mata mata enclosure

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Great looking. I imagine very old ?

I ask because thought they grew slow and big matas are old. I saw small one's year ago in turtle farm here and several hundred dollars for small one's.
 
the tank has a pH of about 6-6.5 and during the night he does not act much differently from during the day: spurts of activity including digging up any plants or driftwood and stalking/ herding the minnows to eat. I got the professor about 2.5 years ago and he has not grown more than a half inch despite him eating over 200 minnows a week.
 
oh, his name the professor (short for prof. Chaos, and the pleco is named general disaray).
:-)
 
Sorry for digging up an old post, but all the Matas I've got from Guyana were caught in water 6-14ft deep as bycatch from the Fisherman.........The shallow water thing is a big misconception.......They won't breed in any less than 3 or 4ft. Once they hit Florida, all I've ever done was keep them in Filtered Well water and switch them to F/T whole Fish. Every now and then I'd go catch a bunch of Bluegill and let them have at it. I've had a few in the 20" range that would eat a 1lb Tilapia with no issues.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMcAiJ7kpNk
 
EricIvins;3385297; said:
Sorry for digging up an old post, but all the Matas I've got from Guyana were caught in water 6-14ft deep as bycatch from the Fisherman.........The shallow water thing is a big misconception.......They won't breed in any less than 3 or 4ft. Once they hit Florida, all I've ever done was keep them in Filtered Well water and switch them to F/T whole Fish. Every now and then I'd go catch a bunch of Bluegill and let them have at it. I've had a few in the 20" range that would eat a 1lb Tilapia with no issues.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMcAiJ7kpNk
Click to expand...
Interesting...however allways remenbar that its better to give many smaller fish then one big one, matas alongside softys are prone to literaly eating themselfes to death, avoiding big chuncks and giving easy to digest foods its the key to avoid it
 
coura;3386053; said:
Interesting...however allways remenbar that its better to give many smaller fish then one big one, matas alongside softys are prone to literaly eating themselfes to death, avoiding big chuncks and giving easy to digest foods its the key to avoid it
Click to expand...

With the stuff this guy has up for sale in the classifieds - it's fairly obvious he's an importer and knows what he's talking about.

There is a big difference between reading and gaining knowledge through the internet, and having real life knowledge from working with the animals.
 
coura;3386053; said:
Interesting...however allways remenbar that its better to give many smaller fish then one big one, matas alongside softys are prone to literaly eating themselfes to death, avoiding big chuncks and giving easy to digest foods its the key to avoid it
Click to expand...

I've never had that problem.............I'd feed them twice in a 7 day period......I find it to be a good thing, as they purge themselves of the majority of their Parasite load within 3-6 weeks in captivity. I also never De-Worm them, as they get rid of their Parasite load quicker and more efficiently themselves, than with any De-Wormer or Anti-Biotic available.........
 
Thats an amazing turtle but def take out some water or at lest put a big enough shelf half submerged in there that he can lounge/ sleep on or he wont last too long (cant stress the importance of this enough he will drown). also I don't know to much about those fish and there requirements but I do know mata matas have weird tank requirements like a ph level in the 5.3ish range and a temperature in the 80s and some one told me the other day that you need to make sure the calcium levels in the water are real low cause they develop shell rot easily. they can be kinda delicate even at that size so try to acclimate best you can and make sure the fish will tolerate these conditions.
best of luck with your Rad turtle
-postskunk
 
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