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Last weekend I bought a 30g hex that I plan on turning into a brackish paludarium. The inhabitants will be 4 gobies (Gobiosoma bosc) a hermit crab and a marsh snail. At least so far that's what is going to live in there.
The gobies are known to live in salt marshes, either in a seagrass habitat or an oyster reef habitat. I plan to mix it up a bit, and have ordered some Spartina grass (emergent) and some Ruppia sp, which grows naturally in higher salinity brackish waters. I also have a good collection of barnacles, both from the HAS auction, my own collection, and FishRanch. The substrate will be Tidal Marine Substrate, which is a beige colored sand.
And that's where I stop knowing what I'm doing. :) Ideally, I would like to have a sand bottom planted with the Ruppia, with some sort of reef-like structure of barnacles (the gobies love them!), and a higher level above that for a partially submerged land area (maybe with a small cluster of barnacles) in which I will plant the Spartina. I am having a LOT more trouble actually putting this together than visualizing it. It's possible that I need more barnacles, because the amount that I have right now when I put them all together barely tops 5 inches, and in a 30g hex there's a lot more room to fill.
So, in keeping with the theme, I would love any suggestions. I am hoping that the land area can be atop the barnacle structure, maybe using some kind of plastic bowl? I'm also thinking, in order to raise the reef structure, of putting a large dead coral on the bottom (got it from my old work place). Anyways, this is where I get confused, and any layout ideas anyone might have would be greatly appreciated!
Here's some more pictures I took of the gobies, and one horrible one of the hermit crab. The snail is out of the water underneath the lid of the little plastic tank about 99% of the time, so I can't get a good picture of him yet.
All three in one little barnacle cluster:
One under an oyster shell (maybe I could make a structure out of oyster shells if I find more?):
Three in their respective favorite places:
And lastly, the hermit crab:
The gobies are known to live in salt marshes, either in a seagrass habitat or an oyster reef habitat. I plan to mix it up a bit, and have ordered some Spartina grass (emergent) and some Ruppia sp, which grows naturally in higher salinity brackish waters. I also have a good collection of barnacles, both from the HAS auction, my own collection, and FishRanch. The substrate will be Tidal Marine Substrate, which is a beige colored sand.
And that's where I stop knowing what I'm doing. :) Ideally, I would like to have a sand bottom planted with the Ruppia, with some sort of reef-like structure of barnacles (the gobies love them!), and a higher level above that for a partially submerged land area (maybe with a small cluster of barnacles) in which I will plant the Spartina. I am having a LOT more trouble actually putting this together than visualizing it. It's possible that I need more barnacles, because the amount that I have right now when I put them all together barely tops 5 inches, and in a 30g hex there's a lot more room to fill.
So, in keeping with the theme, I would love any suggestions. I am hoping that the land area can be atop the barnacle structure, maybe using some kind of plastic bowl? I'm also thinking, in order to raise the reef structure, of putting a large dead coral on the bottom (got it from my old work place). Anyways, this is where I get confused, and any layout ideas anyone might have would be greatly appreciated!
Here's some more pictures I took of the gobies, and one horrible one of the hermit crab. The snail is out of the water underneath the lid of the little plastic tank about 99% of the time, so I can't get a good picture of him yet.
All three in one little barnacle cluster:
One under an oyster shell (maybe I could make a structure out of oyster shells if I find more?):
Three in their respective favorite places:
And lastly, the hermit crab:
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