new member, my turtle tank

[jay2487]

Hope I'm in the right thread, wanted to share my turtle tank, It's been up and running for a looooooong time but I just recently, within the last couple years, decided to try fish to make it more aesthetic, plus I love them had quite a bit of failure with my first experiments, lost a couple Bala Sharks, a couple white tipped cats, but, after testing my water coming out of the well, and seeing it was perfect for cichlids, I started adding those, and now I have a bunch of them, 1 socolofi, 3 auratus, 5 jewels, 1 peacock, and several others I haven't been able to identify, none of which have ended up as turtle food, and none of which show too much aggression(though I did have to return two auratus's that were just evil)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNPrTIyLlIs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7mSFgFkINE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaM4rRUeD-s&feature=youtube_gdata

 

[MsGardeness]

Cool!

How many gallons is your tank and how long have you had the fish in there?

 

[jay2487]

it's a 110gal 6ft x 20in x 18in, I have had the cichlids in there for about a year now with no deaths. I tried other fish before the cichlids but nothing seems as comfortable with the turtles as the cichlids do. Sometimes you'd swear they are playing with the turtles. My big blue socolofi you might can see in the videos, it likes to make the turtles pinwheel in the water like they are chasing there own tails, it's pretty hilarious.

 

[Vicious_Fish]

Nice tank. How many turtles do you have and how old are they?

 

[jay2487]

5 turtles, three hatchling peninsula sliders, a 3 inch Yellow Belly Slider and a 4 to 5 inch Red Ear Slider. I also have a 17 year old male RES that is about 9 inches in diameter that lives in my outdoor pond. he is too big and mean to be kept in an aquarium anymore.

 

[pjrichar]

nice tank those turtles will prob get too big for that tank.. if you transfer them.. replace them with diamondback terrapins,, they stay smaller, and are active all day long... i keep mine in stock tank with cichlids... tried a tank but they seemed to freak out more they are all natural acting in my stock tank

 

[jay2487]

nice tank those turtles will prob get too big for that tank.. if you transfer them.. replace them with diamondback terrapins,, they stay smaller, and are active all day long... i keep mine in stock tank with cichlids... tried a tank but they seemed to freak out more they are all natural acting in my stock tank

Yeah i have an outdoor pond for when they get too big. Which eventually will happen. I go by the ten gallons for an inch of turtle rule and I am getting to the end of that. The 5 inch RES is the next to move outside. Then I'll be good for a while again.

DBTs, don't they live in more brackish waters? Do you salt your tank? Or do you just keep it hard for the cichlids? I actually have never seen a DBT for sale around here. I have thought about musks as they only get 5 inches, to have something that could actually live its life out in the tank, but they are just ugly to me compared to the sliders.

 

[Vicious_Fish]

^ Captive bred DBT do fine in fresh water as long as you keep it clean. If not they are very prone to fungal infections.

 

[jay2487]

they are definitely a beautiful animal, especially compared to musks, I'll keep that in mind for my next purchase, thanks

 

[Trixiedbtthisyear]

Yeah i have an outdoor pond for when they get too big. Which eventually will happen. I go by the ten gallons for an inch of turtle rule and I am getting to the end of that. The 5 inch RES is the next to move outside. Then I'll be good for a while again.

DBTs, don't they live in more brackish waters? Do you salt your tank? Or do you just keep it hard for the cichlids? I actually have never seen a DBT for sale around here. I have thought about musks as they only get 5 inches, to have something that could actually live its life out in the tank, but they are just ugly to me compared to the sliders.

Hi! I'm new here as well! I'm sooo happy that you know the "turtle" rules as to 10 gallons per inch of turtle!

I used to be active on turtle boards but it was too much!

I have a 350 gallon metal "livestock feeder" pond. I have my 2 Male RES & Red Bellied Cooter in there, both 15 years old. I actually came here to ask about sexing guppies and my HUGE "feeder" fish, Goldie. She has now grown to about 6" body and probably just over 2" of a beautiful flownsy tail! She's at least 10 years and is MASSIVE! Beautiful fish! Recently bought some new little goldfish and seems the turtles aren't interested. "Captive turtle llaziness! Lol!

Inside I have a 6 month Concentric female DBT. She will go in the pond probably Spring, she should be big enough then. She is my 5th DBT, they are escape artists. We have the pond now like Fort Knox because of Raccoons snacking on a few before we secured it. Nervous about putting her out, they are notorious attention whores and they'll come up to anything that is seen. I now feed the 2 from where they can't see me. We shall see! Sorry if I rambled on, haven't done turtle talk in awhile!