World's 1st/Biggest Paluquarium?

[Hsu Twins]

This is what we call a Paluquarium. We're not entirely sure if this is the first time it has been done on this large of a scale, so if anyone has ever done, seen, or heard of this, please let us know. If not, please comment anyway!

Since we may be the first, or one of the few people to ever do this, we thought we would give this sort of tank set-up a name. Since it is (technically) a paludarium inside of an aquarium, we called it a "Paluquarium"!!

The inside paludarium is a 29 gallon.
The outside aquarium is a 65 gallon.

Here are the fish and amphibians that are in the Paluquarium:
-Axolotl
-Ghost/Glass catfish
-GloFish
-Zebra Danios
-Freshwater Angelfish
-Rubber-lip Pleco
-Mickey Mouse Danios
-Dendrobates Tinctorius "Patricia" Dart Frog (inside tank)
-Amazon Milk Tree Frog (inside tank)
-(we used to have a spotted and marbled salamander and a chinese warty newt, but they unfortunately died due to the tremendous heat of this past summer)

The whole project cost $1200+, and an unimaginable amount of effort. Our biggest problem was stopping the inside paludarium from floating!! Even though it is 80+ lbs, the water pressure was more then we ever imagined, and after a couple failures, we did our research and found extreme industrial waterproof glue, called E6100 that did the job well.

Again, please let us know if this has ever been done before, and let us know how you like it!

 

[ajr104]

While impressive it is an unusual mix of species from around the world, with very different requirements, and in my opinion a shame you felt the need to include genetically modified fish ('Glofish'). Thankfully these are illegal in the UK.

 

[markcorpus]

Very well done. Thank you for sharing!

 

[Minniechild]

Looks impressive!
One question: how big is the substrate you've got in with the axolotls? Anything gravel-like not in a bag is NOT suitable for use in an axolotl habitat. If it is gravel, I'd be moving them out immediately to avoid killing them due to impaction, which, for axies kept on gravel is almost inevitable...

 

[Hsu Twins]

We don't have an axolotl in there yet, but we were going to get one very soon, so I included it in the list anyway, but we'll rethink that now! Thanks for the advice :happy:

 

[Jennewt]

What is the water temp? That might be another reason to skip the axolotl. The water is likely to be too warm.

 

[Hsu Twins]

The water temperature ranger from around 71 to 76 during different times of the year.

 

[Ghost1]

While impressive it is an unusual mix of species from around the world, with very different requirements, and in my opinion a shame you felt the need to include genetically modified fish ('Glofish'). Thankfully these are illegal in the UK.

They make very cool display fish. I don't understand the big problem with genetically modified animals if they are just for display. Can just give a "looks great?" Which it does btw....

 

[asfouts]

They make very cool display fish. I don't understand the big problem with genetically modified animals if they are just for display. Can just give a "looks great?" Which it does btw....

I think its funny that genetically modified animals are considered wrong by some people but selecting for certain display-type traits in an animal and inbreeding them is not wrong... When the latter causes far more problems and defects than the former...

Anyway that is a very weird, but impressive tank I have never thought of putting a tank inside of a tank.

 

[ajr104]

I think its funny that genetically modified animals are considered wrong by some people but selecting for certain display-type traits in an animal and inbreeding them is not wrong... When the latter causes far more problems and defects than the former...

Anyway that is a very weird, but impressive tank I have never thought of putting a tank inside of a tank.

I do agree with you in that the uncontrolled inbreeding of animals to get rare traits is just as bad (although also completely different) but if done properly should lead to no defects/problems at all.

In this case the set up is very impressive and natural looking, and in my opinion putting a very un-natural fish into it spoils the look. There are so many stunning species of fish which get overlooked. There are also major ethical and environmental issues to using these fish, hence why they are illegal in most of (if not all of) Europe.

Of course I also think that if I were to showcase on this website some 'Glo-Axolotls' we would be having a very different argument...

 

[Azhael]

Just because the tank is impressive it doesn´t mean that the choice of inhabitants is automatically beyond criticism.
Genetically modifying animals just for show is unethical, and so is blindly selecting for mutations. Both have negative repercussions on the welfare of captive animals and both are done solely for selfish reasons.
I too am very glad that at least GFP animals are illegal here...and i wish that artifitial selection was at least controlled and welfare standards enforced (but you know....fat chance...).

Please do not get an axolotl nor any other caudates, they are entirely unsuitable for that tank. Housing the salamanders and a newt in there was a very bad decission.
Other than that, very nice looking.....pool?

 

[Niels D]

Looks great and love the idea. Don't have an opinion about GFP's, because I know too little about how it works and what the consequences are, except for the fact that there should be no need for them. We've got enough beautiful animals we can keep already.

I can imagine all the effort it costed to make such a paluquarium. Nice work!

 

[Hsu Twins]

Thanks for your advice, we've been thinking, and were definitely not going to get it!