Can I put a turtle with these fish?

[snakeguy101]

I was talking mainly about sliders and soft shells harassing and taking bites out of his fish. Unlike your mata which just swallows small fish...

right which is why I said that it depends on the turtle, not the fish.

 

[TheEelKing]

youre just making a whole jungle huh eelking lol

lol. Yup, that's me. I wanted a setup that has nice looking exotic fish and oddballish wierd-shaped fish. Now I want a turtle swimming around in there. I want one more thing to finish off my tank. I was stuck between another datnoid or an arowana of some sort, and now I am considering a turtle instead of a second dat or arow. I don't want some 2 ft monster turtle either. I'd like to have something that doesn't exceed 12 inches and can stay with the fish I have without posing any danger to them.

I bought these fish for my exotic fish:
Severum
Silver Dollars
Clown Loaches
Datnoid

and these for my oddball, wierd-shaped fish:
Clown knife
Jade Goby
Leopard Ctenopoma
Fire Eel

 

[TheEelKing]

I actually keep jade goby and a royal clown knife with my turtle but it is not so much a question of what fish can be kept with turtle your turtle but rather what turtle can be kept with your fish.

Fly river turtles, mud or musk turtles, some map turtles, and mata mata turtles go well with most fish and largely ignore one another. Most other species will fight or eat one another.

So map turtles and mata mata turtles can go with my fish no problem? How large do these turtles get in captivity?

 

[snakeguy101]

So map turtles and mata mata turtles can go with my fish no problem? How large do these turtles get in captivity?

I would really suggest a mata mata turtle since they are guaranteed not to nip at your fish (though you do need to be sure that all fish are too big to swallow whole). Map turtles can nip at your fish but are less prone to doing so than most sliders and other turtles.

Male mata's seem to max out around 14 or 15" with females growing to between 18 and 24". Captive bred ones are now available for under $400.

Map turtles stay smaller with males around 6" and females growing to be twice that size at 12". These are readily available and are quite inexpensive.

 

[Amazing-Fish]

yes you can put turtle in with fish along there bigger then the turtle. i have 2 large soft shell, gold thread, red ear silder and a white lip musk in with my 2 silver arowanas, 3 knife, 6 bichir, tire track eel, FL gar, rtgg, all together.

 

[TheEelKing]

yes you can put turtle in with fish along there bigger then the turtle. i have 2 large soft shell, gold thread, red ear silder and a white lip musk in with my 2 silver arowanas, 3 knife, 6 bichir, tire track eel, FL gar, rtgg, all together.

How long have your turtles been with the fish and have you ever had any problems at all?

 

[Amazing-Fish]

How long have your turtles been with the fish and have you ever had any problems at all?

i had them for 6 month together no problem at all. i have some picture of them in some of my thread u can check them out

 

[TheEelKing]

I just called the pet store and they have 4.5 inch mata matas for $300. I wanted a male since it grows smaller than the female. He told me that one could not determine the sex of the turtle at this size. The guy also told me that my tank is too deep for the mata mata. He said that they have to be in water shallow enough for them to stick their head up and breathe while they rest on the bottom. He told me that mata matas don't swim. He also said that the mata mata would kill my fish and would likely die when it targeted my clown loaches. I told him that my fish ranged in size from 4-12+ inches the smallest fish being roughly the size of the 4.5 inch mata matas on sale. He said that it the mata mata have huge mouths and would even kill my 12+ inch fire eel right now. He told me that no turtle at all can go with fish.

 

[Amazing-Fish]

the mata mata i would say will not go well with ur fish it does have a huge mouth able to ur the fish u have now. but there one person keep pbass with a mata mata u should search for him and ask for more info about it.

 

[snakeguy101]

I just called the pet store and they have 4.5 inch mata matas for $300. I wanted a male since it grows smaller than the female. He told me that one could not determine the sex of the turtle at this size. The guy also told me that my tank is too deep for the mata mata. He said that they have to be in water shallow enough for them to stick their head up and breathe while they rest on the bottom. He told me that mata matas don't swim. He also said that the mata mata would kill my fish and would likely die when it targeted my clown loaches. I told him that my fish ranged in size from 4-12+ inches the smallest fish being roughly the size of the 4.5 inch mata matas on sale. He said that it the mata mata have huge mouths and would even kill my 12+ inch fire eel right now. He told me that no turtle at all can go with fish.

well then he doesn't know very much. My mata swims on a regular basis and as long as there is something for him to rest on then he will be fine. Also it is NOT going to go after something that is as big or bigger than he is. At most it will attack something about 2/3 its size but no more than that.

here is a pick of my mata set up that I have had without a problem for over a year and a half now:


The current stock list is a 6" sleeper (jade) goby, 6" gar, 12" red bellied pacu, and a 15" clown knife

Previously, I have had a 5" pleco, several 6-10" Pbass, and a 9" Oscar without any issues between them and the mata.

My mata is currently 14" and feeding on a variety of bait minnows.