#toadopolis

[toadschooled]

Please give a warm welcome to Toadopolis’ newest resident, Little Prince Buttercrock! This educated little prince spent the first few months of life as a pet in a college lab. He’s an extremely vocal little chap. When his foster brought him down to me I actually heard him peeping before I saw him.

After a successful quarantine- during which he called nearly every night- he is now ready to join E-mail in his bachelor pad!

[toadschooled]

Today Toadopolis bid farewell to the Feeding Rock, the broken hunk of stepping stone that used to serve as the toads’ dining room. It had been pooped on one too many times and was getting harder and harder to clean. It’s been replaced with two pieces of clay tile with a large hide buried beneath. It’s still a WIP so it looks less than great now but I’ll be improving on it throughout the week!

[toadschooled]

Hi there! This question made me realize that the enclosure was overdue for a bit of maintenance and rearranging. I topped off the soil and shuffled things a bit. Thanks for the reminder.

Also no one asked, but under the readmore is a few tips I thought up while working on the enclosure today- maybe they can help you with your future setup!

1. If you decide to go with a large flat rock like I have, be sure to place a circle of smaller stones beneath it to keep the toads from burrowing under it. Trust me, if there is one toad-sized gap underneath a big flat rock, they will find it at some point and get in there.

2. On the same note, flat-ish river rocks are good to place over areas where you don’t want your toads to burrow, like around the base of plants, or in weird corners that are hard to reach.

3. You can use twine and suction cups to suspend pothos and other plants that start to grow in the way of everything else. Suction cups on the inside of the tank often won’t stick when you mist it, so I stick them to the outside, then use a long piece of twine to loosely suspend the plants higher up.

4. When you’ve finished setting up new plants, they’ll probably look like garbage for a couple of days. The plants need some time to orient themselves towards your light source.

5. Think of your clean up crew (isopods, springtails, worms) less as parts of the terrarium and more like pets. Cement this idea in your mind and you’ll have a better sense of the last time you gave them fresh leaves to eat and misted the terrarium. You want them to be as healthy as your toads are!

[toadschooled]

Residents Brace For New Round Of Renovations In Toadopolis

“I’m a very frightened little boy!” says long-time Toadopolis resident E-mail.

The renovations are likely inspired by this years Christmas gifts, including a large soaking bowl and cork hide provided by Illith on The Soaking Bowl discord channel.

The renovations come in the wake of another strike by the unidentified Feeding Rock Pooper- authorities have identified 3 possible culprits. 

[toadschooled]

Toadopolis has been renovated! @madsciences shared some pictures of an old setup on the discord and inspired me to build the toads a nice sitting ledge. I bought two large slate tiles and smashed them with a hammer to get the shapes I wanted, then adhered them with aquarium silicone to keep them from sliding around. The silicone took a day to dry, but assembly took about two hours and the cost was around $30. 

Pros: Looks awesome, has a nice natural look, very sturdy, was easy to customize, makes E-mail feel tall.

Cons: VERY heavy, had to make it taller than it appears so I could bury the bottom portion entirely in substrate so they wouldn’t burrow under it and get squished. Some of the edges turned out sharp but I sanded them very well. Stinky silicone smell while drying so I had to leave it outside overnight. The toads peed in the fun box while this was going on. 

[toadschooled]

“Beautification” turned out to be the wrong word because its still pretty ugly but it’s got plenty of good toad things. Really all I did was add some new peat moss because I’m out of leaves and some bigger LED’s from Home Depot. I also added a new plant. I made sure to sit the toads down and explain VERY CAREFULLY that its not for sitting on!

[toadschooled]

Toadopolis is undergoing renovations right now, thanks to 3 Enormous Sticks I found in the backyard and had to use. New features: the sticks. Relocated plants. A buried hide against the glass for which to peek at hidden toads. A big hungry toad on the feeding rock.... oh wait that’s Moon.

[toadschooled]

How big is the toadopolis?

Its one of the larger Exo-Terras, it has about the same floor space as a 40 gal breeder. A regular 40 gallon with a lid is cheaper but I got it on sale and like the front opening doors, it makes feeding super easy.