Mixing Goldfish with Turtle

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redfishblewfish

Ignorance Specialist
Nov 19, 2008
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I’m trying to consolidate tanks in the house…pressure from the boss. (We now have six tanks). I would like to combine my turtle tank (5” red eared slider), with my goldfish tank (one each; Black Moor, Oranda, and a Ryukin). All would end up in a 75 gallon tank.

Will this work? Or will the turtle eat the goldfish? By the way, the goldfish are in the three inch range. The one consideration is that all the goldies are double-finned and accordingly, lousy swimmers.
 

lilim10

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Aug 7, 2008
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The turtle will definitely harm the goldfish, but not necessarily by eating. Your turtle could do the following to your fish:

1. Scratch them on purpose or on accident with his claws when swimming around the tank.

2. Snap at their fins in attempt to eat it.

3. Eat the goldfish.

4. Chase the goldfish around until they are exhausted.

Also, turtles should have their tank about half full so they can climb out on a basking site and not be able to climb out of the enclosure. With goldies, I'm not sure how that'll work. Another thing to consider, both turtles and goldfish produce a lot of waste, especially turtles. I'm sure you are aware of this, but your goldfish will grow to around 6"-8" and the turtle (depending on if it's male or female) will either reach 8" or 12". That means bigger tanks in the future, especially if the turtle is female.
 

Flaringshutter

Befriend a feeder!
Oct 17, 2006
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The goldfish may far outgrow 6 to 8 inches. All three varieties can reach 10 inches. Goldfish should never be housed with a turtle, for exactly the reasons stated above! The two species are definitely NOT compatible, even if the turtle is small now and the fish are large. Perhaps you could combine different tanks?
 

Vicious_Fish

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Mar 6, 2007
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Seth
Yup turtle with fish= death.
Not entirely true, but in this case it would be. RES are definitely a species that should not be trusted with fish. There are a few species out there that sometimes can work with fish but usually when it comes to basking species it doesn't end well unless you have something the size of a pond.

I currently keep a pair of Stinkpot Musk Turtles in a 100 gallon stock tank with 10 Giant Danios, 1 female Conivct Cichild and a Pleco. I've never had any problems with them at all. Actually sometimes the convict pushes the turtles around when she has eggs. The turtles totally ignore the fish like they weren't even there. One of the key things to making this work is having ample space and well fed turtles! :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50WbuJ00bfE&feature=channel_page
 

redfishblewfish

Ignorance Specialist
Nov 19, 2008
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Central New Jersey
Thanks for the advise…I guess the turtle will have to remain lonely for now.

Well, here are two more potential combos:

1. A 55g guppy tank (maybe 40 today, but probably 50 tomorrow…you know how that works).

2. A 55g dwarf puffer and tetra tank (12 fish).

Obviously both these tanks are heated while by goldfish and turtle tank are not. If I could put the goldfish in either or these two tanks, I think I could get around the eating issue by feeding pellets that are too big for the other fish. I could also throw all into a 75, which would now be available. Unfortunately the plants would probably disappear because of the herbaceous eating nature of the GF’s. (I once used them to remove duckweed from a tank…took them a day and it was gone…pigs.) Boy I’ll miss those plants…both my guppy and puffer/tetra tanks are heavily planted.

Comments on these potential combo's?

Thanks
 

ITHURTZ

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Apr 19, 2007
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well once the goldfish are big enough they will eat the guppies. My gf has my 7month old fancy fry and she put 5 glo lights in there. The past week 2 glo lights went missing, one of the fancy goldfish looked a little "stockier" than the rest.

As for puffers not to up to date on them but are they not aggressive and could hassle the goldfish?

Although the rate of guppies I dont think the goldfish could take them all down!
 

lilim10

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Aug 7, 2008
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A 55 dwarf puffer and tetra tank? Aren't dwarf puffers brackish and aggressive, or are you talking about something else? I think your best bet would be the guppies and goldfish, since guppies move pretty fast and are active. Fancy goldfish generally don't swim fast enough to catch guppies.
 
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