40 gallon viv :D What to add?

[andrewsimon]

I recently made a 40 gallon vivarium out of a spare 40 tall I had laying around.

The water area is roughly 6 or 7 gallons. Lighting is 64 watts of t5.

I'm still adding plants and letting stuff grow. This was more a of a build the tank and add animals after than building for a specific type of animal.

But now I'm stuck as to what to add. I'm open to anything, lizards, newts, frogs, etc. I'm just not sure what other than firebelly toads, would use all the water I have in here frog wise.

My reptile suppply store has some alpine newts I'm going to research to see if those would be a good choice.

Anyways, Thanks!

Pics:

And for kick and giggles, my dart frog viv:

 

[Azhael]

Welcome to the forum.
That´s a nice tank you have there. I wouldn´t recommend any newt. The reason for this is that 6-7 gallons is a bit lacking in volume, and you can´t really guarantee stability and excellent water quality without keeping very strict maintenance. It´s not practical.
Bombina orientalis seems like the ideal choice to me. I would just like to suggest that if you choose this species, you try to make an effort in finding captive bred ones. It´s quite ridiculous that at this day and age we still support the mass wild collection of this species..it´s not precisely difficult to breed!

Uh, the dart frog tank is gorgeous!

 

[NightWolf]

I am sooo jealous of your dart frog tank, you did a great job!

As for the species, I completely agree with Azhael on choosing Bombina orientalis; and please do try to find captive bred ones. You could make some toads very happy

 

[andrewsimon]

Thanks!

I forgot to mention that I have a drip system going that drips on the driftwood.

I have more than 10 years experience keeping fishtanks. Freshwater, salt water, high tech planted, fish only, reefs, everything. I"ve kept everything from 3 gallons to 1000 gallons (no joke, we have a 1000 at my work...lol) Water quality shouldn't be an issue...lol

Thanks for the ideas! I"m looking for something a little more different than firebellies, but they have been a possibility since I was thinking of the tank

 

[Azhael]

There are other issues, not just water quality, parametre whise.
The generally recommended minimum volume for even a single newt of a small species is 10gallons. As you can see, keeping even one of these in 6-7 gallons would be pushing it a bit. Newts are not overactive but they do like their space.
Also, i see you have fine gravel as substrate which poses a threat to caudates if ingested (and they are very good at ingesting it..¬¬), and you have a filter, which will cause a very undesired current that most commonly available species won´t apreciate at all. In fact, a strong enough current can cause these still water loving species to leave the water permanently.

These are the reasons why i don´t recommend any newt for such a set-up. You are obviously free to take my advice or to ignore it hehe.

 

[tmarmoratus]

The other option might be a caudate that spends an insignificant amount of time in the water - for instance, I have a Kweichow in a semi-aquatic (and not unlike this very one here), with about 4-5 gallons of water, a filter and a few aquatic plants. The kweichow, however, only takes the occasional dip, thus (I would think) puts less pressure on fouling the water than would a newt that spends 90-100% of it's time in the water.

 

[warrior]

I was thinking thats a perfect habitat for newts,I would put eastern red spotted newts in that set up.It is up to you though on what you put in there.