Natural Diamondback Terrapins Plants & Fish

[brandonhauser97]

Hey everybody, I really want to make my tank as natural for my little turts as possible, so I am trying to find out some plants and fish that can survive in brackish water with my three northern diamondback terrapins. I am going to keep the salinity at 1.014 and I am thinking about sand as a substrate, so any plants with roots should be fine if I’m correct. Also I already have a few plants in zip lock bags filled with water while I wait for my 100 gallon tank to arrive on December 8th. The plants include 5 nano marimo moss balls, two rhizomes of anubias barteri gold, 2 portions of java moss 6″x6″, and 1 portion of pellia 2″x2″… all from aqmagic.com (I am planning on rooting them all on driftwood). As far as fish I was thinking of having ghost shrimp because they will help keep the tank clean and I have heard that they fluff up marimo moss balls when they clean them. I would also like to have some corydoras, but they do not live in brackish, so I am open to suggestions:) Let me know what you guys think I should put in the tank… Thanks a bunch, Brandon Hauser

[Stephen & Candace Chew]

Brandon, none of those plants will live in a terrapin environment. First of all they can’t tolerate that type of salinity and second, they will die from the ammonia level the terrapins will produce. The marimo balls will get destroyed by the terrapins and the ghost shrimp will likely become snacks, as will the corys. If you really want to replicate a terrapin’s environment, you will have to go with spartina grass. Look up the estuary environment of the US coast for more info.-Stephen C From: brandonhauser97

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