Suggestions for half and half tank

[Austin {Aquarist}]

Some of you may have read my article relatively recently about getting "burned out" on fish and aquariums, so it's no surprise that I wanted to do something different this time with a new ten gallon I just bought for 5 bucks at a yard sale. I was thinking about setting up a swampy type setup with shallowish water and a about 1 third land built up. Does anyone have any suggestions about what I might want to put in it???

PS would a betta be happy in a swampy shallow setup???

 

[Blub]

Hi!

If the tank is half full with at least 5 gals of water (Bettas are happier in 5gal - but 2.5gal is the real minimum!), then why not? It's worth picking up a good book on houseplants if you want terrestrial plants in the top. You could also ask me about terrestrial plants for it - I am a fan of them!

 

[sirdarksol]

Shrimp. Hermit crabs. Frogs. I can't think of any fish that you could do a half land/half water thing in a small tank like that, but there are dozens of smaller inverts and a few amphibians that would work out well. For fish, if you were doing half and half, you'd likely end up with between 1 and 3 gallons (depending on how you set it up) of swimming space. There's just not much that would do well in that. The only one I can think of is a dwarf puffer, which would preclude putting anything else in the tank, which would defeat the purpose of having a half/half setup.

 

[Austin {Aquarist}]

Hatchet

Hatchet, Are you saying that a betta would be happy in a swampy setup of with 5 gallons aproxx to swim in????

 

[Blub]

Hatchet, Are you saying that a betta would be happy in a swampy setup of with 5 gallons aproxx to swim in????

Hi!

The Betta should be happy if he has 5 gals. If you can only have 3 gal - I would put an RCS colony in it.

 

[sirdarksol]

Bettas like shallow water, but there's no way you could do a shallow setup in a 10 gallon tank and still get 5+g of water in there. Half of the tank would have to be swimming space. It just wouldn't work out.
It would be an uber-cool idea to do in something bigger like a 55g, though, especially if you could find some amphibious critters from the same area of the world, and put a natural-type betta in.

 

[purple_phoenix]

You could keep a couple of Fire Bellied Newts which are quite interesting. There are different sorts, one which grows to about 6cm and one which can grow to about 12cm though, so you'll need to research first. Tropical crabs could always be fun too.

Neither need much swimming room, and both need land and water, so they'd fit in more with the swampy, shallow look you're going for, rather than a betta. Good luck with it - it sounds really interesting!

 

[angelfish220]

There is a brackish fish called a 4eyed fish, I think Anableps anableps, that enjoyes half filled tanks, but they get 12 inches long.

Mudskippers could go in and out of water, but they too are brackish and get about 4 inches long, if you get the correct kind, Periophthalmus novemradiatus. These could go in a 20, but a ten might be pushing it.

 

[Austin {Aquarist}]

Hi!

If you can only have 3 gal - I would put an RCS colony in it.

Hatchet what is an RCS colony??

 

[andy65]

RCS stands for (I am 99.99% sure on this) Red cherry shrimp.

 

[Austin {Aquarist}]

jfs;lakj

TY your probly right lol

 

[Blub]

TY your probly right lol

RCS = Red cherry shrimp. Cool critters, if you want more on them and pet shrimp are great.

 

[angelfish220]

You could raise tadpoles

 

[sirdarksol]

A very simple idea, yet brilliant. I've seen this done before, and it's really neat.
The biggest downside is that you end up with a bunch of frogs and nothing to do with them.

 

[Shawnie]

We had a 55 gallon that we kinda had to do this to for one of my girls science project.....we bought some aquarium glass and had it cut toe approx 1/2 of the length of the tank...and it went up half way to the top...I used silicone (for aquariums of course) to seal all the seals and then filled the one side up and let it sit for a few days to test the silicone...on the other side, we had sand and trees and a med size bowl of water...we had anoles which hung out in the trees, we had fire belly newts...which had a way to climb over the wall to the water and back to the dry land....on the water side, we had 3 african dwarf frogs, and two gold fish (not knowing anything of their size requirements that I know now)..we had this setup for about 3 years...its was a great conversation piece when we had company..the tank is now back to a fish tank

 

[sirdarksol]

Moved new question to Help Please
Better to start your own thread than to necro and hijack another's.