Setting up a Paludarium: Paludarium fauna

Now my paludarium was planted I was tempted to put the frogs in straight away. But it's better to wait 6-8 weeks to give all the plants time to anchor themselves.

Jungle look Paludarium

However you can release springtails (Collembolans) in your paludarium straight away. Springtails are tiny little creatures that will help keep your paludarium clean. You can find them all over the world and they are probably also living in your backyard. They are completely harmless and if they escape they will die soon as they need high humidity to survive. They look like little insects but are no longer considered insects according to Wikipedia:

Collembolans are omnivorous free-living organisms that prefer moist conditions. They do not directly engage in the decomposition of organic matter, but contribute to it indirectly through the fragmentation of organic matterand the control of soil microbial communities.

Springtails Paludarium

The easiest way to get a springtail culture is to buy them in a specialised pet shop or online and they are not too expensive. Most cultures will come in a plastic tub with some charcoal and around 2cm of water. Springtails are low maintenance and taking care of them is easy: Lift the lid every day for a couple of seconds to let in some fresh air and once or twice a week you feed them some rice grains. They actually don't eat the rice but the fungus that will grow on it. Every now and then I pour a couple of hundred in my Paludarium as they will multiply like crazy if you look after them. It's also a good idea to split your culture up in 2 so when one culture collapses (this can happen for many reasons; search google) you still have a back up.

Springtails in Paludarium

Later when the frogs are released the springtails will help keep your paludarium clean by getting rid of frog droppings and fallen leaves etc.

It's also a good idea to release a culture of isopods in your paludarium but unfortunately they're not for sale where I live. So I'm trying to start my own culture in a seperate fishtank with some isopods captured in my backyard.

Isopods Paludarium

As the Spotted Marsh Frog is native to South Australia I don't heat the water and thus can't use tropical fish. Searching internet I found a cold water fish that's peaceful, small, colourful and not too expensive; White clouds. They also used to call them the poor mans Neon Tetra as they look a bit similar.

White Clouds Paludarium

I started with a group of 12 White clouds and they love their environment with all the hiding spots, waterfall and water flow.

Two weeks later I added 4 Red Cherry Shrimps. They are also very peaceful, will help keeping algae under control and will eat left over food from the fish.

Red Cherry shrimps Paludarium

I wasn't too sure if the frogs were gonna eat them or not but took the risk and lucky enough after living with the frogs for a couple of months now the shrimps are still alive.

One week later I added two "vacuum cleaners" to my Paludarium: Mystery snails. I really love the gracious way they move around with their long tentacles.

Mystery snails Paludarium

I also added 8 compost worms to the paludarium. I took 'm out of my compost bin in the backyard, but you can also buy them at Bunnings, which I did a year ago or so.Within a couple of weeks I had many baby worms crawling and digging around. They are also a nice occassional snack for the frogs.

Compost worms Paludarium

Then, finally, after 9 weeks, the time was ripe to release the 4 Spotted Marsh frogs into their new home.

Spotted Marsh frogs minutes before their release

Releasing Spotted Marsh frogs in Paludarium

It seems like they really love their new habitat, with lots of plants, hiding spots, a water stream, 2 high look-outs and a little house made out of a coconut.

Spotted Marsh frog on the look out

Spotted Marsh Frog - Paludarium

After a couple of months observing the frogs you'll see they all have their own habits. One likes to hang out in the water next to the filter outlet (must be the high flow of the water), while the 3 others climb on the look-outs in the late afternoon, overlooking their jungle and waiting for the 18:30 release of the 20 or so small crickets every day. As soon as I switch the LED lights to red and blue only the hunt begins.