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AmphibianTerrestrialEasy
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Chacoan Horned Frog (Pacman Frog)
Ceratophrys cranwelli
The 'Pacman'. Essentially a giant mouth with legs attached. Massive, extraordinarily voracious, and utterly sedentary terrestrial frogs. Available in dozens of colorful morphs.
Class:Amphibia
Order:Anura
Family:Ceratophryidae
Subfamily:Ceratophryinae
Genus:Ceratophrys
Species:Ceratophrys cranwelli
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Environment
Terrestrial
Humidity
60 - 80 %
Day temperature
24 - 29 °C
Night temperature
21 - 24 °C
UVB
Low
Species description
Geographical Origin and Habitat: Endemic to the semi-arid Gran Chaco region spanning Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil. Inhabits dry savannas, scrub forests, and temporary ponds, spending dry periods burrowed underground in a cocoon to prevent dehydration.
Taxonomy and Genetics: Plump, round amphibian characterized by a disproportionately large head and an extremely wide mouth. Features small, fleshy horns above the eyes. Captive breeding has produced numerous vibrant color morphs.
Behavior and Habits: Strictly terrestrial, fossorial, and sedentary. An ambush predator that spends most of its life buried in the substrate with only its eyes exposed. Walks or crawls rather than hops.
Morphology: Females are significantly larger and heavier, reaching 10-15 cm in length. Males are smaller, have a darker throat, and develop nuptial pads on their thumbs during the breeding season.
Care, breeding and tankmates
Terrarium Setup: Requires a horizontal terrestrial terrarium (minimum 60x45x30 cm). The substrate must be deep and loose (coco coir, peat moss, or sphagnum) to allow complete burrowing. Avoid sharp decorations and provide a very shallow water dish to prevent drowning.
Lighting and Heating: Warm climate. Daytime temperature should be kept at 26-28°C using an overhead heating element. Do not use under-tank heating pads, as burrowing frogs can easily overheat and burn. Provide a night drop to 20-22°C. A 5% UVB light is highly recommended.
Humidity and Hydration: Maintain relative humidity around 60-70%. The substrate should be kept damp like a wrung-out sponge, never waterlogged or muddy, to prevent skin rot. Mist daily using dechlorinated water.
Feeding and Supplementation: Highly voracious predator. Feeds on crickets, roaches, earthworms, and occasionally feeder fish or pinky mice. Feed using tongs to prevent substrate ingestion (impaction). Dust prey items with calcium and D3 supplements twice a week.
Compatibility: Strictly solitary. Highly cannibalistic; never house multiple specimens together, even if they are of similar size.
Health and Common Diseases: Generally hardy. Vulnerable to metabolic bone disease (MBD) due to poor supplementation, intestinal impaction from swallowing substrate, and bacterial skin infections (Red Leg) from dirty conditions.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Endemic to the semi-arid Gran Chaco region spanning Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil. Inhabits dry savannas, scrub forests, and temporary ponds, spending dry periods burrowed underground in a cocoon to prevent dehydration.
Origin
Selective breeding and cultivarsExtra-Amazon South AmericaNorth America
Amphibian profile
- Diet
- No verified data available
- Life expectancy
- No verified data available
- Adult size
- 15.8 cm
- Lifestyle/Microhabitat
- No verified data available
- Activity cycle
- No verified data available
- Sociality
- No verified data available
- Reproduction
- No verified data available
- Toxicity
- No verified data available
- Life stage
- No verified data available
- Handling tolerance
- No verified data available
- Brumation
- No verified data available
- Molting
- No verified data available
The catalog's scalar value is 15.8 cm. The AmphiBIO v1 source reports a maximum adult measurement of 15.8 cm for this species, recorded as snout–vent length (SVL). These figures are not interchangeable: the first is the profile's editorial reference, whereas the second is a published maximum under a specific measurement convention; differences among sources can reflect sex, population, life stage and measuring method.
Image gallery
Licensed images linked to the species or, when marked, to the closest representative taxon.
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