Tree frogs such as the green tree frog are among the most shy of all tree frogs found across the USA. These amazing frogs have been living with humans for a long time.
Luckily in recent years, people have taken this tiny colorful creature as their pet. And their maintenance is quite easy, which makes them super beginner-friendly frogs.
For the green tree frog habitat, you need a glass tank & a set of kits which comes at a cheap price. But that’s not all to create a habitat, is it? So here I am today discussing everything you need to know.
In this following part, I will take you on a tour of the green tree frog habitat setup, and surely you will enjoy it!
Green tree frog habitat setup: A Step-by-Step Guide
The whole process of setting up the green tree frog habitat won’t take more than 3–4 hours for beginners. As soon as you receive everything, you can start the setup.
Here is a step-by-step instruction for the setup…
Step 1: Choose tank size & Design
The moment you clicked the thought to pet a green tree frog, you need to focus on the tank size and the design.
Tank Size
The major cost of a green tree frog habitat setup is to purchase the terrarium or tank. Your frog tank has to be strong and robust enough to carry the weight of every item which also includes the frog. A fragile tank can crash, and an innocent animal might suffer due to a weak tank.
When it comes to the dimension of the tank, the minimum size has to be 18x18x24’’ with a strong screen lid. And the tank has to be glass made.
A smaller one would be okay, but it’s always better to stick with the bigger size tank. Because these gorgeous frogs love jumping and climbing, so big space is preferable.
In case you took the decision to keep 2 green tree frogs, then the cage size has to be around 24x14x36’’.
Tank Design
It’s crucial to remember that green tree frogs are arboreal species. So, you need to provide them ample amount of vertical space in their terrarium. To be specific, while choosing the tank for the green tree frog, the size has to be vertically tall and horizontally moderate length.
Any pet frog would love to have the feel of their natural zone, so you can provide them enough places for hiding, lots of climbing options, and an appropriate size basking area in the middle or bottom part.
Every frog species wants the feeling of safety so hiding places really help them a lot whenever the pet frog feels irritated or threatened. Stuff like leaves, branches, and large size rocks would be useful for this purpose.
Step 2: Buying Decorations And Kits
Now, as the tank is within your grasp, it’s time to make the order of all required kits for your green tree frogs’ habitat setup.
Though you might find them second-hand on online groups, for the best result, buy new items.
Here in the following, you have the list of all necessary items…
- Distilled water and towel
- Non-chlorinated water
- Substrate
- Small shallow water dish.
- Filter for drainage
- Branches, sticks, or logs.
- Automatic misting system
- Plants
- Hydro balls
- Small shallow water dish.
- Lights, thermometer
- Mist.
- Heating lamp
- Basking light
- Froggers
Step 3: Setting Up a Perfect American Green Tree Frog Habitat
People love American Green Tree Frogs because they’re so darn cute. Those big eyes, that round body…who can resist? And as you are getting an American Green Tree Frog of your own, you’ll need to provide them with the proper habitat.
Here are all the details you need to know about the habitat setup of the green tree frogs…
Cleaning The Enclosure
Right after bringing the tank into your home, you need to wash the terrarium thoroughly. Start with using distilled water to wash away any debris or dust. Frogs should not be exposed to any chemical solution since it can seriously harm them. So, use no chemical solution as a cleaner.
Selecting The Spot
Fix the spot where you want to place your green tree frog’s terrarium. Once you keep your frog in, it will become hard to move the whole setup to a different location even if it’s in the same room. The whole setup is loaded with devices, versatile decoration, and electrical wiring, so you don’t want to get into the hassle of all this.
Adding The Drainage Layer
Waterfall not only increases the aesthetic level of the tank but also impacts the humidity level. So adding a functional drainage layer would keep the water flow smooth.
First of all, a medium size filter is required for the drainage layer. Simply put a 1.5-2’’ hydro balls layer right on the bottom of your frog terrarium. Then add a fine-quality mesh screen above the hydro balls which will work as the substrate barrier. But it will let the water flow smoothly.
Lighting
American Green Tree Frogs are nocturnal, so they don’t need any special lighting. In fact, if you have a bright light in their enclosure, it might bother them and make it difficult for them to sleep. Just be sure to give them somewhere to hide if they want to get away from the light.
Though this frog does not need UVB lighting due to its nocturnal behavior, you can use a 5.0 USB light to keep the plants happy and healthy.
You can keep the light for 12 hours for both day and night patterns, which can be taken to 14 hours in the summer to replicate the same feel as their natural habitat.
Temperature
Though keeping the green tree frog at room temperature is not a big deal, and they can survive well, but you need to have a look at what’s the exact measurement.
This smooth skin frog can function well when the temperature remains between 70–80 degrees Fahrenheit during daytime. With a slight drop, the night temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit would be the right tuning.
You can keep a temperature gradient inside the frog tank. Keeping the upper layer of the tank close to 80 degrees Fahrenheit while the lower portion is a bit cooler will let the frog move to its desired temperature zone.
Adding temperature gradients is not rocket science. Simply keep a heating lamp on top of the enclosure and make sure it’s not touching the screen lid. Because keeping the heating lamp directly on the lid will be deadly for your frog. The appropriate distance between the lamp and lid would be 1-2’’.
For the optimum well-being of your lovely green friends, you can use a high-quality thermostat to tune the temperature.
After you are done with the installation process of the heating lamp, it’s time to check the highest basking zone’s temperature. Position the light in a way so that the basking area’s temperature reaches 80degres Fahrenheit. Ensure the tank’s lower portion has 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
Humidity
The right amount of humidity for this frog is 50% or a bit more. Daily misting of the enclosure will ensure proper humidity. And a full glass terrarium with a good quality substrate can ensure that humidity is staying inside at the desired level.
A hygrometer would be suitable for continuous measurement of the humidity level.
Substrate
A substrate is undoubtedly one of the crucial things in the green tree frog tank. Because this frog will be spending a huge amount of time on the tank floor.
Due to their aggressive eating pattern, green tree frogs often face impaction problems. It happens when a tree frog accidentally eats substrate and fails to digest. If you keep tiny Peebles then your frog might end up eating one of these along with the insects.
But the real problem is this frog is not able to digest pebbles, and it will lead to death eventually which you surely don’t want. So avoid keeping any types of small rocks. Zoomed Eco Earth can be a good option for green tree frogs.
For the substrate layer, you can use reptile carpet, bark, coconut fiber, and sphagnum moss. None of these costs too much and is easily found in online shops. If you made up your mind to keep live plants then you can use ABG mix.
This amazing mixture substrate is loaded with charcoal, orchid bark, peat moss, fern, and sphagnum moss. And it helps to grow your live plants smoothly.
Add natural element
You have to give a touch of nature inside the tank to give the vibe of the natural habitat inside the green tree frog tank. Things like cork bark, different types of branches, and driftwood would be excellent for this job. Getting them from the pet store would ensure there’s a low chance of any toxins or parasites inside the frog’s habitat.
To stay more natural, you can provide natural wood collected by yourself, but they need to clean thoroughly using water and bleach to get rid of any parasites and harmful bacteria. The best would be to soak the wood for more than one day and then after washing let it dry for a few days before putting it inside the green tree frog tank.
By nature, these frogs have a preference for high vegetation inside the tank which would allow them to hide and climb just like in their natural habitat. While choosing you can also use fake plants which are free from any chemicals.
Plants like orchid, bromeliad, philodendron, pilea, etc. in your tree frogs tank, and they are going to love it for sure.
Water Quality
Your frog’s water should be changed every day, and it should be filtered using an aquarium filter. The water dish doesn’t need to be very deep; just enough for your frog to soak in if he wants to. You can also mist the enclosure once or twice a day to help raise the humidity levels.
Never use tap water for your frog’s habitat! The chemicals in tap water can be harmful to him, so always use filtered or distilled water instead.
Most recommended is distilled water or reverse osmosis water.
Step 4: Introduce the new buddy into the tank
It’s time to add the little buddy to your gorgeous terrarium. Before doing that for the last time you have to check the temperature and humidity using a thermometer & a hygrometer. If you see it’s within the desired limit then you can go for the next step.
Now, take the frog and keep them in a container box. Then put this open container box into the terrarium. They will take a bit of time to move and walk around the tank. When your frog will finally feel comfortable, he will jump out of the box and start from its hiding place in the tank.
You as the owner must remember not to handle this moist skin frog more than one time per week. And every time you handle them, make sure to wash your hands before and after thoroughly. Don’t forget to wear gloves during handling these tiny creatures.
Final words
So far, you have seen everything that goes into building a habitat for green tree frogs. Don’t make any mistakes while implementing the process, and you will see a marvelous setup at the end of the day.
And finally, one thing I want to tell you is that just knowing the green tree frog habitat setup is not enough. You have to ensure you are taking good care of the frogs.
