Bichirs in a planted paludarium?

[Bad Kitty]

I really wanted it to be an ideal habitat while looking as natural

Please post that build. Would be very intersting to follow. I say go for it. Never know unless you try. Also your treading into areas that many of us havent so take all the advice given with a grain of salt.

This sounds super cool.

I don't know know about CB vs WC knives but I'd skip the BGK and go smaller like the African instead. I don't know about the other knives you listed but the African browns are supposed to be out more too. Less reclusive.

For me building the tank is the fun part of it and it will be a 4-6 month endeavor considering it takes me around 3-4 weeks to make 55 gallon reptile habitat backgrounds. Just making sure the inhabitants will b proper sized and minimized fighting. I aquascape and have aquascape large tanks just not with a background and have contemplated this idea for the past few years, just no time to build it.

 

[Polyaddict86]

So Imagine you are looking at the tank from the top, 6' x 2' the realistic width of the tank would actually be closer to 20" due to the size of the background. The only Features on the bottom that would take up space besides the rock column would be the walls of the cave. So ideally the bottom dwellers would have maximized space.

Now the actual background will widen away from the back of the tank around 12 inches up to hold the integrity of weight due to land features. This will be offset by the pvc "rock" columns and the right side above the cave. This is why I was looking for smaller fish that would be okay for bichirs (in relativety to the bichirs size). They will have a smaller (still pretty large) area than the bottom dwellers.

Since the archers would be good with 15" bichirs, I will probably get 2-3 and a couple other larger top swimmers. I plan to have branches leading from the land to the water with "food" to entice the insects to climb out onto the branches. I was really unsure if they would work with the Bichirs but since everyone thinks they will be okay I may thin the width of the land feature and add more branches so the archers can do their thing.

I will be documenting the build as it goes and posting on here and a few FB pages.

Sound you got it covered, cant wait to see the progress

 

[kno4te]

Sound you got it covered, cant wait to see the progress

Same here.

 

[jaws7777]

I really wanted it to be an ideal habitat while looking as natural



For me building the tank is the fun part of it and it will be a 4-6 month endeavor considering it takes me around 3-4 weeks to make 55 gallon reptile habitat backgrounds. Just making sure the inhabitants will b proper sized and minimized fighting. I aquascape and have aquascape large tanks just not with a background and have contemplated this idea for the past few years, just no time to build it.

If you dont mind post some pics of you backrounds i think it awesome that you take on such projects

 

[Bad Kitty]

Sound you got it covered, cant wait to see the progress

Same here.

Thanks and I will post progress I'm trying to negotiate a tank now

 

[Bad Kitty]

If you dont mind post some pics of you backrounds i think it awesome that you take on such projects

This was the last tank I did a few months ago. 55 gallon beardie setup. The person didnt want it painted just the fake vegetation. The ledge is the exact height a beardie needs to bask under a heat lamp and went through to make sure everything was beardie friendly. The carpet is cut to be removable from lifting on the left side. The length is good for a bask/shade combo that beardies need. The manzanita is all siliconed so crickets cant get in the cracks and hide. The wood also has fake vegetation siliconed in the crack as well. I used styrofoam insulation, foam in a can, cement and a cut 2 liter bottle to create it

Havent had time in the past few months to do any builds and since retirement I am planning to do my own.

 

[thefredpit]

I'm in Texas. I'll check online and see if it's legal.

what part of Texas I'm in Dallas

 

[jaws7777]

This was the last tank I did a few months ago. 55 gallon beardie setup. The person didnt want it painted just the fake vegetation. The ledge is the exact height a beardie needs to bask under a heat lamp and went through to make sure everything was beardie friendly. The carpet is cut to be removable from lifting on the left side. The length is good for a bask/shade combo that beardies need. The manzanita is all siliconed so crickets cant get in the cracks and hide. The wood also has fake vegetation siliconed in the crack as well. I used styrofoam insulation, foam in a can, cement and a cut 2 liter bottle to create it

Havent had time in the past few months to do any builds and since retirement I am planning to do my own.

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That is very very cool....you have skills brah lol

 

[Bad Kitty]

That is very very cool....you have skills brah lol

Thanks man

 

[Polyaddict86]

This was the last tank I did a few months ago. 55 gallon beardie setup. The person didnt want it painted just the fake vegetation. The ledge is the exact height a beardie needs to bask under a heat lamp and went through to make sure everything was beardie friendly. The carpet is cut to be removable from lifting on the left side. The length is good for a bask/shade combo that beardies need. The manzanita is all siliconed so crickets cant get in the cracks and hide. The wood also has fake vegetation siliconed in the crack as well. I used styrofoam insulation, foam in a can, cement and a cut 2 liter bottle to create it

Havent had time in the past few months to do any builds and since retirement I am planning to do my own.

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Wow thats really awesome, never seen anything like that before.