Cranwelli jewel horn frog "peppermint blue" - Ceratophrys cranwelli

The peppermint blue colored pacman frog Ceratophrys cranwelli is has dark brown markings and a minty blue-green base color. The Peppermint Blue Pacman Frog displays a truly whimsical body shape, a large mouth, and two horns made of skin flaps above the eyes. Cranwell's Jewel Horned Fro g from the South American rainforest also stands out for its beautiful and intense colors.

Female Cranwell's Jewel Horned Frogs can reach a body length of up to 22 cm, while the males remain slightly smaller, but are still very impressive.

The peppermint blue colored pacman frog shows itself as a territorial loner, which does not tolerate conspecifics around it in the terrarium and simply eats smaller colleagues. Fights usually end badly - so please keep only individually in the species terrarium and also do not socialize with other terrarium animals. The horned frog eats smaller reptiles and amphibians, large reptiles on the other hand like to see it as prey or stress the frog strongly.

Despite the really enormous size the peppermint blue colored pacman frog can reach, the very calm fellow is satisfied with a relatively small terrarium: 60 x 30 x 30 cm are sufficient as a minimum requirement for the terrarium. The rather very chill Pacman frogs are ambush hunters. They half burrow into the substrate and squat all day in one spot, lurking for prey.

The pacman frog is an avowed non-swimmer and may even drown in deep water. Therefore, it only needs a shallow water dish as a bathing spot in the terrarium. Because the Pacman frog does not go to plants, but is a pure carnivore, it is possible to plant the terrarium rainforest-like well. The decorative horned frog likes to use roots and other shelters. The substrate in a terrarium with the South American ornamental horned frog should be suitable for burrowing and accordingly loose and absorbent. Suitable are coco humus or leaf litter. A terrarium heater is not needed if the room temperature is suitable. A planted rainforest terrarium for the peppermint blue pacman frog should be lit appropriately to meet the needs of the plants.

As a rainforest dweller, the peppermint blue colored pacman frog must receive a high humidity of 70-90% in its terrarium. The daytime temperature is 22-28 °C, the night temperature should be 20-22 degrees. In winter, the frog needs cooler temperatures for hibernation: 15 °C is sufficient here. Also, the lighting time is reduced accordingly to a short day.

Jewel-horned frogs manage amazingly large prey in their natural habitats with their wide mouths, such as medium-sized rats! Their diet also includes other small mammals, amphibians and reptiles, worms, ants and other insects, and more. In the terrarium, feed the voracious peppermint blue colored ornamental horned frog with frozen food and live food, which it will even take from tweezers after a bit of habituation. Pacman frogs have different food preferences. Whether the frog likes crickets, grasshoppers or cockroaches, now and then an earthworm or other worms and for a change a small frost mouse or thawed smelts, you have to try it out. However, enriching the food animals for the peppermint blue pacman frog with lime powder and a vitamin supplement is always a good idea.

A small peppermint blue pacman frog up to about the size of a 2 euro piece is fed every other day, as it grows in size it is only due food every 3-4 days. Beware, jewel horn frogs can bite. Their teeth are quite noticeable, especially on larger frogs!

Peppermint blue pacman frogs are absolutely not easy to breed in the hobby. The female is cannibalistic and will sometimes just eat the smaller male. Jewel horn frogs are also not easy to get into a mating mood. Some specimens do not respond to seasonal simulations, they then need hormone treatment to get into mating mood. To stimulate pacman frogs to mate, they must first go through a winter dormancy period - this involves lowering the air temperature to 15 °C, largely stopping humidification, and switching lighting to short day. After the dormancy period, the temperatures are increased again, the lighting is switched to long day and the terrarium is irrigated more strongly again. Feed the frogs well with high quality food. If the mating is successful, the eggs are laid. Here hatch strongly cannibalistic tadpoles, which are not easy to raise.