Later, as a married adult, I decided to keep pet frogs again, starting with red-eyed tree frogs. Stunning in photos — but that's where the appeal ended. Many tree frogs are still collected from the wild and often arrive diseased. Even captive-bred ones are nocturnal, hiding all day and noisy at night. My wife complained, I tried beach towels and timed lights, and eventually gave up.

Next I tried dart frogs, starting with Dendrobates leucomelas — the classic beginner dart. Interesting, but limited to 3–4 per 75-gallon tank due to aggression, with constant misting maintenance, and they mostly hide except at feeding time.

So I came back to fire-bellies. Yes, I just called them both a frog and a toad in the same paragraph. I remembered how easy and enjoyable they were. I set up a tank and fell right back in love. Filtration means less frequent water changes. They're active during the day. They have distinct personalities and will sometimes eat directly from my hand. Drop crickets or fruit flies in and the whole aquarium erupts. You can keep several together as long as they're similar size, well-fed, and well-filtered.

My young son Waylon loves them too — and that's what inspired me to start this mail-order business specializing in fire-bellied toads.