2 Musk Turtles

[elisew]

My Son has been talking about keeping turtles for a while now. 2 of his mates have turtles and he spends a fair bit of time helping with them and he`s done a lot of reading about them lately too.

I had a real bonus on ebay last week, managed to get a 2.5' tank with gravel and an almost new Fluval 305 for next to nothing, the 305 is now working well on my fish tank
I`ve recently re-scaped my fish tank so we`ve used some spare sand, bogwood, gravel and big pebbles in the new tank along with a heater and a spare internal filter to give the turtles a new home. We have a basking ramp and a clamp lamp being delivered tomorrow so hopefully all will be done and sorted.
As my Son has done a lot of reading about turtles I took him to the local LFS this afternoon and we got him 2 Musk Turtles. They are so small and cute!!

I guess our house is becoming more of a managerie these days

 

[Asp]

Common musks are great!

Just a couple of pointers - they have quite different care needs to a lot of the other turtles commonly available. They don't so much swim as walk along the bottom, particularly as hatchlings they are actually surprisingly poor swimmers. I'd recommend keeping hatchling musks in 3 or 4" of water max. A lot of people keep them in a setup that would be fine for a map or slider, with 12" of water, and the poor little thing will exhaust itself constantly struggling to the surface to breathe!

However - as relatively poor swimmers, they can be kept with a few hardy cleaner fish, they'll never catch them in a million years. My various mud and musk turtles live with a handful of whiteclouds, harlequin rasbora and danios.

Asside from this, I'd also lose the substrate, just keep the large rocks. When they get a bit bigger gravel becomes a hazard, potentially causing fatal impaction if swallowed.

They are very hardy too, their natural range extends as far north as Canada, so no need for any kind of heater.

Any questions feel free to ask.

 

[elisew]

Hi Asp

Thanks a lot for your tips and advice. I guess the lower level of water makes sense for such small little fellas. I thought the level would have to be high enough for the filter to work which is why we filled to just under half the tank but I really appreciate your advice, I`ll have to sort it out for them
I`ve put some bogwood in so they have some sort of platform in the middle of the tank if they want to chill and rest there too.

I`m sure we`ll get there in the end, this forum and the members have given me some fantastic advice for my fish and tank so I have every confidence I`ll get the same for the turtles.

 

[Asp]

Filtration is tricky, I wrote a little about filtering turtles in the Map turtle thread elsewhere in this section.

Personally, the juevenile muds and musks I have at the moment are unfiltered. I keep the water clean using plenty of plant life (elodea), removing excess waste manually with a syphon or turkey baster and water changes whenever it seems to need it!

Also, I find that plastic under bed storage boxes make great baby musk habitats - they're cheap, light, shallow and with a large area. Add some lights, elodea, some caves and bogwood, floating cork bark etc. and you have a lovely little habitat for baby bottom walkers!

 

[elisew]

Did as you suggested and dropped the level of the water and took most of the gravel out, leaving majoritively pebbles in the tank. Both turtles are clearly much happier, even though they're new to the surroundings and maybe nervous, they've been more active since making the changes. The filter is a small fluval with little flow and i've put it diagonally so that it is still covered and can filter, we read that even though they're small they can apparently be pretty dirty little things.

My son has asked me to post and ask how much and how often is best to feed the turtles? He currently has small pellets for them and we also got some frozen food as well.
He would also like to know if it's possible to sex the turtles at such a small size, if so how?


Thanks again for your replies and advice

 

[Asp]

They will make a suprising amount of waste, but it's not quite as critical that you remove it immediately as with other speciecs. If you look carefully at their chins you will see two little sensor things that they use for rooting around in river mud - so a little gunk in the bottom of the tank is often quite appreciated!

As hatchlings its best to feed small feedings daily. As they get larger they will be able go without feeding for longer, and for best condition should only be fed two or three times a week. Diet should be varied, and there are a number of good pellet foods out there - tetra reptomin is good, King british is a little high in protein and as such should only be fed occasionally, live food is always enjoyed, Hikari cichlid pellets are a nice addition, particularly the more vegetarian ones, dried and frozen foods are also good.

I'd also put a few bunches of elodea in the tank. They might eat them, they might not, but they'll provide cover and something to play with! (just remove the metal weights first)

You will not be able to sex them untill they are a bit bigger (generally a carapace length of 2.5"+, but it varies). Males will tend to be slightly smaller, with longer tails and front claws.

 

[elisew]

Thanks Asp, much appreciated

 

[Asp]

Never a problem!

They really are one of the best species to keep as pets, they stay small and they're full of character. I'd love to see more pics of the enclosure and the little fellas, takes me back to when mine were that small!