Tomato Frog

1 Overview

The tomato frog is strikingly colorful and mainly distributed along the eastern coast of Madagascar. Notably, although beautiful, its skin contains a defensive toxin that causes intense pain to anything that offends it.

Chinese Name: Tomato Frog

Scientific Name: Dyscophus guineti

Alternative Names: Antongil red frog, Antongil Bay frog

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Subphylum: Vertebrata

Class: Amphibia

Subclass: Lissamphibia

Order: Anura

Suborder: Neobatrachia

Family: Microhylidae

Subfamily: Dyscophinae

Genus: Dyscophus

Species: Dyscophus guineti

Distribution: Eastern coast of Madagascar

2 Physical Characteristics

The tomato frog is very pretty, but its skin contains a defensive toxin, so never handle it carelessly. It is not a strong jumper, so a lid is not strictly necessary in captivity.

Males measure 60–65 mm and females 90–95 mm. When threatened, it inflates its body like a toad to deter enemies. Despite its beauty, do not handle it—the attractive skin carries a defensive toxin potent enough to cause intense pain. The male tomato frog is 60–65 mm long and weighs about 410 g; females are slightly larger at 90–135 mm and about 230 g, roughly the size of a fist, bright red all over and shaped like a ripe tomato.

3 Care Guidelines

In the wild the tomato frog lives in tropical swamp areas, generally 8–10 cm long. In captivity it needs a suitably sized enclosure and proper environmental conditions.

Provide as spacious an enclosure as possible, with about two-thirds land and one-third water; because it does not jump well, no lid is needed. Actually, a larger setup is even better, since in a smaller one they still sometimes seem stressed. Use clean substrate, as contamination could cause bacterial infection when they dig. A mix of sterile soil and sterile bark was used at first, later switched to fresh sphagnum moss. Avoid compressed, preservative-laden moss from florists. For plants, a few bird’s-nest ferns planted still in their pots into the substrate look nice and are easy to maintain. A few pieces of driftwood and large pebbles form retreats they enjoy. Live, hardy aquatic plants and a few small fish (to test water quality) go in the water section, with a biological filter to reduce water changes. Lighting is a 40 W plant-growth fluorescent tube, suitable for slow plant growth without being too bright.

4 Feeding Requirements

The tomato frog is named for its bright red, tomato-like appearance. In captivity, besides a proper environment, nutritionally balanced food is very important.

It is an ambush hunter that waits rather than foraging, snatching insects that pass by. It can be trained to take food held with tweezers, but eats only insects, grubs and worms—never anything else. Crickets are the usual staple. In summer, wild-caught grasshoppers and moths are a treat. Dust crickets with calcium and vitamin powder before feeding, though not at every meal. Adults can be fed every other day; if not twezer-fed, watch until the cricket is eaten before leaving. Never leave crickets with the frog overnight, as their sharp mandibles can bite the frog’s skin and cause infection—remove any uneaten crickets.

When crickets are unavailable, superworms can be offered; they are easier to buy than crickets in the local market but should not be fed long-term, as their exoskeletons are hard to digest. Juveniles cannot eat adult or subadult crickets, and flightless fruit flies are not available locally, so flour beetle larvae must be used. Like superworms, flour beetle larvae have tough shells, but they molt frequently; freshly molted, pale, soft individuals are easy to digest and rich in calcium and phosphorus, ideal for small juveniles—though you must maintain a culture and pick out the freshly molted ones daily. After several molts the larvae pupate and can no longer be used, requiring a fresh purchase.