Home made terrariums?

firesalamander

firesalamander

Salamandra Enthusiast
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Hi, I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to make a home made terrarium. Im wanting it to be big enough to have a self sustaining ecosystem but I am particularly low on funds.
 
Plastic tub setups are certainly the best if you are on a tight budget. What exactly do you mean by self-sustaining? Are you trying to grow live food in the same setup with the sals?
 
firesalamander said:
Hi, I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to make a home made terrarium. Im wanting it to be big enough to have a self sustaining ecosystem but I am particularly low on funds.
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You will still have to add water, food animals, clean out feces, maintain plants and so on. While extremely naturalistic vivaria are easy to do if you spend a bit of time and money on them, self sustaining just does not work with amphibians.

As for instructions, there a quite a few decent books readily available, and there are a number of threads on here how to build different types. A bit of work with the forum search function and some time spent on Caudata Culture will help you out.
 
I am hoping to make a really naturalistic terrarium. I saw a video of one that I loved. And I am hoping to make one similar.
 
axolotlgangster said:
Read this. http://www.frogforum.net/vivarium-t.../703-quick-cheap-easy-terrarium-vivarium.html
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Note if you are new to keeping salamanders, skip the light/heat lamp displayed in the link. Salamanders need to be kept in a cool environment. The plastic bin with screen mesh is an excellent inexpensive way to go. Holes can also be drilled in the plastic lid to provide for ventillation rather than using mesh. See this for some ideas on terrestrial setups including using plastic bins:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/setups3.shtml
 
Im new to caudates but not that new. My plans are to have a 55 gallon aquarium and have 1/3 water with a waterfall and a stream leading to that. Inside the pool I want to have some type of minnow. Then I would like to have various north american salamanders/newts and some frogs/toads. I will also add some worms in the soil to provide a potential food source. Along with numerous live native mosses it will make it if not self sustaining very close to that. At the same time I am using all of the native animals to one area I can get.
 
What caudates would you recommend for a terrestrial 55 gallon?
 
alright. WHat is the most active salamander that you know of?
 
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