I saw some at a lfs today in a large tank with some clown knives and they looked pretty cool and wanted some more info on them because i was thinking of adding one to my tank. Has anyone kept them with tankmates? Are they fully aquatic? What do they eat? Thanks in advanced.
softshell turtles
- Thread starter baracuda
- Start date
They are primarily carnivores and need a varied diet of pellets, bloodworm, prawn etc.
They grow big and will require around an 100G tank as adults.
They are highly aggressive and will probably tear anything else in the tank up, including their own species. I'm guessing you saw hatchlings which will get aggressive real quick. If you wait a few weeks, the clown knifes will probably be dead or badly scarred.
They are not fully aquatic but are mainly. They still need a basking spot with UVB lighting.
Paul
They grow big and will require around an 100G tank as adults.
They are highly aggressive and will probably tear anything else in the tank up, including their own species. I'm guessing you saw hatchlings which will get aggressive real quick. If you wait a few weeks, the clown knifes will probably be dead or badly scarred.
They are not fully aquatic but are mainly. They still need a basking spot with UVB lighting.
Paul
Thanks for the great info paul. Thats what i was thinking, but i wanted to make sure. Ive seen them with fish so i thought there was a slight chance they might get along but probably not. Btw the clown knives were about 20 inches and the SSTs shell was like 6-7 inches in diameter.
We don't even know what species it is. It could be one that grows to over 3' or one that stays under 10". It is always a risk keeping any thing together, esp. turtle/fish. It can be done, but there is always a chance of an animal getting hurt or killed.
Ok sorry have to be honest here I keep a lot of pets and I keep them well, but my experience with the soft shells was bad. I learned the bad way and we had losses but I will share that with you in an effort to help you. I had two of the little buggers. Cute as all get out. I loved them. I used too hard a substrate (if only this forum had existed then) and they like to dig and sit under the substrate and it scratched their shells leaving a place for fungus to harbour and I lost one that way. Both of the softshells had become infected with the fungus but I treated them with Melafix and was able to save one of them. Unfortunately, and I'm not quite sure how this happened but I had put in a flower pot for them to crawl up on and bask and it absolutely was sitting on the bottom, not on the sand but somehow the one remaining turtle got inside under the flower pot and drowned. I am still scarred from the experience. I kid you not. I still cringe when I think about him drowning. But it taught me that baby turtles are like that and that also holds true to the hard shelled varieties. Babies often get stuck, so you have to make sure the tank is baby safe. I did with my other turtles and I now have complete success. Chalk it up to unfortunate misfortunes, but I suppose everyone has a failure now and again and you just need to move on. Anyway they do seem to get slightly more intelligent as they age. Good luck. If you go ahead and get one of them I hope you are 100% more successful than I was.
I have a baby soft shell turtle, he is in a mixed tank (80L) with other fish. I have found that he has been fine with them. however im sure he will havw to be removed when he gets bigger.
tessigal;563931; said:
No its cool man it happens. thanks for the info i appreciate it and its very helpful. Yea i hope i have better luck if i get one still debating cuz i wanted to keep it with fish but it seems like i cant and i dont want to risk my pbass and bichirs. Again thanks for the story bro.
No problems, everyone has different opinions on how fish or turtles go together, most with turtles are negative.... The important thing is to remember they are all cool to keep, but you have to be prepared to look after them regardless of how fierce they become, and if that means getting another tank or spending more money out on what you have, if this is a problem then I would suggest you dont get any. I have 3 tanks in my office so when the turtles get too big and perhaps become a problem they can be moved and tended to on another level. Dont get something that perhaps you cant look after in the future.
Also Im finding it really hard to find much information on soft shell turtles so I shall be putting out a post on most forums in the future regarding my experience with them.
Good luck however you decide.
Also Im finding it really hard to find much information on soft shell turtles so I shall be putting out a post on most forums in the future regarding my experience with them.
Good luck however you decide.