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I've got one of my 10g's set up as a river tank currently...but I found the tail of my poor hillstream loach stuck to the intake of a powerhead and I can't find the rest of his body, so I'm assuming he died and got eaten by the underfed danios...poor thing

So that's the 3rd hillstream loach I've lost...none of them have survived over a summer, it's too darn warm. Methinks I'm done with hillstream loaches for a good while

So, now I've got a 10g with 5 danios in it...what should I do with it?

I've currently got 2x Whisper Mini's (75GPH each), a 150 GPH powerhead, and a sponge filter in there. The mini's are internal, and I can stick them down low in the water and lower the water level. I don't think I'd need a powerhead or sponge filter in there, so I'll take 'em out and use 'em in another tank.

I haven't decided if I should leave the danios in there, or take 'em out. I'd like mudskippers, but I'm told that 10g's too small for 'em, so forget that. I don't really know what I want to put in the land portion of the tank... any suggestions?

How should I make the land part? Should I divide it with lexan or plexiglass? Should I just pile up some rocks and driftwood and silicone and/or tie 'em together? should I just have a big piece of driftwood?

I definately want to plant it. I'm thinking maybe a crypt and some java moss and/or java fern. Probably some duckweed, hornwort, and anacharis and stuff I could pull out of some other tanks. Any other suggestions for cheap and easy low light plants that'd be good in 1.5wpg w/no co2 and none or very few ferts? I might have to make a post in the planted forum 'bout this...

Anybody got any suggestions for layout, stock, plants, etc? I need all the help I can get

Thanks

EDIT - I forgot to add that I've got largeish river stones as a substrate in there...they're 'bout 2-3" 'round. I can change 'em if I need to, but I'd rather not

Last edited by PoisonWaffle at 19-Jun-2005 23:31

Newts and ADFs would look nice in there. In this case, you wouldn't need any land, just some rocks or driftwood for them to crawl out of the water on.

I'm thinking maybe some species of SA newt...

I've done some thinking and planning, and I've decided that I want to go with an SA biotope (newt, neon tetras, various SA plants, etc)...got any idea what kind of newt I should get that'd be good in a 10g?

There are not many newt/salamander species in South America that i could find any info on.
I would say get either a "Fire Belly Newt", or a "Blue Spotted Newt" or a "Smooth Newt"


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Once you go past firebellies, paddletails, and roughskins, (I know the first 2 are Asian, my guess is that they all are) you're left only with the rarely sold exotics which will probably outgrow a 10 gallon. My suggestion is still firebellies as the other 2 might eat neons. But, I seriously doubt you will be able to easily find a species of SA newt, if you find one at all...

EDIT:
I've neverheard of a blue-spotted newt, I guess that might work too. And is smoothe newt another name for firebelly or paddletail? I thought that was just a generalization for the aquatic newts VS. "rough" land salamanders and such.

Last edited by djtj at 27-Jun-2005 12:13

No, Smooth Newt is an actual species name can u believe it?
Heres some pics of the newts I was thinking of:

Blue Spotted Salamander (Canadian Species)


Male Smooth Newt (European Species)


Fire Belly Newt (Chinese Species)



I would personally go for the blue newt.
They grow to about 4-5 inches, and are so beautiful.
They eat Earthworms as their favorite prey, and are commonly available (at least around here) and run about 20 dollars Canadian for a little guy.
They are good because they are not toxic to the touch, and so could be handled.
They are really really beautiful.
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Thanks for the help, guys! At the time I posted that, I didn't know that there weren't any SA newts...but now that I've been told by several people that there aren't any, I guess I'm out of luck for that

I'm going to set this thing up when I get back from NY (at the end of july), so I've got time to figure out what I want to put in it. I'll have a look at what I can find in NY too

A native salamander tank would look cool. I found some big ones in upstate NY by the Durham area.

I've actually only ever seen 4 newt/salamander type things (other than axo's and stuff)...2 of 'em were dead, and the other 2 were at an LFS

I've never been able to find any thing other than fish, frogs, turtles, and bugs at local bodies of water

In that case a native salamander tank would be a horrible idea.

Aye