One of my three new soft shell turtles

[coura]

Sweet sweet turtles One of my fav softys actualy 2 very important things to know about this guys specialy as small: you must buy babys that you see swiming, NEVER the ones that are all time out of the water even if they ocasionaly go in there, in my experience these are extremely susceptible to respiratory infections and they die often very rapidly once infected so keep a eye on that and go to the vet if anything is suspicious (the only thing that sometimes saves them is a antibiotic injection) and they are very prone to over eating, avoid feeding big chuncky peaces of food such as woule fish and lumps of chicken, insted ofer very small porcions often going for tetra reptomin, various worms, insect larvae, shrimp,etc and even very small and raised by your self fish fry. Keep them warm, the water VERY clean and once they are a year old they are as though as nails. Never use dead fish, goldfish or pet shop brough feeders. As for compatibility they are often more sociable then chinese softys wich are the ones found in Hawai waters (introduced) its a matter of wait and see and have a tank handy in case the thing goes wrong

 

[SimonL]

Can someone confirm temper issues with these guys for me?

They are very aggressive, but can be kept together with enough space. Depends on the turtles...

 

[BastardFish]

humm thanks for the info I have one that swimms around more than the other two but them seem to like to chill in a floating plant in there and rest alot. I feed them the reptomin and small floating krill right now in small portins they seem to be doing okay though. I have been doing the weekly water changes and they seem to be happy.

 

[Unholy1761]

humm thanks for the info I have one that swimms around more than the other two but them seem to like to chill in a floating plant in there and rest alot. I feed them the reptomin and small floating krill right now in small portins they seem to be doing okay though. I have been doing the weekly water changes and they seem to be happy.

the end of there latin name is ferox witch means ferocious males require a 55 gallon minuium. females require large abouts of water i would consider the 300 gallon is enough for one female.

they shouldnt be swimming all the time. they should have a sand substrate of small rounded grain sands. it should be shallow so they can still breath while not have to get out from under the sand to breath. they will bask for 4-5 hours a day.

These are not considered beginner turtles and are actually difficult to keep. You should probally do biweekly water changes.

small ones often die do to poor water quality fungis and respiatory infections as wells as the bacteria infections witch they are prone to in captivity.

repotmin is fine offer some cuttle bone,also carrots romaine lettuce also insects like crickets wax worms but dont give that to often. gl and happy turtle keeping.

 

[BastardFish]

thanks for the info I kept one for a couple years but it was an adult.

I am not too worried about the water quality or conditions and or space issues. I have kept some of the world most demanding fish live and well a turtle lol piece of cake

they have an area to come out of the water and bask too. I will give the lettuce and carrot thing a try that sounds interesting

 

[Unholy1761]

thanks for the info I kept one for a couple years but it was an adult.

I am not too worried about the water quality or conditions and or space issues. I have kept some of the world most demanding fish live and well a turtle lol piece of cake

they have an area to come out of the water and bask too. I will give the lettuce and carrot thing a try that sounds interesting

Lawl dont you love the turtle charm

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-flsoft.htm <- caresheet


for the lettuce make sure its romaine lettuce the other stuff has no nutrition. also if all else fails veggie wise try some duck weed i heard sweet potatoe works as well although i own a common snapper not a softie. keep me posted/

ehh last post is wrong the min. size to adopt a male is 55 gal at turtlehome.org yet you should have a 90.

also you might want to not keep it inside my freinds got a big female and if you walk in the room quick or it wants to chase a fish it goes so fast it sloshes water all over the place

 

[awsomebichir]

nice..i always wanted one ...very cool turtle

 

[dragogreen]

sweet nice floridas !

 

[BastardFish]

thanks guys

 

[coura]

the end of there latin name is ferox witch means ferocious males require a 55 gallon minuium. females require large abouts of water i would consider the 300 gallon is enough for one female.

Actualy that name was given because of their habit of biting anything that they could reach with their neck OUTSIDE water when they were captured and so under stress, not in the water and in normal circunstances. These turtles are less agressive then asian softys such as Pelodiscus sp, Dogania sp,Palea sp,etc, wich deliberatly chasse any other turtles present in their enclosure(except when they are in the inmensely crowded aquaculture tanks in asia) and are both territorial and the males can even drown or kill other turtles when trying to mate. Florida softys alongside other Apalone can or not be kept together depending on each other behavior and idividual personality

they shouldnt be swimming all the time.
Its better to buy one that is but ok

they should have a sand substrate of small rounded grain sands
Yes its a must

it should be shallow so they can still breath while not have to get out from under the sand to breath. they will bask for 4-5 hours a day.
Wrong, softshell turtles are one of the most agile and conpetent swimers in the turtle world, they need deep water, I start baby softys on 15 cm of water and then upgrade to 30 cm and so on. Keeping shallower water can lead to less quality and francly cuts down on the amount of space needed for swiming and they love to swim and dive. Also in my experience a softy that basks to often and specialy that allows to be seen wille doing that is higly suspicious of being sick

These are not considered beginner turtles and are actually difficult to keep. You should probally do biweekly water changes.

Once they past the early hachling state they are fairly easy to keep if the owner pays atencion to the diet and haves enough space for the huge tank they need. The most important thing is to avoid over feeding them and to enfatize easy things to digest as opossed to giving large peaces of fish and meat wich you could with any other turtle but with these is disaster garanteed

small ones often die do to poor water quality fungis and respiatory infections as wells as the bacteria infections witch they are prone to in captivity.
True, but once they past hachling state and are keep clean and warm they are hard as nails, thouse are tipical of turts that are kept dirty and with unbalanced diets

repotmin is fine offer some cuttle bone,also carrots romaine lettuce also insects like crickets wax worms but dont give that to often. gl and happy turtle keeping
I would avoid the cuttle bonne and I will ship to you a doble chocolate ship cookie with marshmallows if you show me a softshell turtle that acepts romaine letuce or carrots, thouse will simply be ignored and foul the water. However reptomin its a good staple suplemented with insects,earthworms, small crustaceans and some healty extra fry you may have around. To give them the nutricional beneficts of veggies all you have to do is gut load the crickets with carrots and then feed to your turtles. Koi, chiclid and small fish pelets are great for variety and should be added