soft shell turtle....snapper?

[nativelover]

i was in alabama the summer before last, and in a large creek i caught a soft shell turtle about 3" in diameter. i kept it in a 1 gal, ice cream tub for like 4 days. i fed it bait minnows i bought (for bait) from the boat docks. he/she was pretty cool, interesting, and freindly. im going back this summer and wanted to get one to actually keep.

what would i need? can they live strictly in water, or should i do half and half.
when i had the other one, i put about 3" of water in the tub and a rock that stuck out about 2" . it climbed on it to stick its head out, other than that he hid under it, or at least tried.

 

[thefishofdoom]

you can do all water but make sure its head can be out of the water without having to swim

 

[softturtle]

I have found that baby soft shells will come onto land if given the chance. So, I always give them some sort of raft, log or rock to crawl out on. The behavior you described about the turtle trying to hide under the rock is also part of the habits that you should take into account when setting up a tank for soft shells. They like to bury themselves in the substrate under water. So when you are setting up a tank for these guys, you should put either sand or fine gravel to cover the bottom of the tank. The turtle should be able to bury itself in the substrate and still be able to come up for air without digging out of the rocks or sand. This sounds like it would be really shallow water, but remember, soft shells necks are about as long as their shells. So, water depth should be a little less than the length of the turtles shell. As for filtration, the more the better. I have heard people say that soft shells produce more waste than other turtles, but i do not know if this is true. I try to use more than enough filtration for all my turtles. Makes things easier on me and the turtles.
Feeding these guys is also pretty easy. They will take pellets, shrimp, live fish, worms, and just about anything else they can take a bite out of. I use pellets as their main food source since they are always available. I hope this helps a little.

 

[nativelover]

THANKS. sorry for not getting back sooner, i went to idaho for X-mas and got back last night.

also what size tank or tub do you rec.?

 

[Nic]

bigger the better give it some room to move

 

[softturtle]

Yeah big is good. These guys can't even get up to full speed in most fishtanks. Like you said, a tub would be better. A rubbermaid 50 gallon would be good for a few years if you got hatchlings.

 

[RobD23]

He's the coolest little guy to watch i can't really tell if he's grown much i've only had him for about 3 weeks. He was less then two inchs when i got him. I have him in a 33 galon tank with a dwarf redtail wolf fish thats about 3.5 inchs and some gold fish and minows for food and entertainment... I feed him krill and floating koy pellets, also sinking pellets as well. Him and the Wolf are awesome together ..never bother each other and eat just about anything. Haven't seen the snapper eat any live food just yet but once the wolf clears out the minows in there i'll get some small guppies for him.