Rio 240 Planted With Turtles

[dirtydog]

thought i should post some pics of my tank now ive added some extra wood, hope you like it!

 

[Evobe]

ive always wanted a turtle, what kind of needs do they have ?

 

[mikka23]

That looks amazing. I didn't think you could get turtles with fish though. I would really like a turtle with an assortment of rainbowfish but didnt think it was possible.

 

[three-fingers]

Kinda looks nothing like i would have a musk turtle set up...but hey, who cares about putting the animals preferences over looks? Its obviously a nice looking tank.

 

[dirtydog]

thanks guys. I have cork at the surface for the turtles to climb out and sit under the lights if they want but they don't it so much now as when they were smaller. They love the new bog wood though they sit on top to poke their head out. They haven't bothered the fish at all and sometimes the shrimp ride on their back and clean the shell!
They are great to have and are really interested in visitors they always come out and stare at you

Some useful info here http/www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/oderatus.html

 

[Evobe]

Kinda looks nothing like i would have a musk turtle set up...but hey, who cares about putting the animals preferences over looks? Its obviously a nice looking tank.

The turtles face looks very happy lol, but i would of thought they would need land aswell to lay eggs? and doesnt the turtle eat all the fish ? coz thats what they feed on in the wild

 

[Evobe]

thanks guys. I have cork at the surface for the turtles to climb out and sit under the lights if they want but they don't it so much now as when they were smaller. They love the new bog wood though they sit on top to poke their head out. They haven't bothered the fish at all and sometimes the shrimp ride on their back and clean the shell!
They are great to have and are really interested in visitors they always come out and stare at you

Some useful info here http/www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/oderatus.html

im seriously thinking about getting one of these after seeing your cute little musks, do they have to be kept in pairs ?

 

[three-fingers]

Just in case there was any doubt, I don't like this setup.

Its a just a nice-looking fish tank with a turtle in it (a feat in itself, just lucky the turtle doesn't destroy the plants or eat the fish....).

Turtles should be kept in turtle tanks, unless you are planning some sort of very large paludarium type thing.

Waters too deep for a musk IMO without any shallow areas, and keeping fish in there is a terrible practice. It's not something I would show off.

Glad it's working for you so far (or at least seems to be, hate the idea of limiting a musk to deep water, think it's a bit cruel IMO), but keeping musk turtles like this really shouldn't be encouraged and I would hate for this thread to 'inspire' people to try similar things.

Also, never be fooled into thinking an animal is "happy" just because you read a human emotion from its face. It just looks like a musks face .

/rant .

 

[Evobe]

Just in case there was any doubt, I don't like this setup.

Its a just a nice-looking fish tank with a turtle in it (a feat in itself, just lucky the turtle doesn't destroy the plants or eat the fish....).

Turtles should be kept in turtle tanks, unless you are planning some sort of very large paludarium type thing.

Waters too deep for a musk IMO without any shallow areas, and keeping fish in there is a terrible practice. It's not something I would show off.

Glad it's working for you so far (or at least seems to be, hate the idea of limiting a musk to deep water, think it's a bit cruel IMO), but keeping musk turtles like this really shouldn't be encouraged and I would hate for this thread to 'inspire' people to try similar things.

Also, never be fooled into thinking an animal is "happy" just because you read a human emotion from its face. It just looks like a musks face .

/rant .

thanks for the heads up, i would love a turtle but i doubt it will actualy happen...

 

[synodontisjack]

Just in case there was any doubt, I don't like this setup.

Its a just a nice-looking fish tank with a turtle in it (a feat in itself, just lucky the turtle doesn't destroy the plants or eat the fish....).

Turtles should be kept in turtle tanks, unless you are planning some sort of very large paludarium type thing.

Waters too deep for a musk IMO without any shallow areas, and keeping fish in there is a terrible practice. It's not something I would show off.

Glad it's working for you so far (or at least seems to be, hate the idea of limiting a musk to deep water, think it's a bit cruel IMO), but keeping musk turtles like this really shouldn't be encouraged and I would hate for this thread to 'inspire' people to try similar things.

Also, never be fooled into thinking an animal is "happy" just because you read a human emotion from its face. It just looks like a musks face .

/rant .

i'm sorry but i really don't understand your logic, to me this tank seems fine for a musk, there appear to be areas the musk can rest just below the surface of the water and there's an area for them to get completely out of the water. Whilst you can not tell how happy the turtle it is nor can you really truly tell how happy most captive animals are and we may have to live with the fact that the fish/ reptile keeping hobby is inhumane altogether but we still choose to do it. To me the musks look pretty healthy and the op seems to be doing a lot better caring for them than most.
Also naturally musks and other bottom walkers are pretty much fully aquatic with adults rarely getting out of the water. Musk are found in water several meters deep in their native range so i really don't see a problem with the depth seeing as they can rest on the bogwood if needs be.

However neither of us know the full history behind this setup so before we know how long the turtles have been living in these conditions we have no real right to judge.

To the op i really like these sorts of setups where it can be quite risky especially when mixing turtles with fish and i wish you the best of luck with it.

 

[Mikaila31]

I don't have issues with the mixing of turtles and fish as long as they are currently getting along. I also feel that this tank does not have proper land/basking area. Also if you do not have a UVA & UVB light that the turtles can get under then it certainly is not a adequate home for turtles IMO.

 

[three-fingers]

i'm sorry but i really don't understand your logic, to me this tank seems fine for a musk, there appear to be areas the musk can rest just below the surface of the water and there's an area for them to get completely out of the water. Whilst you can not tell how happy the turtle it is nor can you really truly tell how happy most captive animals are and we may have to live with the fact that the fish/ reptile keeping hobby is inhumane altogether but we still choose to do it. To me the musks look pretty healthy and the op seems to be doing a lot better caring for them than most.
Also naturally musks and other bottom walkers are pretty much fully aquatic with adults rarely getting out of the water. Musk are found in water several meters deep in their native range so i really don't see a problem with the depth seeing as they can rest on the bogwood if needs be.

Your loss, it's not hard to follow .

All I see is a teeny tiny bit of bogwood the turtle can at best perch (i say perch because it's so pathetically small) on. Musks in nature can choose if they want to go into deeper water, they are more often found in shallow water. This musk is in relatively deep water all the time, I wouldn't count that tiny bogwood as shallow water, nor would I call that tiny bit of cork bark a basking area (even if it does have a spot bulb over it...which I cant see).
Musks don't bask often compared to other turtles but they still do bask.

A person keeping 3 goldfish in a 5gallon tank with a filter is doing a "better job than most", but it's still completely inadequate.

I really don't care how most people keep fish/reptiles, because as far as I'm concerned unfortunately most people seem to keep them wrong.

However neither of us know the full history behind this setup so before we know how long the turtles have been living in these conditions we have no real right to judge.

Of course we do. Its been posted on a public discussion forum without any background info. Can judge whatever we want, that's the whole point .

If you post a picture without extra information about what's in it, you should expect people to just comment on what they see...

 

[james_fish]

Some great fish species and a very cool turtle. The pictures are great quality too! Good Work

James.