this page is about my amphibian son, hopscotch! he is a magnificent tree frog, who i adopted in july of 2021, when he was around 3mo old! his estimated birthday is april 2021, and he may live to be anywhere between 8 - 20 years old! he weighed a meagre 10g in his first month, but nowdays tends to sit between 55 - 60g. fun fact - the glands on his head that look like a silly hat are full of poison! this species has the biggest poison sacs of any amphibians in all of australia :)

by @turquai on discord

hops is is my first ever non-traditional pet, and learning how to care for him has been quite a journey. while these guys are native to australia and generally quite common in their very small natural habitat, they are relatively under represented as pets, as the white-lipped tree frog and whites tree frog are both very popular overseas pets and have far more info on specific care to be found online. the pet store were so excited when i took him, he was the only magnificent tree frog there and had been there for quite some time, apparently! i had gone in with the intention of getting a white-lipped tree frog, but this little guy looked so silly and i could not say no to those little spots. generally, i use the whites tree frog as the base for his care, as they are very closely related. i did a bit of research into the mag specific native habitat - the kimberley rainforest - and tweaked the humidity and heat levels as necessary from there.

hops' tank is a small x-tall exoterra paludarium! it measures at 45 x 45 x 90cm, heated with a heat cord through the substrate for winter, and a ceramic heater at the top year-round. it's built to mimic the high heat, high humidity conditions of his natural habitat, which means it's very damp and very hot! there's two bulbs in there - one a UVB bulb, the other a specific plant growth bulb, both on a 12hr timer cycle. it's bioactive, containing springtails and isopods, and cycles through a number of live plants depending on the weather - some don't fare well with the extra heat in summer. generally, i keep bromeliads, monsteras, pothos, and parlour palms in there quite easily. substrate is a thick layer of coconut husk, dirt, and leaf litter, with activated charcoal at the very bottom for the plants. decoration is all natural rocks and wood from the garden, and one little hanging coconut that he loves a lot and i can't bring myself to get rid of it for the aesthetics.

since it's tall, it's difficult to maintain humidity in there. i have a fogger that goes off every few hours through the day to prevent the substrate from drying out, but my most impressive system is the automatic rain machine! using smart plugs, a little bit of coding, and an irrigation system, i have the tank set up to rain whenever it rains in my area! you can see it in action here :) i'm very proud of it. there is of course also a water dish for hops to soak in whenever he desires.

i put a lot of work into this tank setup, particularly after a number of failed first attempts. though it sounds like a lot, it has been totally worth the effort to get to this point! it's basically self sufficient - the only thing i have to do is turn over the soil once a month to keep it fresh and aerated, and top up the water tanks for the rainmaker & fogger when they run low. the springtails take care of waste and plant matter, and hops takes care of the springtail population when it becomes overcrowded. it's perfect!