Modify the aquaterrarium a little, lowering the water level, adding a land area of rich potting soil and incorporating a different group of plants and you have the semi-aquatic terrarium. We have had reasonable success keeping the various Anubias and Amazon sword plants with many turtles. Not only can they uproot many plants, but many species of these shelled reptiles will eat all but the most distasteful growing plants. Turtles of all sizes offer a different sort of challenge. Larger frogs, caecilians and big mudpuppies can, and often do, uproot all but the most firmly rooted aquarium plants. Be certain that the tank is fully covered, for most amphibians and many reptiles are escape artists.
These surface species can be fed individually with sections of earthworms or other food offered on the tip of a broom straw. They do nicely on a floating “haul-out” area such as a commercially made plastic water-lily leaf or a prolific tangle of floating plants like water lettuce, water fern, water sprite or even unrooted anacharis. Such surface dwelling species as rice-paddy frogs and fire-bellied toads will thrive in the aquaterrarium if you provide a spot for them to get out of the water when they want. Some smaller aquarium inhabitants – newts, smaller waterdogs, dwarf underwater frogs, immature clawed frogs and Suriname toads – will thrive in a lavishly planted aquaterrarium without dislodging firmly rooted plants in their day-to-day activities. It can be home to aquatic frogs of several species, newts, turtles, aquatic caecilians and such specialized snakes as tentacled snakes. Herpetoculturists have adapted the aquarists’ ideas for aquatic herps and call the end result an aquatic terrarium. Some plants grow under comparatively low light situations, but others require a higher lighting intensity. To maintain this profusion of aquatic growth, they use special lighting – plant bulbs, if you will – that produce the spectrum of light that induces aquarium plants to flourish. Intricately decorated terraria are more popular in Europe than in America, but the trend is finally catching on in the United States.Īquarists have long kept their favored tropical fish in lushly planted aquaria.
Keeping reptiles and amphibians can be more exciting and satisfying if you maintain them in naturalistic habitats rather than in mere utilitarian cages.