I'd like to please take a moment to pick the brains of those of you who have been keeping frogs for awhile.

I've been keeping reptiles for about ten years, but lately have been considering frogs as nice 'eyes-only' pets for our very young children. However, I have no idea which breeds are good for viewing (i.e. diurnal breeds), how to set up a frog habitat, or anything else about keeping frogs for that matter.

Let me pose a few specific questions:

1. What species do you recommend? I'd like a colorful species that doesn't grow very large, specifically, frogs about an inch long fully grown would be excellent. I'd like them to be diurnal, but I'd also like frogs that sing at night, (frogsong would go well with the cricketsong already permeating my home on account of the bearded dragon) but I don't know if I can have it both ways.

2. For the species you recommend, what sort of heat, light, and humidity levels are needed and what sort of initial setup do you recommend? I'm invisioning a clay substrate layer to maintain a water table, then mesh, moss, and finally lots and lots of plants.

3. For the species you recommend, how many individuals can be housed together in a single 12x12x12 ExoTerra vivarium?

That should be about it, and I imagine with this initial information I can do some research myself on the web. Thanks in advance for all your wonderful advice.



- The Green Man