My idea: to make a slice of the forest containing only partgenogenic (all female species. I've posted this on many forums. I got a lot of acceptance from both the herp and roach people. However, when I posted it on dendroboards I got a mostly negative response. They brought up valid points that I plan to test and adress:
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/beg...play-tank.html
I usually open with something along the lines of this:
"Hi everyone!
Note: I know that this will be hard. More so then a single species tank. I am willing to take the risk and go all out on this. Also, I care much more about the animals then anything else... If any are experiencing problems then they will be removed.
This is my first post on this forum.. I thought you guys would be helpful/interested when it comes to this sort of thing.So I came up with a new concept viv, dart frog style. It will be a Paludarium, with the water section connected to the false bottom (egg crate method). I am planning to, of course, seed it with some sick exotic plants... I hope this might not be a problem.
On land:
Mourning geckos
Pycnoscelus surinamensis (feeder/cleanup/cool inhabitant)
P nigra (same as above)
In water:
Marbled crayfish
Mts (food source, will help irrigate, cleanup)
I was thinking about adding a few more all female species.. But I dunno. Any suggestions?
It will certainly be hard to do, especially because the mourning geckos will eat mostly fruit with the occational roach. Do you think that they will eat all of the plants?
I'm thinking about a stream dividing the two species of roaches. Would they be able to cross via branches or the false bottom/background? Also do both species of roach reproduce at the same rate?
They would drown/stay long enough to be eaten in the water feature, right?
Any thoughts? Concerns? Can this work?"
Keep in mind that I am a herp/invert person, not an aquarium person. I reconize the importance of the aquatic section (for biofilteration purposes).
I am posting this because of the aquatic section, which I intend to be a big part of the tank. The tank's lower section will be devoted to a false bottom, which will not be divided from the "visible water". The visible water will be a stream of water that will go towards thd front of the tank and overflow over a very small ledge(look below for illustration). I will have marbled crayfish and mts in this part.
Because it is a natural tank, I intend to make it look as natural as possible. I plan to have a layer of sand, so the mts can burrow and the crayfish can berry. Because PVC pipe does not look natural, instead I will have stacked rocks under the false bottom and towards the sides. This will utilize the volume of the tank. In the stream and in front of it I will have better looking things, probably a big piece of driftwood with smaller rocks centering it. I will have floating plants--for the "stream" I will have azolla, for the front of the stream I will have frogbit, red rooted floaters, and other similar "attractive floaters". On the left and right I will have duckweed and giant duckweed, respectively. I will post more details in another post, as this is getting long.