Natural History
The Chinese fire bellied toad also known as Bombina orientalis is one of 6 members of the genus Bombina. It is found at 1700-3000 m above sea level in southeastern Siberia, northeastern China and Korea. It spends most of the time floating or swimming in ponds and streams. They will grow to a size of 5-6 cm. They are green or brown with black spots and patches, except for the ventral region that is red and black.
Description
One major problem is distinguishing males from females. Males generally have rougher backs and their forearms are thicker than the females. These minor differences make them almost identical except during the breeding season, when males have black horny marital pads on their fingers and forearms. One way of telling which frogs are male and which are female is to observe the behavior of the frogs. Whenever a frog tries to jump on the back of another frog and use the arms to grasp it, it's definitely a male.
English: Reptiles of National Zoo in Washington, D...
An Oriental fire-bellied toad, Bombina orientalis,...
English: Fire-bellied toad (Bombina orientalis) at...If the male isn't rejected immediately, there is a good chance that the second frog is a female and that she is even prepared to breed. If the frogs haven't yet reached sexual maturity, there's no easy way to make sure that you have got both males and females.
Housing
A group of 5-6 Bombina orientalis can be kept in a 20 gal. aquarium with about 10 cm of water. Using fine gravel or sand will make it a lot easier to remove the eggs when the frogs start breeding. 1/4 of the surface should be kept 'dry' and will primarily be used as a feeding area. Put lots of floating plants in the aquarium and the frogs are going to spend a lot of time floating among these. You should keep...