Help plan a 6'x2' swamp!

[fwprawn]

If you were going to go with my suggestion of mud / musk turtles, then the ropefish would "probably" do fine, as those two are not highly piscivorous turtles.
A big pleco would be cool, but probably would wreck the decor, plants, and produce tons of poop

 

[Mount_Prion]

Is there anything I could put in here that would move around and add some life aside from turtles? I was almost wondering if there was like, a tree frog that just never really comes down so would never be in the turtles' range.

 

[bassfisher91]

Some very fast fish would be fine with most types of turtles. I've kept danios, giant danios and tinfoil barbs with great success with 2 large (8inch) red ear sliders. Tree frogs are incredibly boring IMO. They hardly move and often look like snot stuck to the side of the tank. Again just my opinion.

 

[cjdesmit]

Sounds like a cool build. What species of turtle/s were you considering? I would definitely steer clear of any of the larger growing sliders and cooters. For a bog/swamp setup the first turtle that comes to mind that would thrive in such an environment is the Spotted Turtle. They are a semi-aquatic turtle that isn't overly common. They also stay small and are not nearly as destructive as many species of turtles can be.

Here's a pic of one (not mine)...

 

[Coel03]

Skip the peat pellets as go to home depot or lowes and get peat miss I bought 3cubic feet for 10$


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[Mount_Prion]

Update! Finally got the plumbing running the way I pretty much want.



Drilling the hole for the bulkhead I wanted to insert wasn't easy!



The end result of said drilling. Water flow in this tube wasn't enough so I had to drill a bunch more holes around it as backup.



At about 3 AM last night, my end result for the day. I'd say we've attained creek status, but not quite swamp yet. Got one pump pumping out and one overflow going in, on opposite sides of the tank.

Tonight I will be adding a big piece of wood and a lot of dirt, and also rearranging a lot of the plants.

 

[Mount_Prion]

Sounds like a cool build. What species of turtle/s were you considering? I would definitely steer clear of any of the larger growing sliders and cooters. For a bog/swamp setup the first turtle that comes to mind that would thrive in such an environment is the Spotted Turtle. They are a semi-aquatic turtle that isn't overly common. They also stay small and are not nearly as destructive as many species of turtles can be.

Here's a pic of one (not mine)...

Thanks! I looked into them but think they're not strong enough swimmers for the deeper parts of my tank, and could risk drowning. That aside, they have amazing patterning. And that picture is super red, which is cool. Didn't know they got that way.

Wish I could get one of the Indian spotted turtles, but they're always Florida sales only it seems.

 

[cjdesmit]

How deep are you planning on having the water? As long as there is plenty of structure for them to climb on to get to the waters surface, I think juvenile and adult Spotteds would do just fine. The one pictured does have quite a bit of orange on it. They have higher colored variants just as with many cichlids and other reptiles. Of course, they usually cost more...

 

[Mount_Prion]

How deep are you planning on having the water? As long as there is plenty of structure for them to climb on to get to the waters surface, I think juvenile and adult Spotteds would do just fine. The one pictured does have quite a bit of orange on it. They have higher colored variants just as with many cichlids and other reptiles. Of course, they usually cost more...

Water's gonna be somewhere in the 8-10'' range. More or less like the above pic. There's gonna be a lot of stuff to climb on but it's still a little worrisome.