Louie;4048230; said:
Hey Louie. Cant seem to PM you either? Says I need to post five times before I can. Maybe this post will free it up. Should be about five by now.
Hello. Any resident turtle experts out there?
- Thread starter Dicky
- Start date
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Hey Louie. Cant seem to PM you either? Says I need to post five times before I can. Maybe this post will free it up. Should be about five by now.
Louie;4048230; said:Dicky send me a PM I can't seem to PM you.
Tried PMing you with no luck. Keeps saying I need to post five times and Im still not a full member yet?
Hi I took a look into your situation and here is my sugsestions. First your hard shell turtle is defenetly a male mud turtle Kinosternon sp, take a closer photo for the especific identification. Now your softy shell doesant look to bad, I would simply give him some pure 20 minutes saltwater baths a few times daily and it should be fine. Now you should really put your turts apart, your softy is going to grow into monster porporcions as it is a florida softy Apalone ferox and neither of your turts is very sociable and as of now they could already batle with each other. Also the fish your keeping them with will eventualy suffer atacks from the softy. I think in a huge tank you could probably sucssed in keeping the softy with a school of silvers dollars but here we are talking at least 200 gallons. The musk would cernatly apreciate a smaller calmer tank. Also plecos and softshell turtles are a very bad mix, the pleco may even be the responsable for what your seeing in the shell.
coura;4048399; said:Hi I took a look into your situation and here is my sugsestions. First your hard shell turtle is defenetly a male mud turtle Kinosternon sp, take a closer photo for the especific identification. Now your softy shell doesant look to bad, I would simply give him some pure 20 minutes saltwater baths a few times daily and it should be fine. Now you should really put your turts apart, your softy is going to grow into monster porporcions as it is a florida softy Apalone ferox and neither of your turts is very sociable and as of now they could already batle with each other. Also the fish your keeping them with will eventualy suffer atacks from the softy. I think in a huge tank you could probably sucssed in keeping the softy with a school of silvers dollars but here we are talking at least 200 gallons. The musk would cernatly apreciate a smaller calmer tank. Also plecos and softshell turtles are a very bad mix, the pleco may even be the responsable for what your seeing in the shell.
Thank you so much for the info. Had no idea about the pleco/softy combo being bad. Adding salt bath to my research list and gonna check out the structural integrity of my floors. I'm on the ground floor but still would prefer not having a 200 gallons tidal wave in my home. Learning a lot quickly here thanks to you guys here.
The softys I have vary greatly in size. The one in the pic with the spot is barely half the size of the other. Im guessing bigger is female. They look identical besides their size difference. So even if they grow up together you feel that I wont be able to house the two of them in a 200 gallon tank providing my floor supports it?
Wouldn't suggest it. Softshells are very delicate animals, they can damage themselves on rough decor, so all it takes is a bite from the other turtle to cause fatal damage.So even if they grow up together you feel that I wont be able to house the two of them in a 200 gallon tank providing my floor supports it?
If it helps, you can look into large rubbermaid tubs to house them (a nice cheap alternative), although they're not very attractive to look at.
The softshells are also monsters at eating fish. I've had my Chinese Softy take down fish the same size as him.
Paul
paul112;4050523; said:Wouldn't suggest it. Softshells are very delicate animals, they can damage themselves on rough decor, so all it takes is a bite from the other turtle to cause fatal damage.
If it helps, you can look into large rubbermaid tubs to house them (a nice cheap alternative), although they're not very attractive to look at.
The softshells are also monsters at eating fish. I've had my Chinese Softy take down fish the same size as him.
Paul
Thanks for all the advice Paul. Looks like I need to find these lil guys a new home. Unless I win the lottery in the next few days or someone has a couple of nice 200 gallon set-ups they like to donate to the "Dicky don't know nothing bout turtles foundation".
These guys make me smile everytime I walk by the tank, goofy bastards. I had no idea what I was getting into when I offered to take em off my nephews hands. Never trust a nine year old... ever. I dont have the space or means to give them what they'll need. They are really rad and I'm gonna miss these knuckleheads. Gonna get the little ones spot healed up then find em a home. Started him on Turtle Sulfa Dip. 2 hours a day. Waiting for my vet to get back to me on what fungus cure to use on soft shells.
So anybody have any good suggestions of where I might try to relocate them to in the Tri-state area? Rescue organization, schools, or something. Or the best and most responsible way to find em a home via craiglists. I like these guys and want to do this right. Don't want em to end up as soup.
Try the Brooklyn aquarium society . I used to belong to the club till they kicked me out lol no kidding I moved here .
MANY herp owners there and they take great care of their stuff .
http://forum.brooklynaquariumsociety.org/
The NY reptile club which think meets in NYC is also a good place. I don't know their site.
The NY turtle club is great-
http://nytts.org/
NY has lots reptile orgs .
If you like them keep them all other than the one you think is a Female .
The female softies get HUGE . I usually have about 200 pics stored in my phone lol but can't find a pic of one of them but they make the males look small .
MANY herp owners there and they take great care of their stuff .
http://forum.brooklynaquariumsociety.org/
The NY reptile club which think meets in NYC is also a good place. I don't know their site.
The NY turtle club is great-
http://nytts.org/
NY has lots reptile orgs .
If you like them keep them all other than the one you think is a Female .
The female softies get HUGE . I usually have about 200 pics stored in my phone lol but can't find a pic of one of them but they make the males look small .
paul112;4050523; said:Wouldn't suggest it. Softshells are very delicate animals, they can damage themselves on rough decor, so all it takes is a bite from the other turtle to cause fatal damage.
If it helps, you can look into large rubbermaid tubs to house them (a nice cheap alternative), although they're not very attractive to look at.
The softshells are also monsters at eating fish. I've had my Chinese Softy take down fish the same size as him.
Paul
The Chinese softies seem more popular than the Florida/southern types. Is there a difference such as size ?
Louie;4054383; said:Try the Brooklyn aquarium society . I used to belong to the club till they kicked me out lol no kidding I moved here .
MANY herp owners there and they take great care of their stuff .
http://forum.brooklynaquariumsociety.org/
The NY reptile club which think meets in NYC is also a good place. I don't know their site.
The NY turtle club is great-
http://nytts.org/
NY has lots reptile orgs .
If you like them keep them all other than the one you think is a Female .
The female softies get HUGE . I usually have about 200 pics stored in my phone lol but can't find a pic of one of them but they make the males look small .
Thanks so much Louie.
coura;4048399; said:Hi I took a look into your situation and here is my sugsestions. First your hard shell turtle is defenetly a male mud turtle Kinosternon sp, take a closer photo for the especific identification. Now your softy shell doesant look to bad, I would simply give him some pure 20 minutes saltwater baths a few times daily and it should be fine. Now you should really put your turts apart, your softy is going to grow into monster porporcions as it is a florida softy Apalone ferox and neither of your turts is very sociable and as of now they could already batle with each other. Also the fish your keeping them with will eventualy suffer atacks from the softy. I think in a huge tank you could probably sucssed in keeping the softy with a school of silvers dollars but here we are talking at least 200 gallons. The musk would cernatly apreciate a smaller calmer tank. Also plecos and softshell turtles are a very bad mix, the pleco may even be the responsable for what your seeing in the shell.
i was looking into getting baby softshell turts and i came across a turt called a smooth softshell it looks simaler to dickys turt wat is the difference between florida softshells and these smoth softshells???
