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Paludarium
Nick wrote:
>>...Could you tell me how you did this? Is it your own setup or a kit? I
see a new item called a "River Tank" is now being advertised. Are you
using something like this, or is your setup similar?
What plants are you using? Do you have any emersed aquatics? Do you have
any bog plants or terrestrials?
What animals do you have in the paludarium? Just fish, or other things.
I am thinking of a combination of various plants (emersed, bog and
terrestrial), fish, amphibians, and invertebrates.<<
This is another DIY job. I aquarium sealed two pieces of glass diagonally in the
back of a 20g extra high tank. They go about half way up, one is shorter than
the other. I haven't reall done as much with this tank as I intended and it
isn't one of my better tanks. The terrestrial plants are doing great. I use easy
plants though, Philodenrons. I also used in a different setup, a plant sold as
an umberella tree (not to be confused with Papyrus types). Actually I am
planning on making a large system like this in the future. I plan to run
aquarium water through gravel filled with hydroponicaly grown houseplants behind
the tank. As for aquatics I'm planning on trying emersed and bogs but am waiting
to get the big tank. I also like large floaters which need air space also like
water hyacinths and water lettuce. I'm planning on using some carnivourus plants
in my final setup also.
My current paludarium has 3 Australian and 2 Celebes rainbows. As to mixing
fish and amphibians, I have kept a number of different amphibians in the past
and I would be careful in mixing them. Little fish will be eaten by your
amphibians who will be harrased by large fish. If you choose tank mates
carefully it may be possible. Also amphibians tend to be much messier than fish
so you'll need a very large tank and good filtration. They are also often hard
on plants and kind of a nusiance to feed as most don't eat anything but live
food. Newts will eat feeder guppies with relish. I actually like freshwater
inverts but there aren't too many to be found. Once again you need to be careful
because larger inverts like craw dads (sold as freshwater lobsters) will eat
small and medium fish and small ones like ghost shrimp will be eaten by medium
and large fish.
As for the river tanks they look nice in the ads but I've seen one in real life
and was not as impressed. I think it's a great idea but plastic pretty much
looks like plastic and that's what they looked like to me. Obviously this is
just my opinion, I don't find them offensive just not to my taste. If you want
some more paludarium info ask Karen Randall who posts here also. She has a real
nice paludarium. Hope this hasn't been to long and dull for other list members
if so I can E-mail answers in the future.
Rhonda