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My soon to be 9 year old has a budding interest in frogs and other small creatures, and I'm considering getting him something for his birthday. What would be a good beginning choice? I would be involved, of course! I'm looking at red bellied toads or newts, common toads (the LFS has some small ones), anoles, and am open to your suggestions. I've got a small (5gallon) tank to start, so that may limit my choices.

You could get an ACF for him if you could upgrade the tank to 10g or bigger in the next 5 months

ADF's are nice too...they stay really small and would be great for a 5g

EDIT: typo

[span class="edited"][Edited by Pancake 2004-08-06 14:40][/span]

newts would be a wonderful start for any child, there is a few things to remember though before purchasing them.
1. they try and do escape, a tight fitting (mesh) lid is a must. if they get out put them back in a soon as possible, or they dry out and smell really bad...
2. they need both swimming room and several areas of dry land for them to bask, fortunately they do not need any special basking lighting to do this.
3. they need several types or food to be healthy, a mix of pellets works best.
4. they are Not a playable pet, much like fish they have a slime coat, if removed the newt can get seriously sick or worse.
The newts can be mixed with the toads as they are similar, they have the same living condition needs, however in such a small tank i would strongly recommend no more than 2 inhabitants.

Crabs would also go great in there, much like the newts and frogs they need both dry and wet areas, they eat the pellets and *gasp* dead fish, so if you have a floater in another tank give it to them, saves a bundle on food that way. Gold claw fiddlers were my fav, in a 5gal 1 male and up to 3 females could live nicely.
set up for any of these would be easy, Id use a fluval and a lot of gravel, a couple of rocks and your done.

Anoles in that tank would be kind of tricky, though do-able, they like to walk over the glass, and in a small tank like that, they'll have an easy time of walking right out of the tank when the lid is lifted for feeding or changing bowls and substrate.
Any lizard you could get would need the following,
1. a basking light, essential as they are cold blooded and need a warmer area to digest, in a 5 gal I would suggest a tight beam as a regular basking light would cause too much of the tank to warm up, and there would be no warm spot for him to cool down.
2. uv lighting, for the life of me I can't remember what it is for but important none the less.
Have you considered a leopard or tiger gecko, a young on will be able to live in there for a few years before a 15 gal would be needed, plus they only need the basking light, and are friendly and easy to take care of, though you can't pick them up by the tail or it falls off (found that out the hard way)
Check to see what type of substrate each need as some are sand and others are mosses, other that they all need to be misted down at least twice daily.

Hope my rant helps a bit, let us know what you decide.

I have a common toad. He is in a 10g, which has sand, in one end I have buried a tupperware container for his pond. It is on of those sandwich like ones, but twice as long, and fit perfectly lengthwise in the width of the 10g's end. I gave him a sand substrate, I tried dirt, that didnt work so well. The toad is happy, growing, and gets few 8-10 large crickets every 2-3 days.
Common toads, if you mean western striped toad that is, do grow very large over time. A 5g would be ok for a baby, but in a year or two maybe 3, depending on how fast yours grew, it would need a 10g. Once I move into a place of my own (renting sucks), I will be giving this toad a 25 long or 33 long tank. Toads can live a long long time in captivity, like 35 years was the record, but average is 20 years or more, so plan for that.
ACF - Pancake, ACF is African Clawed Frog. I have seen these guys in pet stores in sizes that Im sure could easily take down my toad as a snack! These frogs get very large, and if Im not mistaken, do require feeder fish as food. A friend of my sisters has one in his 55g tank that is roughly the size of a large softball. They would definetly need a much larger environment very fast.
ADF- African DWARF frogs would be a good choice! Fill the 5g almost to the top, with a lid of any kind would be fine, light or no is OK. These guys would need a filter, though a cheap mediocre one like a Aquaclear mini would do you just fine. These guys love their worms, eat everything, and swim really neat. You could probably put 4 in there, and hope for little tadpoles! A male has a "pimple" in his front armpit and females are shaped like pears!
Red belly toads could be done, I think 2 would be fine, or a toad and a newt, as Ed said. You do need a filter. Best bet would be to stack up rocks large or small on one side, add on of those corner filters, and fill the tank 1/3rd full of water.
These animals would likely take a reptile food that is already prepared, as they are bred in captivity. They would like the supplement of mealworms and crickets im sure.
If an animal you choose needs live food, try to find someone local who breeds the crickets. I get mine 100 for 5 bucks or 1000 for 20. Much better than buying them in the pet store and they are bigger and healthier too.


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Whoops...my bad... I meant ADF on the 2nd line of that post...

I know ACF's get big...I have 2 of them...they're both full grown and eat anything they can get into their mouths

BTW you don't need to give ACF's feeders