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re: paludarium

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 11:06:07 +0000
From: Glen Osterhout <gleno at gw_pps.com>
Reply-To: gleno at gw_pps.com
To: Aquatic-Plants at ActWin_com
Subject: Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V2 #276

> From: olga at arts_ubc.ca
> Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 11:53:31 -0700
> Subject: Paludarium
> 
> I'm going to be setting up a paludarium in the next few weeks. Karen
> Randall has answered some questions for me and been very helpful. I'd
> appreciate hearing from others on this digest who have set one up and have
> had some experience with them. Ideas of design, lighting, plants, fish etc.
> would be interesting. Not that I want to copy someone else just avoid
> pitfalls that someone else has already gone through.

I have had a paludarium set up for something over a year now.  I took a 
120 gallon tank and put a divider in it about 1/3 from one end.  The
larger
section is a planted tank with fish,  and the smaller section is the 
paludarium.  Since I circulate water between the two sections,  one of
the 
basic problems with most paludariums is avoided:  the amount of water is 
usually too small to support very many fish or amphibians without
getting 
polluted.  The water in my paludarium section is about 4 inches deep, 
and 
I have it stocked with some dwarf cichlids (N. anomala),  splash tetras 
(Copeina guttata), firebelly newts, common newts, dwarf African frogs,
and 
a red crab.  I have a jungle of pothos, and emersed Java fern with a few
other random plants scattered about. It is covered with a piece of
glass, so it is
a very high humidity environment.  I try to keep the room temperature
fairly
close to the tank temperature (I like it warm anyway),  otherwise
condensation
is a big problem.  Lighting is 2 cheap shop lights,  half of which
extend
over the paludarium section.  There isn't much "land" for the newts or
crab,  
but the plant growth (esp. the pothos) is so heavy that they can easily
climb 
out on the leaves.

> As well as fish I was thinking of keeping a frog in it. Anyone have any
> ideas, pros and cons on this idea? Are small turtles feasible? How about
> newts?

Any frogs other than dwarf Africans will be major predators,  and will
not be
compatible with small fish.  The same goes for turtles,  which will also
wreck
your plants.  Newts are very well suited, and the red crab, though shy,
is
an interesting novelty.  

Good luck with your plans!

Glen Osterhout