Greater Siren Habitat

[Leukloki]

These are the tanks I've tried over the last few years for my Sirens.. everything from fully planted to bare bottom Still never sure what I love the most or what Big girl likes...

This tank was fully planted (only plants native to the Florida pond from which she was found as a baby) had 2 inches of black sand covered by good thick dirt and then layers interlaced, sand dirt sand dirt. This tank was so much fun for the sirens because I actually buried pvc piping under the dirt so that it may look like they had much less area to swim, but actually utilized the underground much more often then they surfaced.

I kept nitrogen from forming in the tubes by integrating an air tubing system that I could actually turn on and off. This helped not only to clean the water out of the tubes when I was doing a general tank cleaning, but also helped to get back out all the dirt that Big girl tried to stuff the tubes with. :lol: so using air and a spoon (long handled yes) I was able to keep the environment very clean.

I was already running a fluval canister to keep the water flow pretty rapid as the tank is a 80 gal tank, with about 8 inches of mud. I was able to live raise bugs for her to eat (and also small minnows which she loves) I made a canopied lid so that the plants could continue to grow up towards the light, and eventually the roots came down into the soil and gave the girl even more room to wriggle through.

Loved the tank, but it was alot of constant maintenance. And after the last time she threw a fit and moved all my plants around I was kinda done with it, and I think she was too : )

This is how we are currently rolling

This tank is fairly simple. I used the same wood and just used fake plants. I went down to the Micheal's and got some fairy cheap plants. I love that she can't eat these ones or break them into a million pieces and kill them.

She seems pretty happy too

Hope the pictures came out ok! Im gonna post this and see what happens.
Also... is there any where on this forum to test pictures? Hate to be a forum newbie...

 

[Jennewt]

Nice pictures, thanks for posting.

I'm not sure what you mean by testing photos, but you can set up your own photo album here (and delete any that you don't like). Then you can post from your album instead of uploading directly to the thread. Go to the menu called Albums and Galleries.

 

[Leukloki]

Thank you! Didn't know if you guys had a location to test out pictures (like sizing,or hey will it even show up I'm just glad mine worked the first time. I am lucky Big girl is so photogenic! Thanks for the likes she is currently re-arranging all the plants as we speak... le sigh.

 

[eyrops]

Very nicely done. It isn't easy to come up with a setup that works well for something that big and active.

 

[Leukloki]

Thanks Steve,
Honestly its been so much trial and error, but she is a great pet who doesn't mind sitting in the smaller tank watching me re-arrange everything, so I am very lucky in that aspect. Great pets sirens. I wish more people had them!