Paludarium
Besides aquariums I've also kept and still keep paludariums. My special focus are poison dart frogs in combination with fish.
I've owned poison dart frogs like the Epipedobates anthonyi (tricolors) and Phyllobates vittatus. Had more kinds but switched at the end to just these two. Further on, I had some toads, newts, crabs, mudskippers, lizards, tree frogs, members of the Hyperoliidae.
Above we see a part of the group of tricolors during feeding time...
Below: A female tricolor searching for some flies which I've just released in the paludarium.
The combination of land and water in a terrarium is such a wonderful sight. It gives you just like in an aquarium an opportunity to scape a mini biotope for both land and aquatic creatures.
Right: Me keeping my Litorea caerulea on my hand.
Left: One of my favorites among the poison dart frogs are the Dendrobates tinctorius alanis darts. Overhere we see a female entering a shelter spot.
Above: Combined some of my tricolors with a Bombina orientalis. The last one is a species which you can excellent keep outside during spring and summer.
The good thing with the combination of amphibians and fish I've made is that when there are tadpoles, the fish will leave them unharmed and the other way around.
Left: I've also created an open paludarium... The main aquatic creatures are killifish. A perfect combination in order to get these fish breeding. And some clawed dwarf frogs are housing in there... A perfect place for my killifish
Below: This open paludarium was just an idea of mine to create something different than just an aquarium during an exotic animal day this summer (August 2012).
In another paludarium I'm kept Rana livida treefrogs. These frogs are inhabitant to Vietnam. They have a reasonable body size and mainly green colored with some stripes. They're so easy to keep and they don't make that much sound. And if they make some sound than it's so low that it doesn't bother anyone. I know a lot of smaller frogs which make much more noise and sometimes even a wall in between won't help to avoid hearing them.
Another favorite pet I use to keep is my dwarf chameleon (Rieppeleon Brevicaudatus). He's so tiny and won't grow that much anymore. It has almost reached its adulthood.
The photo left show some grasshoppers in their own terrarium. They do really well and they're absolutely easy to maintain. It's for sure quite different than keeping amphibians and reptiles for that matter. But nevertheless, also keeping insects is very interesting...
This reptile belongs to the most easiest to keep among chameleons. Overhere this chameleon is kept in a paludarium which is a bit less moist than my other closed paludariums. Other livestock which is present in this specific paludarium are treefrogs and a Sphaerodactylus torrei on land. In the water part there are swimming endlers and rasboras maculatus in. Other aquatic livestock are clawed dwarf frogs, Anentoma helenas (assasin snails) and red cherry shrimps.
To give you an impression how small this chameleon for real is, I've put him on my finger. Personally I do think such a small chameleon is much more charming than his bigger relatives.
I've kept a couple dwarf geckos at home as well. The photo left shows you a male Sphaerodactylus torrei. He's almost full colored and his stripes are starting to disappear.
Further on, I also have kept some Lygodactylus kimhowelli at home. Also these dwarf geckos are not that much bigger than the Sphaerodactylus torrei. But I don't keep both kinds of lizards in the same paludarium. For the males have a problem to be put together without getting aggressive towards eachother.
Left: Both pictures above show the Lygodactylus kimhowelli.
Below: The following pics shows other reptiles and amphibians that I've kept throughout the years.
Keeping these exotics is a real must as a die hard terrarium fan. As you can see there are multiple options of what to keep in there. As I've been implying, I've made paludariums out of my terrariums.
As I've already mentioned, a combination of land and water is really interesting. A small biotope from the tropics. And also the sounds that certain reptiles and amphibians make, is as if the tropics is right in your room.
And a lot of these species can be tamed. But I don't recommend to touch those animals often. For their skin is very fragile. Be sure that with some of these animals, that your hand is wet.
And you've got the choice to keep day or night active animals.
