Critter Tank

[paulypaul182]

Im thinking of starting a critter tank for the future. I really like crustaceans and would love a red claw crab or two...or even a crayfish. What I would like to know is, can I keep anything else other than fish with crab or crayfish? If I start another tank up, I would like more than one species in there and no fish. I like shrimp but would want more from the tank than just shrimp. Id even be interested in different species of amphibians.
Also, if I bought an internal filter for that tank, can I just drop the filter media (most likely a sponge) into my current cycled tank for a few months? Would that sponge then be cycled?
The other option in the second tank would be Dwarf puffers but I have been put off by suggestions that I really need two filters for them. Electric costs will be a concern so critters or amphibs that require no heater could also be considered.
I really dont want turtles. I heard these fellas are hard to keep and also carry bad germs and I have a one year old.

Any advice?

 

[Shrimper]

The only legal crayfish you can get in the uk (Cherax quadricarinatus) will eat anything it can catch that is small enough like shrimp, small fish and crabs so should really live in a species tank or with bigger peaceful fish.

Red claw crabs require some land and i think brackish water too so you'll need to take that into consideration, apart from that i don't know much about them

Unfortunatly most things eat dwarf shrimp given a chance so they are really only ok with other shrimp and small fish... If you go with the dwarf puffers you can probably keep some Amano shrimp with them without any problems.

Another critter to consider would be an Axalotl, but i think they need a species tank too.

The filter idea should work or you can just move some of the old sponges to the new tank when you are ready for stock replacing them with some new sponge. The bacteria will colonise the extra sponges quickly.

 

[paulypaul182]

Thanks for your reply. So Im basically looking at a species tank then? I dont like the idea of brackish water but building a land/water environemnt is appealling. Do you know of any freshwater crab or am I looking at brackish or marine for all crab?
Axalotl look interesting so ill read up on them. Ive always liked the crayfish we get over here so Ill look into them as well.
What about Aquatic Dwarf Frogs? Can these be kept with other critters?

It seems all the unusual or interesting fish, crustys and amphibs need to be kept with their own species or completely on their own which kind of sucks.

My filter only contains two small sponges. Also, its a sicce which not many stores seel. The sponges are a strange shape compared to other filter sponges so I either have to source another sicce filter or drop sponge in for a couple of months from a new filter.