Hobby

Paludarium Building

Family era, after a local 100-year flood

After a 100-year flood brought Texas toads into our yard, my daughter started collecting and housing them. My wife and I found a 76-gallon tank sitting out for bulk trash pickup, and I turned it into a proper paludarium for her frogs - part land, part water, built from scratch.

The build started with foam insulation board lining the walls and an egg-crate platform to raise a false bottom over the water reservoir, then a full coco-fiber background pressed on and carved for planting pockets and driftwood. A few weeks after the background went in, it was already planted and one of the toads had moved in. By the end of the year it had filled out into a proper little jungle - ferns, fittonia, moss over river stone, and a standing pool at the bottom. We had so many toads that feeding them became a chore. I ended up having to breed my own crickets to keep up with the demand. I also had springtails and rolly-pollys living in the soil to help keep the tank clean. It was a full echosystem.

An empty glass tank on a workbench in the garage, the raw 76-gallon tank before any build work

The tank itself - a 76-gallon find from bulk trash pickup.

Foam insulation board lining the tank walls, with a plastic egg-crate platform zip-tied together inside to raise a false bottom

Foam board lining the walls, egg-crate platform for the false bottom.

A mesh screen top being fitted over the tank, same day

Fitting the mesh top, same day.

The tank walls covered in a textured coco-fiber background, carved into a basin shape with driftwood worked in

The coco-fiber background going in, carved and shaped with driftwood.

One of the rescued Texas toads sitting on a bird's nest fern inside the newly planted paludarium

One of the toads, already moved in - two weeks after the background went up.

The finished, mature paludarium - lush ferns and fittonia, moss over river stones, and a standing pool of water at the bottom

Six months later - fully grown in.