Aquarium/Terrarium Combo Question.

[Caufenkamp]

Hey!

I am a newbie here, have owned my fish for a good while. Sadly, while I was away, the person who was watching the fish did a terrible job. The fish Died.

That got me thinking if I wanted to get more fish or not. As a normal person, I went on the web to see other uses for my aquarium. It's a 20 Gallon Tank.

I then happened across terrarium's with reptiles in them. I thought that was a very cool thing to see. I then started wondering if it was possible to combine the two?

I have attached a picture of my idea so far. I'm unaware of if it will work or not though. I was curious if I could get some more experienced people to look at it and give me some tips or anything in regards.


If it will work, I need to come up with a compatible environment for the reptile/fish/plants so I'm not making the tank into a free for all eat everything match. I also need to find out what to use for the land base. Rocks/gravel/sand/etc.

I would appreciate all the help I can get here.

Regards

 

[texasfishkeeper]

First of all, what you are talking about is called a paludarium if you wanted to do more research for yourself. Second, in a 20 gallon tank, the water area would have to be much bigger than that if you wanted to keep fish in it. Third, poison dart frogs or a type of newt would be your best option for terrestrial animals.


For the land base, I recommend using the website Josh's Frogs. Buy their false bottom substrate, it's amazing. However, you could use plain aquarium gravel instead (But nothing with limestone). Then on top of the false bottom, place Josh's Frogs ABG mix substrate, as plants grow the best in it.



A divider is not necessary, as long as the water only fills up the false bottom media and doesn't flood the tank. ADA Aquasoil is a good substrate for the water portion.


So excited to see this build, paludariums can be quite beautiful!

 

[54seaweed]

I had a set up like that as a kid it had orange belly newts I kept guppy's with them but they never lasted they got eaten as fast as I could add them .
I used a 20 long with 2 plexi glass shelfs one on each side open in the center with a nice sand bed , one side was was planted like a jungle the other side was a beach , it also had one of those fog misters gave it that swampy feel

 

[bribo12]

Definitely no darts in there. They can drown if the water is to deep, awful swimmers. But I agree with everything else texasfishkeeper said

 

[texasfishkeeper]

Definitely no darts in there. They can drown if the water is to deep, awful swimmers. But I agree with everything else texasfishkeeper said

Sorry, forgot to mention one small detail. For darts, you would have to have a sloping substrate down into the water for the dart frogs to climb out of the water. However, if there was only land on one side of the water, the frogs would have to intentionally drown themselves.


Bribo, I do not know if you have darts, but from my experience they can indeed swim some if they need to.

 

[bribo12]

I had darts in the past and from my experience they do much better with a minimal water feature. The more land especially for large ground dwelling frogs like tincs the better. Plus they're not beginner animals at all and require a lot of care.
Just saying not knowing the ops experience with amphibians or reptiles darts are not something I'd reccomend.