One thing I see way too often in this community is keeping different species together in the same habitat. Frogs of all species have different wants and needs in order to live a happy life, while friends can be included in this, these friendships need boundaries just like any friendship does. “Chohabing: or cohabitating is the action of keeping different species together in one tank, whether be it two frogs or a frog and another animal. Yesterday I was sent a very disturbing Tik Tok video of a person holding their whites tree frog begging it to spit out another frog it was attempting to swallow. Not only was the frog being eaten way too small to be kept with the larger frog, but it was also a completely different species altogether. It’s times like these where my inner Karen or “Tik Tik vet” comes out, absolutely disgusted and furious, my mission this week is to teach about the dangers of cohabing. Let’s get into this before I blow my top…
Why does cohabing strike a nerve within experienced keepers?
To understand why keeping different species of frogs together makes keepers like me so mad, we have to get into a bit of frog science. Every single frog on this planet produces a special toxin in their body kept in their parotid (poison) glands and distributed throughout their skin. To us, these toxins differ in danger depending on species, cane toads are known for their powerful toxins which can send a human to the hospital or into cardiac arrest. Colorado River toads are known for their DMT-carrying toxin, and wild dart frogs have had theirs used on arrow tips by native South American peoples for centuries. These are cases of very strong poisons but every single frog has a set of parotoid glands whether or not their toxins are strong enough to cause major injury to a predator.
So what does that have to do with cohabing?
While again, not all toxins are strong enough to harm a large predator, they are strong enough to cause serious injury and illness in other frogs. These toxins often release when frogs and toads soak and sometimes when they pee. Typically when you have more than one frog, they share a water bowl or water source, but because they are of the same species there is no issue with the toxins releasing into the water. When you have two different species of frogs sharing water, however, the story changes. Toxins range on a scale from poisonous to not for humans and other predators, this scale gets even more specific when you look at how strong toxins are to other frog species. So a species like WTFs may have very tame toxins for humans but to another frog species, that toxin could cause serious harm.
How do they cause harm to another species?
When two species are kept together using the same water source, climbing all over each other, leaving excess shed on walls and decor, both frogs will begin to become ill. Toxins have been known to leave chemical-like burns on the species with less potent ones. While you may not see instant effects of the toxins, as time rolls on, your frogs will begin to get very sick and lethargic. This also decreases both frog’s life spans greatly. So on top of being painful, your frog’s life is counting down the days.
So toxins are the only reason I can’t house my frogs together?
No actually, frogs are opportunistic eaters, meaning anything that moves is fair game. We’ve seen this with fingers, decor, stuff outside the tank, and even with tankmates. Housing different species creates a huge chance of you looking in the tank one day and only seeing one lone frog with a full belly. On top of housing different species, this can also happen with different-sized frogs of the same. This is why it’s so important to only keep frogs with the size difference of at most two inches together. WTFs can and will eat anything small enough to fit in their mouths. Ingesting another species of frog is not only extremely stressful for both of them but the ingested toxins can kill the ingester. Size is not something to chance with. Never house frogs with a major size difference together.
Not to mention the fact all species have certain humidity, temperature, and habitat requirements that do not line up with another’s needs. Not providing the correct parameters can cause illness and death.
I really can’t house any two species together?
If you want to get technical, you can. But the only species said to be okay together are different species of dart frogs together and then American green tree frogs and copes grey tree frogs with each other because they have very similar toxins by eating very similar meals and living in the same areas of the world. Any species other than those, no matter what some people will try to tell you, should never be housed together. The same goes for the people who say you can house lizards and frogs together. It’s not a good risk to take if you care dearly about your pets.
I know some people will try and argue with me and say they’ve been housing their frog species together for years without any issue but I won’t entertain it. As someone who has five years of experience with rehabilitating frogs here at our rescue, I have seen the effects of long-term cohabing and they are not pretty. It is very irresponsible to put your pets in danger because you feel like ego-tripping. Trying to get around this by providing two water bowls for each species will not work, frogs cannot be trained to use and do not care to use a certain water source. They’ll use whatever one they please and cannot even comprehend that they may be poisoning themselves by soaking. And even if you were to change the water every single day, that would not make a difference. As you can tell, this is a passionate topic for me, like I said, I have seen the aftermath of cohabing. If there’s one thing you can take away from this week’s edition, please do not take risks with your frog’s well-being and happiness. Be responsible and do not keep a multi-species habitat.