Thinking of setting up a Terrium (Paludarium)?

[JLAudio]

Ive had a nice Paludarium (basically terrarium with land animals, fish, plants etc.)

Im going to need a tank with good height so I can get good branching where I could have lizards, tree frogs etc. As well want a good amount of water on the bottom for fish, frogs, small turtles etc.

I currently have a 36 corner that I was contemplating using my thought is if I could remove the rim and build the top up so its like 6 feet high, with plywood on the back and glass on the front with a door so I can access tank.

I would prefer to use a tank thats already made but its hard to find one high enough and made for this with enough size

My questions are pertaining to lighting? Im contemplating a 250 pendent, this will allow me to get some nice plants and have the water part with plants

and to filtration? The hard thing about filtration is that canisters clog quikly because of plant life in the water

 

[jejton]

You have to be careful about mixing different species of reptiles and/or amphibians. Unless they are researched and selected carefully, and provided adequate space, you will end up with diseased, stressed and dead/eaten animals. Keeping reptiles and amphibians is not like keeping fish where you can mix and match. Best make it species specific and once you decide what you want, you can add the water feature with fish. Just realize that many of them will eat fish too.

 

[JLAudio]

You have to be careful about mixing different species of reptiles and/or amphibians. Unless they are researched and selected carefully, and provided adequate space, you will end up with diseased, stressed and dead/eaten animals. Keeping reptiles and amphibians is not like keeping fish where you can mix and match. Best make it species specific and once you decide what you want, you can add the water feature with fish. Just realize that many of them will eat fish too.

Really good point. Previously when I had a paludarium I was researching animal compatibility and I would definitly look into that before putting any animals in. I am in stage I of planning so that is a long time away. I will definitly do some serious research before putting animals together.

 

[jejton]

Hit me up when you got more ideas as I've keeping reptiles and amphibians for years and can help you out with advice. The most important things to work out ( just like with fish ) first is what you want to keep and how much room you have to work with, and budget of course. I would advise that you stick with one terrestrial/arboreal species and a water area with some small, hardy fish like guppies and/or siamese fighting fish so you dont need to go with any fancy filitration. Whats great is that you have more options for plants as you can use true aquatics, marginals ( which are what most of the plants sold as aquarium plants really are ) and terrestrials. Check out dendroboard.com and the yahoo group naturalistic vivariums for more ideas.

 

[JLAudio]

Hit me up when you got more ideas as I've keeping reptiles and amphibians for years and can help you out with advice. The most important things to work out ( just like with fish ) first is what you want to keep and how much room you have to work with, and budget of course. I would advise that you stick with one terrestrial/arboreal species and a water area with some small, hardy fish like guppies and/or siamese fighting fish so you dont need to go with any fancy filitration. Whats great is that you have more options for plants as you can use true aquatics, marginals ( which are what most of the plants sold as aquarium plants really are ) and terrestrials. Check out dendroboard.com and the yahoo group naturalistic vivariums for more ideas.

I will definitly take you up on your offer when I get to the stocking part. My last attempt at this I had a day gecko, common gecko (listed as such when purchased) red eye tree frog, on land. And 2 baby turtles and bunch of extremely hard danios, tetras, etc. They seemed to live in harmony but I had to sell after only a few months due to a moving situation.

What size tank would you recommend and lighting?

You think a MH pendent above all would be good for aquatic plants aswell terrestrial ones? and keep temp up.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Reptile Show September 7th in white plains!

reptileexpo.com.

 

[jejton]

MH would be fine but monitor temp closely. The biggest problem with mixing most reptiles with most amphibians is temp requirements. Amphibians, even PDF, tend to need a little cooler than most reptiles, who also need a hotter basking spot in addition. Many people use CF and T5's for for vivariums as they are good for the plants without getting too hot. If you are keeping anything that needs a basking spot - like day geckos - you can use a regular incandescant over one area. If you have a large enough tank you might get away with the mix as you can have a basking spot and still have a large enough gradient for your amphibians to stay cooler. One mix that can work is poison darts, leucs or tincs, with mourning geckos. They are small, brownish geckos that eat fruit flies and are parthogenic which is really cool. Being that they are very small and eat the ff's you shoudlnt have problems. I have four leucs with one of them in a 29 gallon that has 6" devoted to a water feature but no fish. Determine what you want to keep. Turtles will eat anything they can catch so are best for a species tank. I used to keep green tree frogs with anoles once upon a time. If you have a 55 gallon tank, you can portion of one end for water, and then keep a trio ( 1 male, 2 females ) of anoles and a small group of tree frogs very comfortably.

 

[JLAudio]

Reptile Show September 7th in white plains!

reptileexpo.com.

Ill be there. My brother is in the business and currently breeding tree pythons so I always get dragged to these but now I can actually buy some stuff, so probably be a little more enjoyable. The last one I went to was in Pennsylvania, and with their lack of laws they were sell crocs, cobras, vipers EVERYTHING!

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

I would love to see a croc up close and maybe even handle one but the venomous species I am not too happy with otherwise I would head to the show in Hamburg PA on Aug 2.

 

[jejton]

Hey maybe your brother wants to put a tree python on the DBTC?

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Any experience with Pacman frogs?

 

[REEF MANIA]

I had one chief it ate my other frogs it got huge big as a dinner dish. I kept it in a 110 gallon tank with other frogs. Never gets full. Cool to watch him eat other frog and lizards.

 

[JLAudio]

I would love to see a croc up close and maybe even handle one but the venomous species I am not too happy with otherwise I would head to the show in Hamburg PA on Aug 2.

Its a bit of a drive, but worth the drive, crocs are being sold like their clown fish, and cobras and everything you could imagine are there. You could definitly handle some baby crocs there

 

[JLAudio]

Hey maybe your brother wants to put a tree python on the DBTC?

Whats is the DBTC?

And he is still in the early stages of thsi and trying to get his pair to mate. There seems to be a lot that goes into it and it not as easy as other species, but its apparently pretty lucrative if he can get a good batch.

Thats gives me an idea, maybe a baby tree python for Paludarium