Setting up a Paludarium

With the plants doing well and the tank now cycled with the Zebra danios I decided it was time for some other types of inhabitants. I Am new to this and will choose common easy to care for species to start. I also will have a mix match of biotopes. In the future as I gain experience I hope to make a true to nature cross section of an environment. For now it will be a learning curve for me. These are my starter animals and I'm sure I will be adding and deleting some. I will start with a copy of my planting scheme to show the general layout of the setup and why I hope each particular animal will do well.

Terrestrial Animals

Green Anole Scientific Name: Anoles carolinensis
Copyright January 02, 1997, Texas Parks and Wildlife	Common name:	Anole, Green Anole
	Average Size:	Five to eight inches
	Temperature:	Daytime temperature 75º - 90º. Nighttime temperature 60º - 70º.
	Origin:	Common in the southeastern U.S.
	Habitat:	Requires greenery, occassional shade and a moist environment.
	Temperament:	Males rarely tolerate other males within their visual range
	Food:	A diet consisting of a variety of vitamin/calcium dusted insects such as: Crickets Mealworms Waxworms Other worms that may be included in their diet include: Earthworms, Red wigglers and Butterworms

White's Tree Frog Scientific Name: Litoria caerula
	Common name:	White's Tree Frog
	Average Size:	Three to four inches
	Temperature:	Daytime temperature 76º - 84º. Nighttime temperature 70º - 75º.
	Origin:	North & Eastern Australia, New Guinea and parts of Indonesia.
	Habitat:	Requires greenery, occassional shade and a moist environment.
	Temperament:	Usually quite docile and shy
	Food:	A diet consisting of a variety of vitamin/calcium dusted insects such as: Crickets Mealworms Waxworms Other worms that may be included in their diet include: Earthworms, Red wigglers and Butterworms

Green Tree Frog Scientific Name: Hyla cinerea
	Common name:	Green Tree Frog
	Average Size:	Up to about 2 1/2 inches.
	Temperature:	Daytime temperature 68º - 77º. Nighttime temperature 60º - 70º.
	Origin:	Common in the southeastern U.S.
	Habitat:	Requires greenery, occassional shade and a moist environment.
	Temperament:	Males rarely tolerate other males within their visual range
	Food:	A diet consisting of a variety of vitamin/calcium dusted insects such as: Crickets Mealworms Waxworms Other worms that may be included in their diet include: Earthworms, Red wigglers and Butterworms

Aquatic animals

Semi Aquatic Animals

ROUGHSKIN NEWT Scientific Name: Taricha granulosa
photos by: Dr. Robert Thomas and Margaret Orr, Jens V. Vindum California Academy of Sciences.	Common name:	roughskin newt, Oregon newt.
	Average Size:	six to seven inches long.
	Temperature:	lower 70s.
	Origin:	American Pacific Northwest
	Temperament:	Oregon Newts will eat smaller newts, but can be safely housed with other newts their own size.
	Habitat:	Semi-terrestrial, with land area and several inches of water. For a large part of the year, they live in burrows at the edge of ponds or stream preferring slow-moving water with a lot of vegetation. the land area should be lined with moss or leaf litter, and should misted daily to keep it damp.
	Food:	worms, small fish, frog eggs, tadpole, tubifex worms, insects, small earthworms, small fish and sinking fish food pellets.

FIRE BELLY TOAD Scientific Name: Bombina orientalis
Being new to all of this I purchased these toads because I thought they were really nice looking. I ask the person at the pet store if these were good for my set up. Of course I was told they were. What was not mentioned was that they secrete a toxin into the areas they inhabit that will make other frog species ill. I did not wish to limit myself to this species or have toxins in my water. I have moved them into another set up I made with spare parts. You can Click here for frogs to see pictures and what I used for their set up
photo by: Boris I. Timofeev	Common name:	Fire belly toad
	Average Size:	Two to two and a half inches
	Temperature:	Between 72 and 78 degrees. The humidity for these toads should be kept at or near 80 percent.
	Origin:	North-eastern China and Korea
	Temperament:	Generally get along well with each other and other frogs. They may eat smaller frogs, newts, or fish.
	Habitat:	Three to four inches of water and a couple of rocks or floating things to rest on. Must have a lid because they can climb out. Substrate: Gravel is fine on the bottom. If there is a lot of land area, moss woks well.
	Food:	Crickets, earthworms, waxworms, fish, and mealworms.

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Your comments:

From: Jen
Date:4/27/2006

Hi, My husband and I setup a 55gal paludarium a few years ago. We used plexiglas much as you used lexi. A heat gun worked great for shaping it. We have an interesting setup for filteration. On one side of the tank we placed an undergravel plate with the upright tube. We then modified our fluval 204(we no have a 304)to draw from that side, directing the outflow through a hose running the length of the tank, resulting in a waterfall effect over the rocks we have in place. It works well and provides excellent water flow, in addition to having the benefits of a canister filter. We were fortunate in that our choice of animals ended up being compatible (except for a betta!) We currently (well, until recently) have firebelly toads, firebelly newts, platys and a red-clawed crab. We had two fiddler crabs before and watched very carefully for any aggression towards the other denizens. No problems and the tank condition was good enough that the female got pregnant 3 times. And the platys breed like rabbits. They've had enough babies that we had to set up a smaller fish tank for them until they are large enough to put in our 50gal aquarium. We have previously had both types of firebelly newts. Interestingly enough, our Japanese newts seem to prefer the land. We keep the land misted and they are active and eat the crickets that we drop in, along with newt bites. The 'until recently' is due to an 'invasion of the cats'; The tank has/had a glass lid on one side and a modified reptile-tank screen on the other. Apparently, my cats decided that jumping onto the screen was great fun, thereby mangling it beyond repair. This has resulted in my newts & crab escaping and my toads being traumatized. The platys, however, are still breeding like rabbits. As we essentially have to start the 'stocking' process over, I am glad I found your site. Along with finding a few possible modifications to my tank, I have found your list of possible occupants helpful. I obviously will need to relocate the toads (those which survived), but I am really looking forward to a new 'look'. Great site! Jen Osburn

From: Jason
Date:12/28/2002

Hello, I have a 135 gallon aquarium that I made into a paludarium almost 2 years ago. I am soon going to re-do the whole set up with more land area with more plants and such, and I found your site helpful in making up a plan. I currently have 1 firebellied toad and 7 frogs that I caught myself here, outside of Cincinnati. I knew that the toad has toxins, but I've never had any problems with my other frogs getting sick from it since the water in my paludarium is constantly circulated by my filter. One thing I found helpful was to have small feeder guppies. The guppies reproduce fine in my water and they serve as another food source for my frogs. I have also found that small hermit crabs live well in my paludarium, I currently have 2. The hermit crabs are very docile and don't bother any of my frogs or my Bahamian anole. With hermit crabs, you just have to make sure there are extra shells they can move into if necessary. African dwarf frogs also do very well in my paludarium. They are small frogs that are full aquatic. They are easy to take care of and just eat fish food. You have to make sure you get African dwarf frogs though, they only get about an inch and a half at the biggest. You don't want to get an African clawed frog, they grow quite large and will eat your fish when they are big enough. African clawed frogs look very similar to African dwarf frogs, especially when they are young. I thought that the fiddler crabs that are found in about every pet store would make a good addition to my paludarium, but I found that these crabs can sometime be a little aggressive and will eat your fish if they can. I hope that some of this will be helpful to you, thanks for the set-up ideas. - Jason

QUICK LINKS
The Paludarium	The equipment	Construction	Finishing touches
	Cost	Flora

Setting up an Paludarium

The inhabitants

Terrestrial Animals

Green Anole

White's Tree Frog

Green Tree Frog

Aquatic animals

Zebra danio

Betta

Semi Aquatic Animals

ROUGHSKIN NEWT

FIRE BELLY TOAD

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Your comments: