turtle tankmates???

[crazycanuck]

so i want to get a turtle,a red painted turtle i think is what the store has..

tank ,not sure... pretend i have a large tank,maybe 90...

i dont want to have turtle alone,what can live whith it?

i thought of these

1) comet goldfish ( to large to swallow )
2) full grown mystery snail
3) convict ciclid
4) pleco


thank you very much

any other suggetions would be great

 

[Notophthalmus]

Find out for sure what kind of turtle it is; get a scientific name if you can. If it is a painted turtle (Chrysemys picta), then 90 gallons is fine, and large comets or snails will be fine; I would worry about the pleco getting scratched by the turtle as it swims around, as plecos don't dart away like comets would. I don't know enough about convicts to say how they would fare.

Be aware that turtles produce massive amounts of waste, so you want to overfilter as much as possible, especially if you want fish to live in the tank as well.

 

[Vicious_Fish]

I've bred both Chrysemys picta picta and Chrysemys picta marginata in an outdoor pond containing fish and I never had a problem. Of course both of these ponds are about 600-700 gallons. Space is key as well as having hiding places for your fish to escape. I'd go with convicts from the list above. They're smart enough to hide and are very hardy. Another idea would be to catch a bluegill. They're very scrappy fish too. My Sternotherus odoratus lives with a pleco and I haven't had any problems. You just have to watch and make sure the pleco doesn't suck on the turtles shell. All in all if you're going to keep fish with turtle, have plenty of space, a very strong filtration system and don't be surprised if your turtle takes a nip out of the fish.

 

[wwg]

probably a smaller turtle would have less chance of attacking a fish than an adult.mud or musk seem the laziest but aren't they nocturnal?and isn't there a problem with water level for mud'n'musk?

 

[Notophthalmus]

Muds and musks may move around more at night, but they're active in the daytime as well. They need an area of shallow water (6" or less) so that they can reach up to breathe without having to swim, but they will also use deeper areas.