My Brackish Paludarium

[Brackmyforte]

Hello, I'm new to this forum. My main tank a 75G Brackish paludarium. I'm happy to have found a forum with an entire Brackish section! This is a link to my tank write-up on one of the other forums I belong to: http://www.okcfishlady.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1189321189

[Brackmyforte]

I should eventually do a new write up for this forum :idea:

[Stargate_geek]

Wicked tank! Love the 'skippers :D

[mellowvision]

great set up. you should get red claw crabs! they'd love this.

[Rbishop]

Nice tank!

[Brackmyforte]

great set up. you should get red claw crabs! they'd love this.
I've had other people tell me that! Would the crabs get along with my skippers?

[mellowvision]

well, that remains to be seen. I've seen several set ups in photos that had both crabs and skippers. they naturally live in the same ecosystems and need the same elements for survival. unfortunatley, they are both somewhat preditorial to each other, dietetically speaking... skippers like small inverts and crabs like slow bottom dwelling fish. my guess is that they'd both be smart enough to keep to themselves, and that size would play an important factor... baby crabs are probably more of a target to skippers than an adult, and adult skippers are probably too big for most adult crabs to catch... plus, in my experience, crabs may have the claws, but they're not very good hunters, and would prefer an easy meal of crab pellets dipped in algae. when I've kept crabs, they've never been able to kill anything. one time an oto looked like he had gotten bruised, maybe by a crab, but he didn't die, and showed no laceration.

I think it's worth a try.

[Brackmyforte]

I may just have to try a couple... I'll be getting a waspfish [bullrout] though and he may snatch up the crabs. I'll have to do some reseach; maybe just experiment!

[tranceFusion]

what is your salinity?

so bamboo stays alive in brackish water? what kind of moss are you using outside of the water?

[Brackmyforte]

what is your salinity?

so bamboo stays alive in brackish water? what kind of moss are you using outside of the water?

I usually say my S.G. is 1.006, but it actually floats within a range around 1.005-1.008.

The bamboo did do well for a while, but salt started to be excreted through the leaves and some of the older leaves began turning yellow. So I removed the bamboo from the tank and gave it to a friend. I think the bamboo would have done better at a lower S.G.

The moss I use outside of the water is java moss which seems to have started some sort of simbyosis with a lichen that appeared on the driftwood.

[tranceFusion]

any java moss i have outside of the water just gets all dried and brown.. do you do anything special??

[Brackmyforte]

Nothing special really. I just keep the humidity high with the fogger.

[willisan]

I've had other people tell me that! Would the crabs get along with my skippers?

I have a 29 g pal that had 2 mudskippers, and 4 fiddler crabs.

The skippers beat the hell out of the crabs...ripped legs off of them. I had to put each crab into a holding tank to have them heal up, then into their own little paludarium.

[Brackmyforte]

I have a 29 g pal that had 2 mudskippers, and 4 fiddler crabs.

The skippers beat the hell out of the crabs...ripped legs off of them. I had to put each crab into a holding tank to have them heal up, then into their own little paludarium.
I was thinking they might try to pick on the crabs! Thanks for the info!

[irishspy]

Hello, I'm new to this forum. My main tank a 75G Brackish paludarium.

:welcome:

That's impressive. I know little about paludaria; the idea of creating a "border" environment is fascinating.

I have to ask, where did you get the little skull in the tank. That really appeals to me. :devil:

[Lupin]

Nice.

:welcome: to AC!

[Brackmyforte]

:welcome:

That's impressive. I know little about paludaria; the idea of creating a "border" environment is fascinating.

I have to ask, where did you get the little skull in the tank. That really appeals to me. :devil:
I had a string of Tibetan pray beads that broke. I just took some of those beads, boiled them to get of any varnish. Then used them in my tank:grinyes: I'm a big fan of skulls and I thought they'd look great in my tank.

[Brackmyforte]

I've moved some things around and added some things...

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j312/Twinratz/th_MOV00966.jpg (http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j312/Twinratz/?action=view&current=MOV00966.flv)

[Sploke]

I also had about half a dozen fiddlers in with my mudskipper. They were slowly disappearing and I couldn't figure out why, until one night I saw the skipper attack one and just tear it apart. So, no more crabs for me.