Eastern painted turtles

[all_or_nothin]

i went to the store yesterday and got alot of turtle stuff for the 120g turtle tank. i got:
1 "unbreakable" heater for a 90g
1 300gph pond filter
turtle basking dock
2 water hycanthis(for food)
1 water lettuce(for food)
1 uv light
50 guppies(for food and togive the turtles something to chase)
30+ baby crawdads(for food)
4 adult crawdads
100lbs of black gravel
commercial turtle food(which they hate)

i already had:
magnum350 canister filter
driftwood(1 piece)
60g heater
2 regular strip lights.

i caught them some pond snails to see if they would eat them. but right now im feeding them frozen krill and freeze dried red shrimp. but they do forage around the tank and eat the water hycanthis and they try to eat guppies but theyre not fast enough. theyre tank is kept at 77degrees. i want to get some fish to fill the tank up some more. i was thinking like clown loaches to eat some of the snails. some rapheal catfish(3 or so). but i dont kno what to get that would swim in the middle of the tank. Any suggestions or comments are welcome.

 

[snakeguy101]

how many turtles do you have? you may need more filtration. Also make sure that you have a heat lamp on the basking dock as well so that they can dry out and warm up.

One more thing is that you may want to make sure the water lettuce is not toxic. It may be better to stick to regular lettuce instead.

 

[all_or_nothin]

3 babies and if i need more filtration ill put a 600gph pump on the pond filter instead of a 300gph. the lfs said i didnt need a heat lamp so i didnt get one but alot of places say i do so nxt time i go in ill get one. and how do i make sure the water lettuce isnt toxic

 

[CTU2fan]

You may find the water plants grow/spread faster than your turts eat them; most of my EPT's have been strictly carnivorous. Also watch out the big crawdads don't go for your turts if they're really small.

Definitely add a basking lamp over the dock, I like halogens because they make a nice hot spot without putting out a lot of excess heat in the room. And post some pics when everything is set up.

Your filtration should be fine for awhile, as they get bigger you'll maybe want something else. Just keep up with your w/c's and gravel-vaccing especially; actually the crawdads will help with that as long as they're in there.

If you want fish I'd try raphael cats, a biggish pleco...if you want active non-cat type stuff fast/smart and cheap is the key. You could do schoolers like tiger barbs but you will lose some as your turtles grow...or alternately you could try convicts or jewels, or native sunfish if you give them hiding spots; in that size tank with cover they should be able to steer clear of your turts.

 

[Louie]

I would give the gravel some thought it winds up being way harder to simply siphon the bottom clean and they could ingest the gravel when they eat.
Turtles are big waste producers.

It's just so much easier to keep clean with no gravel all you simply do is tape black poster board,etc to outside bottom of your tank and it has that gravel look.

Turtles go into the "zone" when they eat and gravel might get ingested .

 

[all_or_nothin]

ok. i think the plants will spread faster because the turtles only eat the dieing leaves on the water hycanthis.

i think im gonna get rid of the 4 big crawdads. i have about 20 little ones which i dont see a problem with.

i want to get 4-6 clown loaches, 3 yellow lab cichlids, 3 rapheal cats, 2 bristlenoses, and i think thats it..

and i know your probaly thinkin those will get eaten but, those turtles cant even catch a prego female guppy. plus the 3 turtles are either on theyre basking dock or in the water hycanthis so i dont think theyll kill any of the fish. but i will see.

and ill try to post pics. i just gotta get my mom to let me use her camera

 

[Horiyoshi III]

Wow, you went all out for these guys!
I've got 2 that are a little smaller than half dollars .
Their color is so punchy!
Try and get a solar-brite MV160 someday...it's a nice cheap-er UVB/heat source.

Throw some pics up on the media side!
This sounds like an interesting setup.