T. shanjing housing

E

ester

Guest
After having quite a lot of problems with my first shanjings, I decided to give this species one more go. I recently acquired three (1.2.0) animals and have kept them in a setup with a much higher air humidity level than before.
So far they seem to like it.
First a drawing of the current (temporary) setup:
77590.jpg

And a picture of the real thing:
77591.jpg


I plan to redo my 120cm long setup entirely, creating a shallow water area and high humidity levels in general (with proper ventilation).

I normally have a lid on this setup which helps with the high air humidity. The temperature is 20 C.
 
Interesting looking set up Ester. I've found that my shanjing are incredibly hydrophobic...they actually seem to wince when I mist them! They almost never enter the water. That has lead me to keep the shanjing tank rather arid.

What was it about your previous experience/problems with shanjing that lead you to a more water friendly/humid set up?

You old tank looked nearly perfect in the pictures.

GE
 
i must agree with Gord, my shanjing won't even go near damp moss ,they tend to stick to the dry areas of their tanks. Only now and again will they bathe in a shallow water bowl.
 
Of course I can't find the links I came across when I tried to research this on the internet, I never remember to instantly bookmark these things. I am basing my choices on a few pictures I've seen of natural habitat and some texts I read on the internet.

Here is one I did keep a link of:
François Maillet

I will try to retrieve the other bits of info. For now my male just got active again, walking into the water, and this time actually using the wood I provide as ramps.
 
I have a greater drier area for the shanjings and I keep their moss pretty dry during the cooler months, however they really like the water and spend a lot of time soaking in it. They were wild caught so I wonder whether they came from a damper area. The juveniles are in a dry set up with one side moss and paper towels, misted 2x daily.
 
Interesting topic this...
It seems that the usual advice is to keep this species in dry set ups but i must say that when i've done this i've had problems. My animals are a lot healthier, more active...even eat better when they have the damp set ups. Of course, they do have their dry spots under the cork hides etc, but after a good spraying (which i do every day or two) all my animals come out and rest in the damper areas. I also have friends that keep Shanjing and theirs act this way and frequent their water areas very often. From these two accounts of captive husbandry observations i can only assume that some localities where Shanjing are found are drier, others are more damp/humid. I know this species is found over a wide area, some are found in high land and others in lowland so this seems totally plausable to me. What do you guys think?
 
Ester I missed this post! To my experience, Tylo's need both a damp and a very, very dry part in their setup. Making a dry part surrounded by water won't do the trick. My setup consisted of three glass walls glued in each 1/3 of the aquarium, thus making one water area, one moist area (because of the moss which was draped into the water) and one completely dry area with soil and leaves. This worked perfectly.

The habitat of T. shanjing is usually very damp, but I have the idea that these animals tend to hide higher up, away from the brooks, in dry places. You remember the photo of a T. shanjing brook in our last newsletter? That is a part of the reproduction microclimate, but is says nothing about the habitat preferences in whole.

Good luck with them!
 
The main thing I think is air humidity. They like a dry place to hide in, but they seem to prefer the air humidity to be relatively high.

In this temporary setup the dry part is completely separate from the very wet/moist part. I simply mist the dry part every few days. I do not get under the bark though, so that remains dry.
 
Wouter - could you email me the last newsletter- i missed out on it ( chris.froggy'at'btopenworld.com )
 
Chris, it has been send!
 
I keep my group of six in a 50 gal breeder tank with a soil substrate. The water container is on one end and I keep the soil in that area constantly damp. One corner is completely dry and all the other areas vary in the degree of dampness. Overall mine seem to prefer the shelters in the damp areas although they do occasionally spend time in the drier areas.

Wouter, could you try sending me that newsletter again? chip_reves@carilion.com or freves@intergate.com

Chip
 
Fantastic

ester said:
After having quite a lot of problems with my first shanjings, I decided to give this species one more go. I recently acquired three (1.2.0) animals and have kept them in a setup with a much higher air humidity level than before.
So far they seem to like it.
First a drawing of the current (temporary) setup:
Click to expand...


I love Emperors, they are one of favorite species. I just wanted to know where you acquired yours?
Thank You for any assistance in my search.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It is quite funny, because the 1.2 that I take care of LOVE the water, even when they are not breeding. The young that I have though I just keep a corner damp with moss and paper and the rest dry. Have never given them any more water than this as they are still quite small. The adults were wild born (I work for a zoo where they were given after being confiscated during attempted smuggling in the 90's).
 
The difficulty is, T. shanjing and T. verrucosus appear to be a "complex" probably composed of many subspecies (or distinct locality populations). I believe there was a recent analysis of genetic data that concluded that shanjing and verrucosus are all a single species, but I haven't heard any follow-up on whether those results are generally accepted. Anyway... there seems to be a whole range of preferences and tolerances of aquatic versus terrestrial habitats among the animals in this whole complex. So it's really hard to generalize about what habitat T. shanjing needs or prefers. It's best to give them plenty of choice, with plenty of comfort and hiding places both on land and in the water and see how they behave.
 
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