Should I Make a Paludarium or an Aquarium?

[cutechic]

So what shall it be. . . a paludarium or an aquarium?

 

[steve-0]

whats a paludarium?

 

[cutechic]

a paludarium is where there is both land and water in the same tank. one could keep both fish and animals that live primarily on the ground, such as newts or frogs.

 

[CFC]

A paludarium would be cool,you could make the water slightly brackish and keep mudskippers crabs and archerfish (as well as other brackish fish),by having the section of land you could feed crickets (the ones they sell for reptile food) and watch the archers shoot them into the water and the mudskippers will go out on land and hunt them,of course it would need a lid to stop the crickets escaping.

 

[EddieW]

Why not both?

 

[Jamnog]

i cant remeber what it was but its different for reptiles terarium perhaps.. well anyway thats what i did i had a section of glass in there and kept a patch of land and made a ramp not really the same but it did have a patch of land. i havent recomended anything becuase im not shure what ure planning on keeping in it. how do you plan to arrange the land part? i thaught id mention it as its difficult to stop the land getting too wet to support even marsh plants. good fun to own tho good luck what ever you choose.

 

[Calusa]

but you could silicone a piece of glass in to prevent leaks...

 

[cichlid_freak]

I think the best way to do a plaudarium is to use a course substrate to build the general shape and slope of the land areas, and then cover with sand or crushed coral. I have been planning out a mudskipper tank. I have given up on making one with live Mangroves, because of how high they grow. I hope to have about 6-7" of water with a 1" substrate building to 7-8" tall. That will give me about 5" clearance to put in some "vines" and "branches" for the crickets to crawl on and be shot off by the archer fish. This will have several "islands" and that means several muddies. I don't want too many crabs, maybe 2 or 3. This will be in a 40 gal. breeder. I hope to be able to get 3 archers and 5 muddies in there. I will use some broken lava rock to make the general form of the "islands," and use a mix of crushed coral and play sand as the substrate. This will hopefully prevent anaerobic spots, and raise the pH and gH. Eventually, I want to buy a mist machine, and that will allow me to put a screen lid on it and retain some humidity. Then, I can increase the level of the land to almost the top of the tank, and build a "cage" lid that maybe is another foot tall. Then, I can have live mangroves. But, that will have to wait.

 

[cutechic]

im not sure what im going to put in the paludarium. if thats wat i decide to make. making a paludarium seems sort of complicated though, especially for someone (like me) who hasnt had a lot of experience with aquariums.

 

[Pufferpack]

Check out Badmans Tropical Fish. It is a good article on setting up different types of systems.
I have been toying with the idea of a paludarium with a system of rocks piled on one end with the filter spilling water down the rocks like a waterfall..I think it would look great and be good for mudskippers etc., but I still have to try and sell the couch before I can get another tank into the house.

 

[William]

Crabs are great escape artists and may develop a taste for fish so watch out with them A paludarium is certainly different and could be really cool, its your choice ultimately but both ideas are good, let us know which one you go for and what you plan on stocking