Fire-Bellied Toads Care Sheet

Fire-Bellied Toads are relatively simple to set-up and care for, which is why they make a good choice for beginners. Not only are they pleasing to the eye, they are very active and have the cutest call, that will undoubtedly make you smile every time you hear it.

As a defense mechanism, Fire-Bellied Toads secret a mild toxin that is not dangerous to humans, but if you have sensitive skin, it may cause a rash. Because these toads are very sensitive, for their own safety, they should not be handled unless absolutely necessary. You will find that they will have to be handled occasionally, for tank cleaning, so I suggest wearing powder free latex gloves. This will protect you and your toads.

Housing Your Fire-Bellied Toad

Housing your Fire-Bellied Toad can be very simple, or if your are like me and want to simulate a more natural habitat, a bit more complex.

The size tank you choose should be based on how many toads you intend to have. You should allow 3-5 gallons of space per toad. This will give the toads plenty of space without being on top of each other. The photo below shows a 30 gallon tank that houses 6 toads.

Fire-Bellied Toads are semi-aquatic and should be supplied with both land and water of equal parts. Your land area should slope down into the shallow water side of the tank in order to make it easy for the toads to make their way out of the water. The water side of the tank should be no more than a couple inches deep. The toads prefer to float in the water with their toes touching something solid beneath them. It gives them a good sense of security.

In my tank, shown above (pardon the glare), I chose to split the land area into two parts with the water area in the center. On the right side of the tank I used aquarium gravel to form the slope, then covered it with moss and smooth rocks. This is important because the toads have sensitive skin and the aquarium gravel is a bit coarse.

The left side of the tank was built up with larger smooth, flat rocks. This area serves two purposes. One, it hides the filter and two, it gives them a completely dry area to hang out on. An added plus to using the flat rocks was, it gave me the ability to build them and underwater cave as a second hide.

You can take a more simple approach and make the tank all land and install a shallow water dish but you will notice the frogs will be much less active, as they will spend the majority of their time sitting in the water bowl.

You can see that I opted to go with plastic plants, for ease of maintenance but you can use live aquatic plants if you choose to do so.

Temperature and Lighting

Fire-Bellied Toads do not have any special requirements as far as temperature and lighting. They are perfectly fine with room temperature. I chose to provide lighting simply for esthetic reasons.

A couple things to keep in mind if you plan on using a light; be care not to use a light that is going to raise the temperature more that a degrees or two, you don't want to overheat your toads, and only install the light over the end of the tank that you will not be feeding the toads at. If they stare into the light while hunting their prey, it could damage their eyesight.

Filter

In order to keep the water fresh and clean, you will need to install An in the water filter. Fire-bellied toads prefer to relax in a pool of still water. Most filters you will find are rather tall, so you will have to install it in a way to slow the water down so as not to create a current.

Referring back to the photo of my tank, you can see the method I used. I stacked the large flat rocks to create a slow running waterfall, then at the bottom of the waterfall, I installed a piece of Mopani Wood to obstruct the water flow further. Mopani wood works very well in this type of tank because it is heavy and will just sit on the bottom of the tank, rather than float.

Hides

You will want to provide at least one hide for your toads. Sometimes they just want to have a little privacy. In my tank, there are three places for my toads to hide. There is a Half Log Hide on the damp land side, an under water cave on the lighted side and under the Mopani wood in the center of the water.

Diet

Fire-Bellied Toads diet will mainly consist of small crickets. Make sure the crickets you provide are no larger than the space between their eyes. This will prevent a possible choking hazard. Offer 2-3 crickets per frog, three times a week. A couple of times a month, you will want to provide a different food source for variety such as, wax worms, earth worms cut into small pieces and black worms. The worms will need to be fed from a shallow dish. Do not drop them into the tank or water.

Supplements

Your toads are what they eat so be sure to provide them with good nutrition. You can dust their insects with a high quality nutritional supplement or you can gut load the insects with a highly nutritious diet such as Fluker's High-Calcium Cricket Diet  which is what I use.

In Conclusion:

Fire-Bellied toads are easy to care for and relatively simple to set-up. With the proper maintenance and diet, they will provide you with many years of enjoyment.