Terrapins And Fish

[Luluspetmad]

Hi - I have recently bought 3 terrapins (3 mths ago) and love them to pieces. After some research I disovered that it is recommended to purchase fish for the tank (I also had my concerns about them being eaten!) and after some thought have bought some penguin and silvertip tetras. The terrapins are not interested except for 1 but he's way too slow and lazy so gives up after a few seconds!! lol. However, I am concerned about the fish developing white spot as it happened to my daughter, if it should happen can I treat the fish in the same tank as the terrapins? I don't want to cause any illness/pain for either species. Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Lu x

 

[Spishkey]

firstly could you give me some details...how big is your tank (lxwxb) and what kind of filtration do you have? for 3 'terrapins' you really need a HUGE tank! if your tank is too small already, then you add fish..the water quality will deterioate rapidly causing problems for both turtles and fish
if i can be of any help let me know..i run a small turtle rescue so know a thing or two about turtles

edit - sorry to sound dim but do you mean you have fish already in there or you want to buy some but are worried about introducing disease?

 

[mixmaster jay]

no normal white spot treatment isn't turtle friendly either go and get some from a lfs that deos sell turtle treatments or take them out and rehome them for a for the duration of the meds and a couple of weeks after just to make sure thats is all gone.

whate turtles (terrapins)have you got?

what size tank?

we have a adult female cumberland 13" shell in a 5ft,a male false map 4.5" shell and a mississippi map female 4" shell in a 4ft if you want any info on turtles just ask as we have done and still doing extensive research and we are setting up a website about turtles and fish

you need a hige tank for 3 no substrate as they eat it and get impaction (deadly) a uvb 10.0 tube or bulb a basking area with a heat lamp or a household r80 bulb is fine we got 4 from B&Q for £2 and an external filter with atleast 2 times filteration capacity of the tank. you can keep fish with them but they do also like to eat them sometimes its just trial and error with that i have fish in with mine and so far no deaths or nips

 

[Spishkey]

oh mixmaster can you let me know the web address when you are done? would love to have a read...am always learning 'new' things about turtles as i go along we currently house 7 'rescues' yet sadly have to turn so many away every week

 

[Luluspetmad]

no normal white spot treatment isn't turtle friendly either go and get some from a lfs that deos sell turtle treatments or take them out and rehome them for a for the duration of the meds and a couple of weeks after just to make sure thats is all gone.

whate turtles (terrapins)have you got?

what size tank?

we have a adult female cumberland 13" shell in a 5ft,a male false map 4.5" shell and a mississippi map female 4" shell in a 4ft if you want any info on turtles just ask as we have done and still doing extensive research and we are setting up a website about turtles and fish

you need a hige tank for 3 no substrate as they eat it and get impaction (deadly) a uvb 10.0 tube or bulb a basking area with a heat lamp or a household r80 bulb is fine we got 4 from B&Q for £2 and an external filter with atleast 2 times filteration capacity of the tank. you can keep fish with them but they do also like to eat them sometimes its just trial and error with that i have fish in with mine and so far no deaths or nips

Hi, thank for the rapid response.

I already have a few fish in the tank.
I have a 4 foot tank but intend buying a 5/6 foot once the terrapins grow. They are only babies.
I think I have 2 red earred or red bellied slider and 1 yellow bellied slider. (all 3 were sold as yellow bellied!)
I have a basking are with a proper heat lamp for them.

I will download some pics in that part of the forum later. Umm, how do I download pictures??

Thanx again

Lu x

 

[mixmaster jay]

yeah its in my sig its got quite alot of info in there already. all our turtles are rescued we are trying to setup a proper rescue centre sort of thing but my house isnt big enough lol and im saving up for my petshop licence too £288 to sell tetra and king british foods (you need this to sell them) on my website eventually

 

[nmonks]

Don't mix terrapins with fish.

For a start, although terrapins are largely herbivores and most of their diet needs to be plant material, they're not above eating small fish should they be able to catch them.

But the bigger problem is this: it's virtually impossible to keep 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite levels in tanks containing adult terrapins without the use of massive filtration. As you hopefully know, even tiny amounts of ammonia and nitrite will cause most fish severe harm, especially over the long term.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Spishkey]

wow didnt realise you needed a licence to sell pet food in the uk! i have a small online shop, mostly selling home bred fish and surplus aquarium bits...all the money goes into caring for the turtles and hopefully we'll raise enough to start work on the indoor turtle enclosure this winter. we've just moved into a new house with a large empty shed and stable...so these will be converted to accomadate more turts in the future! now just need to find a way to keep the electric bill down!!

 

[Luluspetmad]

Don't mix terrapins with fish.

For a start, although terrapins are largely herbivores and most of their diet needs to be plant material, they're not above eating small fish should they be able to catch them.

But the bigger problem is this: it's virtually impossible to keep 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite levels in tanks containing adult terrapins without the use of massive filtration. As you hopefully know, even tiny amounts of ammonia and nitrite will cause most fish severe harm, especially over the long term.

Cheers, Neale

Hi - I have a double filtration pump to clean the water but I also remove 1/2 to 3/4 of the water weekly and replace using safe water everytime.

Lu x

 

[nmonks]

Trust me on this. It won't work. When I say "massive filtration" I mean the sort of thing you see in public aquaria. Adult terrapins are messy herbivores the size of dinner plants, and they put a huge strain on biological filtration. As babies they look rather cute, but these things make a lot of mess when they grow up.

Cheers, Neale

Hi - I have a double filtration pump to clean the water but I also remove 1/2 to 3/4 of the water weekly and replace using safe water

 

[mixmaster jay]

i will id them for you but for this i will need a pic of the plastron (under shell) carapace (upper shell) side of thier hed and neck while fully extended and pics of their claws (the pics of claws and underneath of the tail this is purley for sexing if they are old enough) quite tricky i know lol

i look forward to seeing them

male false map note long claws

female mississippi map

thi is our adult female cumberland

 

[Spishkey]

just to give you an insight on the size you are looking at this is my oldest male diego, he is a florida cooter......

and his girl...Dora..a fake map turt...

now compare Diego to your average pet store sold turtles...notice the size difference?

these guys need huge filtration......(!) i use large pond filters for the larger turtles..and even that gets messy fast

some of our other turts

Sid - cumberland slider

Brutus - YBS

Pinky and the Brain- i believe these are cumberland sliders

 

[mixmaster jay]

we have a cf 1200 and a fluval 4 on the big 5ft turtle tank and the stats or fine it gets a 50% water change every 2 days and tested the fish are triveing and breeding well in there and there isn't much waste its just mainly ammonia from them constantly weeing. but i agree with the bigger the better for filration im currently building sumps for the turtle tanks aswell as the external filters

its mainly tetra and king british that need a licence to sell them

 

[mixmaster jay]

dora is a real mississippi map you can tell this by the line that goes round the eye on a false they go away from the eye just to let you know

i'll get pics of the line from mine to show you

 

[Spishkey]

this is the tank that 'came' with the two larger turtles. its over 6ft long with a sump filter AND external filter...but that barely touches the waste they produce..hence why they reside in an outdoor pond now......much more room for them! they couldnt even turn around in the tank! (which is now home to my beloved oscars )