N. Kaiseri & Geosesarma sp.

Anyway, I've recently been making moves to build a paludarium. I will be using a 24x18x18 exo terra, and it should be tons of fun with a lot of trial and error. Luckily, I have a local source that can help me out!

My question was, for Neurergus Kaiseri keepers (if any out there at all) would thrive in a paludarium. Some are able to live under water throughout their lives, others keep them terrestrial during certain times of the year. Since a Paludarium has the best of both worlds, I would assume this would be a prime habitat for these cuties. My only concern is the amount of moisture on the terrestrial side.

I am mostly building the paludarium for vampire crabs, but I have read that they are typically peaceful creatures and may be housed with amphibians and even geckos (although that would make me nervous..) so I may consider housing them together and watching really carefully but again, I am NOT 100% sure neither am I going to attempt it until I actually know if it is safe or not..

Anyways, if you CAN help me, I'd appreciate it. Or if you have any other info on vampire crabs, paludariums, or anything at all, please feel free to post or contact me

The problem with making a paludarium in a limited space is that the aquatic area is going to very small. Exo-terra terrariums are particularly bad for this purposes as they offer a very limited depth for the water, and if you reduce it even further to create land, then you are left with a ridiculously small volume of water that is simply not going to be adequate.
The newts can indeed be kept 100% aquatic, or be moved to a terrestrial tank when the breeding season is over. However, when they are aquatic, for whatever length of time, water quality will be very important, and the larger the volume of water the easier to provide that quality.
Unless you had a really big tank with a very substantial surface that would still leave you with at least 40-60 litres of water, i wouldn´t advice you to even consider the idea of a paludarium. It would be much easier and much more effective to have two separate tanks rather than trying to combine both stages.

As for the crabs, i know next to nothing about them so i can´t really help, but i´ll say that generally speaking it´s best to avoid mixing species. There is a limited number of species that can be succesfully mixed with caudates.

Ah, I see what you are saying. I just needed an experienced word of advice because it seems difficult to find anyone who knows much on either species. What better place than a strictly newt and salamander forum? Glad to have some light shed on my predicament. I suppose I will save the n. Kaiseri for a different project. Next would be some sort of aquascape, or maybe a simpler aquatic/terrestrial habitat with a larger body of water. In any case, I would still like some additional info on these guys and others experience with them in captivity.

I agree with Az; a Paludarium is a wonderful thing, but generally they are of limited use for aquatic creatures. I think most folks would recommend a minimum of 10 gallons of water for a pair of kaiseri.

If you look here, there are many pics of semi=aquatic and aquatic setups that could get you inspired
:
Caudata Culture Articles - Setups

I also don't know anything about vampire crabs. Sounds intriguing...do they suck blood?

Hehe, lol they are apparently called "vampire" crabs because of their red or neon yellow eyes.
You should look them up! They are very curious creatures. I'm excited to work with them

Do you have any previous experience with Geosesarma?
Chip

No I do not. They are relatively easy to care for from what I have concluded in my research. There isn't a large amount of information on them, but by talking to others who have had previous or current expeience with Geosesarma, I have gained a lot of helpful advice.

Personally I don't think crabs and newts should be mixed. I have no experience with land crabs but I think I'm right in thinking they're normally tropical and need to kept at temps higher than those required by kaiseri. They are also omnivorous and capable of catching insects. This makes me think they have the potential to nip a newt and will compete for the newts food. N. kaiseri are shy, timid creatures so any additional stressor such as a fast moving nippy crab is undesirable.

We generally advise against mixing newts with other animals. That's not to say there aren't people who have success with mixing but the long list of "everything was fine - until one day..." stories tend to outweigh the successes. I bet crabs would make interesting pets but I would keep both separate and offer them the optimum conditions they require.

My only concern is the amount of moisture on the terrestrial side

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Terrestrial kaiseri like it on the dry side. Topsoil lightly misted once a week. Wet or waterlogged substrate should be avoided.

From recent personal experience I found Geosesarma to be difficult. I started out with a group of six in a 50/50 shoreline vivarium. This tank was heated but located in the salamander room. Initially the crabs were ravenous feeders on crickets but after about a week I never saw them feed again. After about two weeks I lost three. I decided to change things around so I moved them to a tropical forest type of enclosure with coir, dead leaves, and a small plant. I seeded the substrate with isopods, white worms (despite warm temperatures), and springtails. The only water source was a small bowl. In addition to offering small insects I also put out prepared food such as Hikari crab food, tropical fish flakes, and fruit. The substrate was deep enough to allow burrowing and this tank is located in my warm room upstairs. The remaining three lasted much longer in this setup however they still all eventually died. The last one to die actually lived the longest so I am wondering how communal they really are. In any case I would not reccommend mixing them with anything until the husbandry is better worked out.
Chip

Geosesarma only live for 3 years, so I'm not too surprised on your mortality rate. If for any other reason I am not sure what the source of their death was, however I have spoken with many others that have voiced the opposite. Also, I have decided to keep the two species separate mostly because of the huge differences between temp requirements and potential hazards. Much safer this way! But I am still interested in N. Kaiseri and building an awesome aquascape to replicate the mountainous terrain of Iran should be epic..

I plan on keeping woodlice in the enclosure as well, may I ask what kind you were using? I have heard that the tropical orange isopod will COMPETE with the crabs over territory and can stress eachother out. Hence is why I will stick to the dwarf greys and white Isopods.. Interesting though!

I used dwarf spanish isopods as well as my local species. Geosesarma are really neat crabs however they were invisible in the terrarium. I had to dig them out from time to time just to check on them. Good luck with yours.
Chip

I hope so too, thanks!
I plan on getting 4 or 5, my paludarium won't be too big anyway so hopefully they won't be in hiding ALL the time. I will definitely let you all know how it goes. I should be getting them in a few weeks time, at least that is my goal.