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New shanjing setup

M

mark

Guest
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i am upgradin my 3 t shanjing's terrarium into a 3 foot tank spilt via a glass pane into an aquatic and terrestrial area. the subtrate will be soil mixed with shredded bark and there will be many live palnts as well as rocks, bogwood and cork bark to provide hiding places and easy access to the water area. The substrate for the water area shall be aquarium gravel - fairly large - and it shall be filtered with a small powerhead on low setting with the flow deflected to spalsh over a rock etc.

Looking for any advice, suggestions or corrections to the above design

Thanks

MArk (newtboyuk)
 
M

mark

Guest
setup up and running now. newts displaying ver interesting behavior - two individuals in the water area together - diving down to the bottom if disturbed and actively swimming - will be watching closely for any signs of courtship.

setup looking great - have added plants but intend to add more - will post pictures end of next week of setup and inhabitants
 
S

steve

Guest
good luck I like the design. Did it come out just like the above "blue print"?

steve
 
M

mark

Guest
more or less

theres much much more wood used in the tank is the only significant difference from the design - providing plenty of hiding places.

It still needs more plants and moss though.

i will try and get pictures next week.

Mark
 
J

john

Guest
Very nice Mark. I wish you the best of luck with that set up. Btw, your site's links don't work ;). Thanks for linking to Caudata.org btw!
 
M

matthew

Guest
That is a sweet setup. Good job.
The links do work. Just wait for the entire page to load. It took a minute for me, but then I have a slow Dial up connection in Alaska, so it take awhile for everything
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- Matt
 
M

mark

Guest
Thanks for your input - i appreciate it!

John - the broken links have now been sorted! :p
 
Y

yago

Guest
I am a bit late with this post. I would only recommend you to put a drainage layer in the terrestrial part in order to keep the soil oxygenated and to avoid water surplus. I also have a layer of carbon to neutralize ammonia and so on. With this method you don’t have to change the soil more than once a year. The rest is great, it will be a nice setup. Don’t forget to post some pics.
Best wishes
 
M

mark

Guest
Thanks for the advice Yago, however the problem i had was the water evaporating and being lost, so drainage isn't a problem. Do you think a layer of carbon is worth it? (there are only three newts in the setup)

I have got pictures - they are in the "newts" section of my new website, http://www.walkagood.vze.com
 
Y

yago

Guest
Well, if you have only three newts there is no need. I would only replace every 3 months the 1st cm of soil. I hope you have breeding success!
Best wishes
 

duncan

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Joined
May 7, 2007
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Hi All,
I thought I'd share my own shanjing setup, as well as a few pics I have of them. I've only had them about 3-4 months but they seem to be doing well. I have four, 2 that appear to be females and possibly 2 males By the way, this is my first post ... after lurking for the past year or so, I decided to find the courage to finally post! I can't emphasize enough what a great site Caudata.org is!
Duncan
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M

mark

Guest
Lovely newts and setup Duncan! All the best with them - they're fascinating creatures!
 
J

john

Guest
Welcome to the site Duncan. I'm glad you have posted. That's a wonderful set up. I would add a few more hiding places though personally ;).

To anyone else who is "lurking" out there, which is probably more than 50% of the people who use the site, don't be afraid, we don't bite!
 

duncan

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May 7, 2007
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Thanks for the comments guys.
John, in fact, since I took the pics I've added a couple more pieces of cork bark and the plants have grown in a bit so they do have some more cover. I thought the same thing when I found all four of them huddled under the one piece of cork that was there originally, it was quite a sight (lol).
Francesco, they do go into the water quite regularly, but right now I have the water level very low, just a couple centimeters (you can just see it in the right hand corner of the first pic). I have been slowly letting it drop over the past two months and am thinking of flooding it in the next little while to see if I can induce some breeding activity. I can increase the depth to about 20 cm (~ 8 inches), up to the soil, above the hydroponics beads and gravel layers, shown above. Any thought on this? When I first got them and the water level was about 10 cm (4 inches) they went in the water much more often than I anticipated.
Duncan
 
J

john

Guest
Good luck with breeding them Duncan. For breeding, it's generally a good idea to increase the temperature to the mid 20s Celsius and maybe put a screen lid on the tank to increase humidity at the same time.
 
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