# My first paludarium for vampire crabs.



## thedudeabides (Mar 3, 2015)

Hello,

This is my first attempt at a paludarium that will eventually house vampire crabs. I did a lot of research on this site and it has made me want to own dart frogs (that is my next project) It has about 7-8 inches of water. It has a false bottom that is filled with lava rock for added biological filtration as well as for support. This houses the heater, airstones and a pump to power a river running through the land section. On either side of the river there 2 planters that house some terrarium plants. Along the sides of the false bottom is Hamberg matten filter.

Then lava rocks and driftwood was piled along the sides of the false bottom to give the impression of a cliff face. I made a custom background as well out of clay. This will have additional plants and mosses growing in it. The water portion will have a sand portion and a portion with ADA soil.

Over all I want to give the impression of an eroded riverbank in a tropical forest. It will house vampire crabs for sure. Some kind of shrimp or maybe cpo's and most likely clown killies and kuhli loaches.

Anyway any comments / criticisms would be great, mainly curious about my plant placement.


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## Gibbs.JP (Feb 16, 2016)

Wow, very cool looking! I love the piece of driftwood with the tillandsia on it. Looks great!


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## Lake (Jan 31, 2015)

Looks great to me 


-Lake


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## thedudeabides (Mar 3, 2015)

Thank you! The tank is not holding humidity quite like I expected. I am currently hand misting but am wondering what else I could do.

With planting I just put a bunch of plants in there and figured some would do better than others. The fern in the center exploded as soon as I put it in there. Some of the earth stars were in bad shape when I put them in and aren't doing the best while some are just fine. The club moss I put on the wall isn't really holding up either. I bought my plants several months before this build as I thought I would be ready way before I was.


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## thedudeabides (Mar 3, 2015)

A update of the tank and how it has grown in:


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## wimvanvelzen (Nov 1, 2008)

Nice beasties! Well done on the tank - looks great!


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## thedudeabides (Mar 3, 2015)

Thank you yeah it's pretty cool looking back and seeing how much it's grown in.


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## jkdub (Jul 11, 2017)

What plants do you have growing in the water portion?


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## thedudeabides (Mar 3, 2015)

Water section has crypt. wendtii green and bronze, anubias barteri, anubias nana petite, narrow leaf java fern, java and xmas moss and used to have dwarf sag not sure if any is still around.


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