Question: Got a spare 10g, trying to come up with ideas

[Raella]

So, I have a 10g lying around with nothing to do. I have had fish in it before, but for fish right now I'm just going to stick to my 5.5g with either a Betta or shrimp. As for the 10g, what I really want to do is some sort of half-and-half paludarium. I've been doing research on what to keep in the tank, but am having a hard time telling what should be confined to a 10g and what needs more room. Most things just do into details about how much land/water is appropriate, but not in what size tank. I don't have anything larger to work with, and wanted to do this because I can't have anything that comes out of it's tank, and a newt/salamander would work well. Not interested in any frogs. I preferably want something that will spend time on both land and in the water. So, based on my research I probably wouldn't get any kind of salamander, so I guess I'm looking for a newt that fits the bill. I just want to avoid something that won't just stay in the water all the time. I would be interested in axolotl but I can't have a tank large enough for them right now, so I can't get them. Will in the future if this goes well, once I have my own place and can do whatever I want. I also would prefer as large of a newt as I can get for my tank size, and ideally would have just one by itself. So if some need social stuff those aren't as high on my list, but I'm going to work with what I can right now.

So any tips would be fantastic!

 

[Chinadog]

The minimum volume of water recommended for keeping any kind of newt is ten gallons. Unless it's full, a ten gallon tank will hold much less than that. It would be possible to keep some small aquatic newts in your tank, but forget about the 50/50 land/water arrangement, most newts I can think of are either fully aquatic or seasonally aquatic, They don't really move from one to the other on a daily basis so half a 50/50 tank will always be wasted.

 

[sde]

Tylototriton kweichowensis can be kept half and half I believe. So can Taricha granulosa.
However, like Chinadog said, most species don't really go into the water on a daily basis in the wild, so it would be better if you had two tanks or seasonally changed you're tank from land to water. But the species I mentioned can be successfully kept in half and half tanks. Taricha granulosa will go into the water/land on a daily basis from my experience, and it varies from individual to individual. -Seth

 

[Raella]

The minimum volume of water recommended for keeping any kind of newt is ten gallons. Unless it's full, a ten gallon tank will hold much less than that. It would be possible to keep some small aquatic newts in your tank, but forget about the 50/50 land/water arrangement, most newts I can think of are either fully aquatic or seasonally aquatic, They don't really move from one to the other on a daily basis so half a 50/50 tank will always be wasted.

I see. Bummer. Well, I was anticipating that, and my fallback was C. Pryyhogastor. But I was wondering what other options I have, both aquatic and terrestrial. There was one newt I was reading about that gets ~12 inches long, I can't recall it's scientific name but it was the Ribbed Newt? Obviously, something like that is too big. I also looked into Ambystoma Tigrinum, but that looks to be too big as well. So, what are all of my 10g options?

 

[sde]

Yes ribbed newts ( P. waltl ) get pretty big, I have heard as big as 15 inches. Ambystoma tigrinum can get pretty big as well. Like Chinadog previously said, if you want to keep an aquatic species in a ten gallon tank the tank would need to be completely full, and you would have to make sure you didn't miss any water changes etc..

Aquatic species that could be kept in a ten gallon tank include but may not be limited to:

H. orientalis
C. pyrrhogaster
C. e. popei
C. e. ensicauda
I. alpestris
N. viridescenes

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Their may be more however. Personally though, I would just buy a larger tank like a 20 gallon, that way you have a lot more options and you're newts would have more room. Plus water quality would probably be easier to maintain.

The only terrestrial species that could be kept in a tank that size that I can think of are rare in captivity, so I won't list them. -Seth

 

[Chinadog]

You could easily keep a pair of C pyrrhogaster in a ten gallon tank. Fill it nearly to the top, add plenty of plants and a turtle dock, they'd be happy enough. They are fascinating creatures, I love watching mine, there's always something going on in there.

 

[Raella]

Yes ribbed newts ( P. waltl ) get pretty big, I have heard as big as 15 inches. Ambystoma tigrinum can get pretty big as well. Like Chinadog previously said, if you want to keep an aquatic species in a ten gallon tank the tank would need to be completely full, and you would have to make sure you didn't miss any water changes etc..

Aquatic species that could be kept in a ten gallon tank include but may not be limited to:

H. orientalis
C. pyrrhogaster
C. e. popei
C. e. ensicauda
I. alpestris
N. viridescenes

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Their may be more however. Personally though, I would just buy a larger tank like a 20 gallon, that way you have a lot more options and you're newts would have more room. Plus water quality would probably be easier to maintain.

The only terrestrial species that could be kept in a tank that size that I can think of are rare in captivity, so I won't list them. -Seth

Yeah, maybe you didn't read all of what I said, but I can't go higher than a 10g where I am right now. I have a 20g long that recently during a move got a small crack that in the future I wish to use as a terrarium, but that won't be happening for quite some time.
As for what you sent me, like I said I anticipated this and was considering C. Prryhogaster, however I really liked what I saw about I. Alpestris. What I want to know is, how many should be kept in a 10g? 1? 2? 3? Same goes for the Jap Firebelly.

The other thing I want to say is, according to Wikipedia some of the newt species you linked to are considered "Threatened", so I won't go with those. While I will not be getting anything wild-caught anyway, I would rather not have a species like that.
That being said, those terrestrial dwelling ones you spoke of, I would like to hear more about those. As long as they aren't all incredible delicate or engendered themselves, I think they are worth consideration.

Thanks for your help so far though!

 

[sde]

As for what you sent me, like I said I anticipated this and was considering C. Prryhogaster, however I really liked what I saw about I. Alpestris. What I want to know is, how many should be kept in a 10g? 1? 2? 3? Same goes for the Jap Firebelly

You could keep a pair of I. alpestris and probably three firebellys.

The other thing I want to say is, according to Wikipedia some of the newt species you linked to are considered "Threatened", so I won't go with those. While I will not be getting anything wild-caught anyway, I would rather not have a species like that.

Okay that's fine.

That being said, those terrestrial dwelling ones you spoke of, I would like to hear more about those. As long as they aren't all incredible delicate or engendered themselves, I think they are worth consideration.

The ones that first popped into my head were members of the family Aneides, but they are very rare in captivity and so you would probably have to get wild caught ones.
You might be able to keep one Fire salamander in a ten gallon tank but I wouldn't recommend it. Marbled salamanders could be kept in a ten gallon, maybe two of them. But you might have to get wild caught ones, I don't see captive bred ones very often.
I will do a bit of research tomorrow and see what I can find for you. Maybe I will find a more common species that I haven't thought of. -Seth

 

[sde]

Here is the other species I cam up with:

Plethodon cinareus and serratus.
Plethodont glutinoses complex.

Here are their care sheets.

Caudata Culture Species Entry - Plethodon cinereus & serratus

Caudata Culture Species Entry - Plethodon glutinosus complex

Also here is a care sheet for the fire salamanders and marbles salamanders.

Caudata Culture Species Entry - Salamandra salamandra - Fire Salamander

Caudata Culture Species Entry - Ambystoma opacum

The first two species I listed you would probably have to get wild caught.

That's all I could find right now, hopefully this will help you out!