Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am in the process of setting up a paludarium, which is an enclosure with both aquatic and terrestrial elements. Mine is a 20 gallon long aquarium with a topper (I finally found one! It was a task since they are discontinued!)

I am trying to decide what creatures to put in it. I know that not everybody agrees with mixing species, but I am willing to buy more enclosures or redesign this one if it seems like it is affecting the animals negatively. I do hope to be able to create a setup that comfortably houses a variety of critters though.

I need some suggestions.

At the moment I have two crawfish in it. I really like them there and would like to keep them in there, but I am willing to move them out if they interfere with the "lineup". I know they are predators.

I have thought of: green/brown anoles, house geckos, green/barking/gray tree frogs, fire belly toads, fire belly newts, just general salamanders (didn't decide on a type), rough green snakes, general ribbon snakes, general garter snakes, general water snakes, small tropical fish, fiddler crabs, aquatic clawed frogs, general snails, and freshwater clams. Not all together of course!

I would like to know if anybody has any other ideas that I have not thought of yet. Basically I am asking, other than the above mentioned, what animals would thrive in an enclosure that was half water?

I will of course do a lot of research on anything suggested, I just need a place to start.

Dump the crayfish, they are too good of a predator, you will likely lose any aquatic creatures you add. You should be thinking of animals that don't compete with each other, for example you are not going to keep any fish with a watersnake, or gartersnake, and it's a safe bet that amphibians would be out too. I suggest anoles, geckos, green tree frogs(not whites or some other species! Hyla cinerea), rough green snake,small aquatic newts,dwarf sirens and african dwarf frogs. With these you can keep tropical fish. If you want to go high end, Large species of dart frogs instead of treefrogs, and small day geckos instead of anoles. If you do this you will have to have plenty of greenery and hiding spaces a "community" environment increases the stress for all. I've kept rough green snakes with lizard before without a problem, however doing so drastically increases the stress levels of the other animals, let us know how it goes, good luck!

I just noticed that you are talking about a 20 long,That is a bit small in my opinion for making a community tank. for mixing species I would suggest a minimum of a 45 gallons of space. For your 20 I would only recommend the fully aquatic species, like newts and dwarf frogs, with one terrestrial species.

Thank you so much for your reply. It was helpful.