is covered with constant humidity of 80-90%, with temperatures in the 60-70 degree range. My tank has plenty of pothos hiding spots and I added them a coco hut yesterday. 

I did find out that one of my roommates left a window open the other night, so the tank may have gotten down to the high 40's- low 50's. She also told me that she cleaned her nails in the kitchen (and poured some nail polish remover down the drain), which is adjacent to the room with the frogs. I'm thinking that the froglets may have been exposed to the nail polish remover or it may have been the temperature drop. What do you all think?

I'm going to move the tank away from the room in the kitchen and make sure that the windows aren't left open anymore. I'm also adding some leaf litter. My pinhead crickets should be coming in the mail today and I'm planning on ordering some tropical springtails to seed the new terrarium that I've been working on.

Should I disinfect the tank? Where can I order a fecal analysis for frogs? Any other advice? 

The other two frogs seem to be doing fine and are eating well.


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## Paul G (Feb 27, 2007)

I would lean more towards the window being left open than the fingernail polish but that could be an issue as well.

The cold was most likely a 'final straw' if you just put in a coco hut in yesterday and haven't put leaf litter in for a month; it sounds like they didn't have enough hiding places. Pothos isn't sufficient by its self in my opinion.

Depending on how old they are I would take them out of high traffic pattern room for the time being.

Which vitamin-calcium supplement are you using?
What morph of tincs are they & how old are they?


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## alex111683 (Sep 11, 2010)

60-70 seems a little low to me especially for daytime highs. You should try to keep their enclosure closer to mid 70's in the day time. For night time, 65 or higher should be ok. My tincs daytime temps are 72-76 and nighttime is 67-72.


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