Hello everyone,
I have a Fly River or Pig-nosed Turtle (Carettochelys insculpta). For those not familiar with this species of turtle, they are 100% aquatic with only the females coming onto land to lay eggs, much like a sea turtle but it isn't a sea turtle nor is it marine. As a result, their enclosures needs to be completely aquatic and there is no need for any land access or basking spot. They are from Papua New Guinea and Northern Australia in habitats characterized by warm, clean, hard water with high pH and either fresh to slightly saline.
Up to know, I have kept this turtle alone in a 55 gallon tank. While it has not yet outgrown this tank, realizing that it will, I had been keeping an eye open for a good deal on a larger tank. I just picked up a 150 gallon tank (not drilled, etc.) and stand that I would like to upgrade this turtle to. Currently, the turtle is 6" in shell length so there will be a ton of room in this tank for it and I would like to have more in this tank then just the turtle.
The tank is 150 gallons and will have a Hagen Fluval FX5 canister filter (rated up to 400 gallons). The water will be hard, have a temperature of 31 degrees Celsius (88F), a pH of 8.0-8.2 and 1 tablespoon of instant ocean per 5 gallons of water (I need to get a hydrometer to get a specific gravity reading but I've been told its about 1.001). Technically, the turtle can live in fresh to slightly saline water but the slightly saline water helps prevent fungal infections on the shell.
Now, I would like to include fish in this setup as well. The requirements are that they must be able to meet these water parameters, need to be mobile enough that an omnivorous turtle is unlikely to hurt them (african lungfish probably wouldn't work) and unlikely to be aggressive and nip the turtle's shell which could cause sores and infection. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions about species that would work? Unfortunately I've never kept fish before so I'm fairly clueless about what species would fit the bill.
Thanks for all your help!
Chris
I have a Fly River or Pig-nosed Turtle (Carettochelys insculpta). For those not familiar with this species of turtle, they are 100% aquatic with only the females coming onto land to lay eggs, much like a sea turtle but it isn't a sea turtle nor is it marine. As a result, their enclosures needs to be completely aquatic and there is no need for any land access or basking spot. They are from Papua New Guinea and Northern Australia in habitats characterized by warm, clean, hard water with high pH and either fresh to slightly saline.
Up to know, I have kept this turtle alone in a 55 gallon tank. While it has not yet outgrown this tank, realizing that it will, I had been keeping an eye open for a good deal on a larger tank. I just picked up a 150 gallon tank (not drilled, etc.) and stand that I would like to upgrade this turtle to. Currently, the turtle is 6" in shell length so there will be a ton of room in this tank for it and I would like to have more in this tank then just the turtle.
The tank is 150 gallons and will have a Hagen Fluval FX5 canister filter (rated up to 400 gallons). The water will be hard, have a temperature of 31 degrees Celsius (88F), a pH of 8.0-8.2 and 1 tablespoon of instant ocean per 5 gallons of water (I need to get a hydrometer to get a specific gravity reading but I've been told its about 1.001). Technically, the turtle can live in fresh to slightly saline water but the slightly saline water helps prevent fungal infections on the shell.
Now, I would like to include fish in this setup as well. The requirements are that they must be able to meet these water parameters, need to be mobile enough that an omnivorous turtle is unlikely to hurt them (african lungfish probably wouldn't work) and unlikely to be aggressive and nip the turtle's shell which could cause sores and infection. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions about species that would work? Unfortunately I've never kept fish before so I'm fairly clueless about what species would fit the bill.
Thanks for all your help!
Chris
