I got 4 fire bellied toads 2 days ago from a pet store. I've been planning this out for years (literally). The day before I got them, I got a 20H aquarium and set it up with Bed-a-Beast, 2 fake cloth plants (like for aquariums), 2 plastic ivy type plants, a hiding place and a large bowl that they can get in/out of. Oh, and a thermometer/humidity thing. It's digital. The temps during the day are between 70 and 73, and the humidity is around 50%. At night, the temps are between 66 and 70, and the humidity goes up to 73%. I have a 60 watt Reveal bulb I shine on the water-end of the tank for a little warmth, but no heat lamp.

Yesterday, I fed them small crickets dusted in calcium powder. I feed the crickets Cricket Food, Cricket Water and a slice of organic baby carrot. The frogs ate about 4 crickets each.

So today, I changed the bowl of water and washed it in really hot water (only, no soap like I've been reading). Tonight I went to say hi, and three of them have small white bumps with black dots in the center. They're only on their sides, not on their backs at all. The three with the white dots are the ones who spend the most time in the water. Is that normal? My fourth one hasn't got the dots at all. They didn't have them yesterday, nor earlier today. I use filtered water that sat out for 36 hours.

Here's a picture of their habitat:


Is there anything I need to do differently? Is there any way to treat this? Is it something I should treat? I have a vet for my chins, rabbits and budgies (I just moved here a couple weeks ago), but I don't know whether she treats toads. I'll call tomorrow to ask, for sure. But I was wondering if maybe you could help me figure this out.

I wanted to add that I'm planning to get a drip tomorrow, and a spray bottle. I don't know why I keep forgetting them. I wasn't sure, though, if it could get too humid? The humidity rises at night, and it also cools, and I don't know if that would be bad for them?

Find out from your water department if they use chorine or chloramine. By letting the water sit cholorine will evaporate while choramine will not and will need chemical dechlorination.
However I don't know if that has any relation to your white spots.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Could you possibly get a photo of the white spots? I know that might be tricky.

Everything you have sounds just dandy, minus what Merlin advised about the water. If you want to be safe, go to any pet store, and in the fish department get a small bottle of water de-chlorinator. Mix it up a gallon at a time (I keep a spring water jug around for this) and the bottle should last you a long time. You only need a few drops.

You seem to have done your research. Temps and humidity are just dandy.

I can't tell from the pics, but you should have your water dish sunk down to the same level or just a hair above the ground.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

Hello, You can also take your water to most pet stores and they will test it for free for you. From what you are describing it sounds like a fungus that my koi get on occasion.

A lot of pet stores will keep the fire belly toads in the aquatic section, then use the same net that they use to catch their fish, to catch them, ughh! If any of those fish have an infection it seems to pass on to them like wildfire! Do not use the same products for fish on the toads, a lot of them are not safe.

Pictures would be great though, lol.

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I have sucker tattood on my forehead

Fungus was my next suggestion. If it is a fungus, there is a treatment out there I can PM to you. Safe for frogs and toads.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

Ok, thanks! I'll try to get pictures in a second. Now the white spots are on their arms and backs. They're really tiny spots. oy, I hope they show up in the pictures.

I'll get the water dechlorinator today, too.

And the bowl is sunk, I have the bed-a-beast level with the edges, and then I draped one of the plastic plants into the water on one side, and one of the cloth plants into the water on the other side. They can jump straight out, but I just feel better having another way out. lol

Ok, here are the only two pictures that turned out halfway. I cropped them with gimp, and then didn't resize them so that you can probably click the picture to make them bigger? I hope that's how it works here.

Here's one:



And here is another:



In the second pictures, the spots are harder to see, but they're all over the arms, legs, back, fingers (for lack of a better term). The odd thing is that I can't see any on their stomachs at all. As soon as I started taking pictures, they hopped away. I finally had to use the flash on the last two, but I didn't want to hurt their eyes. Poor li'l Delenn just sat there kind of shocked after I got the first picture.

Looks like some sort of fungus to me...

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I had a fish with something very similar looking called Ich or ichthyophthiriasis or white spot disease. I guess its possible for it to be transferred from fish to frogs using the same net. I would seek a vet. I have no idea if the same treatment for fish would be OK for your toads. Its basically a parasite. I"ll ask some of my other froggie friends and get back to you.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.