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Loops Planted Turtle swamp

6K views 39 replies 8 participants last post by  Loops117 
#1 ·


Tank Specs
  • Setup Date: 4-14-19
  • Tank Size: 55g
  • Water Volume: approx 35g
  • Substrate: Thin layer of gravel. Planning on adding more
  • Lighting: 4ft T-8 basement lighting (Planning on upgrading)

Planning
  • Tank Style: Swamp/Lagoon planted with top water and floaties.
  • Planned Decorations: All natural. Rocks, sticks, plants, driftwood. No pre-made decorations or plastic plants. Except a skull x_x
  • Planned Fish: Small Livebearers, and some other small species.
  • Planned Fish Count: Heavy. Cant put a number to this.
  • Planned Inverts: Crayfish, shrimp, snails.
  • Top water Plants: duckweed, water lilies, water cabbage, and some other floaters.
  • Submerged Plants: To be honest, idk. Whatever looks good.


Note: This photo was taken before i removed 75% of the duckweed, a bi-weekly ritual now.

Current Stock List
Turtles
(1) Common Snapping Turtle - Chompy
(2) Red Belly River Cooters - Sam & Ela

Fish
(8) pairs of adult guppies, about many many juveniles and babies.
(1) pair of black mollies, with the male being the lone survivor from the very beginning moments of the tank.
(4) Flag fish bought as fry.
(2) Neon Tetras
(1) Pleco Algae Eater (although i dont think he does anything)

Inverts
(1) Lightning white Lobster - The Night King
(1) Rabbit Snail - Rabbit
(2) Giant Rams horn Snails





Introduction
This tank started off as just an upgrade for my sons turtle. We received a captive hatched common snapping turtle from a buddy some time around august of last year (2018). Shortly after receiving him, my son dubbed him "Chompy" and i started building plans in my head. Fast forward 8 months, one large critter keeper and we have our first upgrade, a 55g tank that's been waiting to be used. The plan was to give chompy as natural of a setting as possible. I knew i wanted to go planted, and i knew it was gonna be a mess. What this has become amazes me to the point were i sit in front of the tank for at least 2 hours a day just staring.


More updates will be coming shortly!

Thank you for reading.
 
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#2 ·
4-14-19

We set up the tank! My son picked out some black gravel with neon glow rocks. We added a large piece of driftwood i've had in my rock garden for 3 years, and we threw in some plastic plants to fill the emptiness. Unfortunately i made some bad mistakes. Rookie mistakes when i should have known better. I foolishly added a handful of rosies, a catfish, some mollies, and i forget the rest. The tank had water for roughly a few hours before fish were added. Note: i've had fish tanks my entire life, but have been out of the fish hobby for roughly 8 years now. The only fish to survive the heavily chemical water of redford was my male molly.



5-6-19
We added two more freshly hatched baby turtles. Time has passed and we've changed up the decord, added plants, and added new fish.



6-23-19
Tha tank has been heavily updated. We've removed everything that's not natural (besides the skull my algae eater loves). Everyone is growing happily, and i made a couple changes to how the tank looks.
WE HAD TO DISABLE THE NIGHT KINGS MAIN CLAW.
After a quick feeding session, we watched the night king move to a tactical position were it looks like he's been before. He grabbed a baby turtle by his foot, wrestled him into the rest of his claws, and quickly started running backwards pulling the turtle in to his cave. I immediately threw my hand in the tank, and dang near crushed him while reaching into the cave to pull him out. He was tugging the turtle from me, very adamant at eating this little guy.




7-8-19
We added more plants! Over the holiday weekend, i found some root sections floating in the lake by our cottage. I brought the section home in a garbage back, and added them to our setup. Not sure how well they're going to take, but i ended up with about 10 rhizomes from the one root section.




And now we're current.
 
#5 ·
Thank you! I have a love for dad jokes, and that seemed to be the ultimate.



2 neon tetras will not do well. They need at least 10, 15 is better though.

Bump: The tank looks really nice. I might do something similiar eventually.

Bump: What species are the baby turtles?
NEON TETRAS - We're adding more tetras soon, just ran in to some road bumps along the way. Planning on a 70g upgrade in 3 months since 55g became small rather quick. (unless i can find a nice 6 or 8ft tank before). So far i've just watched them twirl around and just stick together. I guess i should do some more research, but is it due to them being aggressive towards their own kind? More tetras means beatings are less focused on one fish? Or are they weak, and need numbers to school and survive from others.

Thank you! The decorations and style were just something i threw together. I've never added any plain ol' sticks to my setups before, and i am very pleased with the way it looks and holds my plants. I'm also happy with the driftwood i had, turned out to be perfect for the aquascaping. The only thing i wish was different is the depth of the tank. I wish i had more floor space to spread my plants and decorations around in.

As for the baby turtles, i am not sure. I was told they were red belly river cooters, and the michigan ID page seemed to support the idea. But they dont have red bellys, so i'm not sure. I could provide better photos if anyone would like to give a better identification. My IDing skills are completely wrapped up with insects, and very minimal on reptiles so i'm no help.
 
#4 ·
2 neon tetras will not do well. They need at least 10, 15 is better though.

Bump: The tank looks really nice. I might do something similiar eventually.

Bump: What species are the baby turtles?
 
#7 ·
Nice tank! I always find tanks that mix fish with other species to be fun. I am thinking of adding a floating log to my next tank for a newt. How are you keeping your log above water? Has it just not waterlogged yet or did you take any special precautions?
 
#8 ·
Thank you!


This particular log was collected from a beach, and used as a rock garden decoration for roughly 4 years. So it baked ontop of lava rock under the sun every day for that time period. The log floated pretty well at first with even the dip it has staying above water. Over the course of time, i've noticed she's sitting much lower, with the dip now staying wet enough to support java moss on the top side. I have a single stick that helps support the log, and keep it centered towards the back of the tank, but that'll only work for a short period.

The plan is to eventually drill a couple small holes in the bottom, and hollow out as much of the log as i can. I'll then fill the log with some kind of foam or styrofoam pellets, and re-seal the holes with wood plugs. This should help keep the wood from completely submerging and sitting on the bottom. How much will stay above surface is hard to tell, but i wouldnt mind it sitting about 1" lower as i'd then be able to plant something on top of the log. Right now i only have the far ends and the dip that are submerged enough, all of which will not make a suitable place for a surface plant.
 
#10 ·
Any and all projects concerning the tank will be in this thread, so i promise if i do it, you'll see it =D I'll continue to use this once i upgrade as well.

I have been looking in to future predators for the tank. Chompy, Sam, and Ela are quickly going to be too big for any aquatic setup i want to do in a fish tank, so i may look in to some other kind of aquatic predator. The newt idea has me thinking, and i might look in to something like that. Do you have any other suggestions or ideas?
 
#13 ·
I actually have plans on doing a paludarium. Since i joined this forum, i've learned a LOT. And in the pali, i'll most likely have some darts as i've never had them before.


Aquatic newts are pretty spiffy but I don't know if they would be considered predators. Other then bugs they are pretty chill. I like them because you don't need live food to feed them.

Bullfrogs are popular but you will need a true land option to house one properly. You already have crayfish which is the other popular option. Sorry but those are my two best ideas ;P
I'd be ok with them not being quite the predator that i normally go for. And idk, my insect side is thinking perhaps a giant water bug or something.

And i like my cray fish, but i might go with something else. He's pulling up and eating my grasses, and i'm not happy with him.
 
#12 ·
Aquatic newts are pretty spiffy but I don't know if they would be considered predators. Other then bugs they are pretty chill. I like them because you don't need live food to feed them.

Bullfrogs are popular but you will need a true land option to house one properly. You already have crayfish which is the other popular option. Sorry but those are my two best ideas ;P
 
#15 ·
Well, i'd happily remove him but i fear he wouldnt be alive for much longer at the LFS.

When i bought him, he was in a group tank with many other crayfish. He was missing a claw due to fighting in the over populated tanks these guys are kept in.
And i'm quite happy with him having only one claw bound, as i feel he has no need for it's un-bound purpose in my tank. What his main claw is "naturally" used for is killing and crushing, and he's quite capable of doing so without. Crayfish don't naturally find bits of chicken meat, or other prepared offerings, so he has zero need to kill a turtle. Also in the wild, his main claw would be used for fighting. Another thing that doesnt happen in this tank.

He does however still use his bound claw for many other reasons. The claw allows him to climb, wedge, dig, weave through weeds, and still appear large for his threat display. He's given a better life with a bound claw then i feel most crayfish get to experience naturally, and it's a MUCH better alternative then the way i received him.
 
#16 ·
https://www.joshsfrogs.com/animals-...st-beginner-dart-frogs-for-sale/show/all.html

These are super cool frogs, and they are easy to care for I think, being that it says beginner.

I was also lucky enough to see several wild blue jeans dart frogs in Costa Rica. I also saw a blue dartfrog, and I think a golden one but I am not sure. I would love to have a paludarium, but my parents say i have too many tanks already.
 
#17 ·
Update 7-15-19



The other day, my son and I decided to feed our fish some Live Mosquito Larvae. I read a thread on here that mentioned doing so, and quite a few others have done it as well. Normally I would remove and dispose of the free swimming larvae from my plant culture tank, but now I think I may allow this to be a normal thing. The fish went absolutely nuts. I did however pre-feed a small number of dried bloodworms before hand to bring the fish to the specific area we were planning to release the larvae. Think this may have been a bad idea, and I’ll most likely just make top water movement before hand on the next feeding. Should bring them over.
We used a brine net to remove the larvae from the water and allowed some of the algae from the tank to come along. Not much, but just some for the flashfish to find and eat. They love it. Also, I didn’t rinse the larvae either as I normally add plants directly from this tank without any issues.


We also added some moss to the floating log. I’ll get an update picture of how it looks tonight, but so far I LOVE it. We collected this moss for our moss garden, and had a bunch of extras. We didn’t want to dispose of the moss, so I gave it a new home. Think I may have to get some more wood for the surface. Idk, not sure >.>


Thank you.
 
#20 ·
=D i gave it a try, and it went very well!

Nice. Just make sure the fish eat them all so you don't have a mosquito nursery lol. If that did happen then you could get some dart frogs and they could terminate the skeeters.
I did some research, and the pupae are little floating balls with tails. They'll stay on the surface for roughly 1-4 days, and then emerge as adults. I am assuming if somehow, some larvae survived they would be eaten up by the baby turtles the moment they saw them.

I know in the FL Keys, they use fish in their rain barrels. A friend of mine was showing them to me while i was visiting, and she told me she needed like 1 fish for every 15 gallons. 1 fish would keep the larvae from ever making it adult in a 15g section, so i'd imagine 20 in 30 gallons of water would do the same.
 
#19 ·
Nice. Just make sure the fish eat them all so you don't have a mosquito nursery lol. If that did happen then you could get some dart frogs and they could terminate the skeeters.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Haha, @aquanerd13, this was the very discussion I had with him in a different thread and I dared him to do it in his tank .. which is why I said what I said in my earlier post.

Me? At best, I may give one at a time to some lucky fish so that I can ensure consumption. His reply is reasonable, and I'm not debating it, but I'm nowhere near that ok with an accidental successful adult :)

I know in the FL Keys, they use fish in their rain barrels. A friend of mine was showing them to me while i was visiting, and she told me she needed like 1 fish for every 15 gallons. 1 fish would keep the larvae from ever making it adult in a 15g section, so i'd imagine 20 in 30 gallons of water would do the same.
sunnava! I thought of doing this very thing at some of my rain barrels. Please do tell what kind of fish and how they keep them alive? Simple minnows? Any air pumps/filters/water circulators?

thanks!
 
#23 · (Edited)
After looking around, i think i might start building the back of the tank up a little to make more land. I'm doing this to see how i like it before i make the swap to a larger tank. I want to keep the area below the land to still be swimmable, so this will more like a shelf along the back side. It'll displace my filter, but that's gotta be upgraded anyway.

I'm thinking i will use the rock structure i have already built in the corners, and place some large driftwood across the area. I'll then add a layer of mesh, small rocks or hydrogarden pellets, and then moss or something else that'll root into the mesh and rocks. What i'm also thinking is that this is going to create a large filter that i could possible utilize? I'll place a small pump underneath which will drain ontop of the shelf, just to filter through the moss, rock, and mesh. Thoughts?

Similar to this, just without the land built up on the front sides
 
#29 · (Edited)
Think you're absolutely correct. The pictures in the article look almost identical to what i remember, just a little lighter? After googling Gambusia affinis, i've come to the conclusion that they're also dark on top.

The article says they're given out for free as a mosquita control, which would make sense that the FL Keys Mosquito Control was supplying them. Think i may have to find a pair of these guys for the swamp.

Thank you VERY much for the help. Let me know if you get any.
 
#30 ·
yea, too bad I don't live that close to the keys :) I've read also on another florida website that suggest mollies and mud minnows too.
http://www.floridahealth.gov/diseas...l-resident-guide-to-mosquito-control-ifas.pdf

I think the gist I'm getting is that a host of fish would be more than happy to eat them. Not sure if the mosquito fish is more adept than others in hunting them down.
https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1561333/free-mosquito-fish-gambusia-in-fl

Edit: I might just go to a buddy's river canal and grab a couple minnows.
 
#31 ·
@ipkiss you're in FL. You may be able to get them for free as well. I know the keys are battling a huge mosquito problem, and they were debating either a GMO approach, or pesticide bombs in the large FW pools. They used the GMO approach to remove the screw fly in the past, and they actually just had another outbreak 2 summers ago.I didn't keep up on the work they've been doing, so i'm not too sure.

Also, if you look in your Florida state park passport, you'll find my son. Proud dad moment, and i havent been able to really tell anyone that doesnt already know. lol
 
#34 ·
To start off, i added 3 trap door snails from our pond. After grabbing them out of the mud, i placed them in a container of their own for a few days to let them expel any waste from the pond. I fed them greens from my tank, and waited until their waste went from brown mucky sludge, to a green mucky sludge. (i assumed they had passed anything bad through their system). Upon adding these 3 big guys to the tank, they immediately went under the substrate and started bulldozing my plants. It wasn't as bad as i'm making it sound, but they did lift up 2 of my lily rhizomes. I'm hoping they create some offspring as my turtles would have a field way with the snails that can fit in their mouths. Same with my crayfish. He'd love the meal.

I also noticed i'm missing about 5 or 6 of my bigger guppies, including a new fancy one i bought a month ago. Wasn't upset, just surprised it took me this long to realize they had been missing.

I ran in to a Black Beard Algae issue. I noticed it was growing in my slow areas. Mainly in the thick planted areas. So, i started pruning as much of the infected plant as i could, and allow some of my branches to dry off for a few days before adding them back in. I read that the true japanese algae eaters are one of the best combatants of BBA. I will be picking 2 of these guys up as i fear i'll never truly be able to get this under control on my own.


Regarding landscape, i was growing tired of it fast. I couldnt deal with the shortage of plant space due to the placement of my rock piles, and driftwood. So, i emptied the tank of all plants, rocks, and cleaned out the gravel. I then did a 1/2 water change, and started a re-build. Lemme tell ya, i scooped out a LOT of gunk. wow.


The first day of rearrange, i only rearranged my rock pile. Placing everything under the driftwood. I did like the layout, but i was at a huge shortage of rock to complete the wall i had been aiming for.


Second day. I went to a local landscaping shop and picked up 23lbs of rock for $4. I was really happy with my selection, and it cost wayy less then i thought it would have. I put the rocks in my bathtub, and started scrubbing. I was told by the company that they do not treat or add anything to their slate. Its all natural. So i just gave the rocks a good scrub with an old tooth brush, and removed any loose debris. I then added them to the tank, along with twice as many branches from a downed tree.



What do you guys think of the layout? It's almost exactly what i want, just need to get my plants right. And add some rocks to fill up behind the wall. This will allow more land plants.
 
#35 ·
Enjoying watching this evolve--what a great project for you & your kid.

Gambusia are used by vector control here in the California desert as well. During the crash of '08 the house next door went into foreclosure, and the pool turned green. Called vector control, and rather than draining the pool they just threw in some gambusia. Had to call them again when a colony of killer bees took up residence in the garage wall.

Had I known they'd use gambusia, I could have just put in some of my favorite livebearers and had my own 30000 gallon aquarium next door for the next couple of years until the bank finally sold it......

Finally got the dad joke. Still groaning & laughing
 
#37 ·
=D i try to slip the dad jokes in as much as possible. Sam n Ela have the perfect same for a pair of turtles. How could on NOT love them. As for the Gambusia, i'd love to use some here, but i think i'm the only one with standing water (that i know of). And i let that stand so i can collect the larvae as feeders.


Nice tank, what do you feed Chomper?
I break small pieces of chicken in to 1 mouthful chunks for turts. I'll normally take the entrails of some dinner we're making, and break it all down. I then put it all in a ziplock bag, and flatten the bag out for the freezer. Makes it super eazy to break off chunks to thaw and feed. The fish go insane too! They eat up the scraps very quick. Little sharks, lol.
 
#39 ·
Another update!

Came back from vacation this past weekend, and turns out the stand (kitchen table) was giving away. It was either take the 55g down, and set it up elsewhere, or do the big transfer. Bet you can guess what i did! lol After pulling all of my plants and rock out, i started to net all of my fish. I quickly realized i had only 1 adult flagfish left. I think chompy may have been a bit hungry over my week away? Not sure, but there's nothing left of em. Outside of the fish, everything else was/is doing great!

I would also like to point out that chompy had escaped the 55g for about 4 days. He was found in our basement while i was on vacation, and returned to his home.

As for the 70g, i did a different layout, and i'm gonna run with it. I still plan on filling the behind part of my moss log with some type of media for plants, as well as using an entirely different substrate. Im still not sure if i want to use black sand, or maybe something a little more "swampy" like fine pebbles and sand. I also might just leave the bottom bare, and suction cup the plant bases to the bottom. I dont know, but i do know that i'm NOT liking all of my plants floating in a mass.
I also plan on keeping the water level about half way so i can get some taller plants in the setup, and possibly some grass lizards or anoles.
As for future aquatic predators, i have found my perfect match. We'll be acquiring 1 or 2 red eyed croc skinks for the paludarium. Turns out these guys are wayyyyy more aquatic then i originally thought. This is an animal we've considered keeping in the past, but i had a hard no to anything that needs a species specific tank. As some of you may know, i don't do that. I like building communities, and multi species setups. If chompy wasnt so aggressive, i'd already have one =(

Here's two update videos. And i'll have to post pictures tonight or tomorrow.

Part 1


Part 2


Thank you for reading!
 
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