Berkeley
Active Member
- Joined
- May 4, 2014
- Messages
- 296
I like to try to replicate nature in my vivariums and aquariums whenever possible. My newest set up is a model of some of the cold, spring-fed creeks and rivers of south Georgia and Florida. The first tank I have set up at my office, and it houses some hatchling spiny softshell turtles and an alligator snapper. Here is a picture of the tank itself.
It is created with base rock (for marine tanks) purchased at a local aquarium store, with a mix of white playground sand and crushed coral. The eelgrass is plastic, and I just cut it up and epoxied it to some small pieces of gravel to keep it sunk. It is filtered by a Duetto 100 in the back right corner.
Here are some pictures of the inhabitants. The spiny softshells first.
It's neck is not even fully extended yet! They have really long necks!
Softshells are actually very strong swimmers, and the water is about 8 inches deep. They still bury themselves completely in the substrate and poke their heads out to look around.
The tank has a footprint of 20 inches by 20 inches. I also keep ghost shrimp and snails in there for the turtles to snack on.
The next inhabitant is a juvenile alligator snapper.
It is really fascinating to see it clambering around on all the rockwork and woodwork. Often it will wedge itself underneath the branch and wait for a shrimp to scuttle too close.
The next aquarium is the same style, but it is set up for some juvenile map turtles which I just acquired a few weeks ago. It is deeper though since map turtles prefer deeper water, and I have a basking platform over the top of the tank for them to haul out on. It is a box made out of cut plexiglass pieces, and sits on the rim of the tank. This maximizes swimming room, but also provides cover. Juvenile maps are incredibly shy, and feel most comfortable if they can observe from the safety of the water. Filtration is done with a hang-on-back Whisper filter.
This is an Alabama map (foreground) and a Barbour's map (rear).
The turtles wedge themselves into the gaps in the rockwork, and hang from the branches underneath the basking platform. It is quite the difference in how curious they are from their 'hiding' spot versus when they are 'exposed' in the water or basking.
When they get a little bigger, I will add a powerhead to give some current, further mimicking the rivers that they are found in.
All of these turtles are maintained under permits from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Thanks for looking, and I hope you enjoyed.
--Berkeley
It is created with base rock (for marine tanks) purchased at a local aquarium store, with a mix of white playground sand and crushed coral. The eelgrass is plastic, and I just cut it up and epoxied it to some small pieces of gravel to keep it sunk. It is filtered by a Duetto 100 in the back right corner.
Here are some pictures of the inhabitants. The spiny softshells first.
It's neck is not even fully extended yet! They have really long necks!
Softshells are actually very strong swimmers, and the water is about 8 inches deep. They still bury themselves completely in the substrate and poke their heads out to look around.
The tank has a footprint of 20 inches by 20 inches. I also keep ghost shrimp and snails in there for the turtles to snack on.
The next inhabitant is a juvenile alligator snapper.
It is really fascinating to see it clambering around on all the rockwork and woodwork. Often it will wedge itself underneath the branch and wait for a shrimp to scuttle too close.
The next aquarium is the same style, but it is set up for some juvenile map turtles which I just acquired a few weeks ago. It is deeper though since map turtles prefer deeper water, and I have a basking platform over the top of the tank for them to haul out on. It is a box made out of cut plexiglass pieces, and sits on the rim of the tank. This maximizes swimming room, but also provides cover. Juvenile maps are incredibly shy, and feel most comfortable if they can observe from the safety of the water. Filtration is done with a hang-on-back Whisper filter.
This is an Alabama map (foreground) and a Barbour's map (rear).
The turtles wedge themselves into the gaps in the rockwork, and hang from the branches underneath the basking platform. It is quite the difference in how curious they are from their 'hiding' spot versus when they are 'exposed' in the water or basking.
When they get a little bigger, I will add a powerhead to give some current, further mimicking the rivers that they are found in.
All of these turtles are maintained under permits from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Thanks for looking, and I hope you enjoyed.
--Berkeley