mata mata enclosure

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postskunk;3386925; said:
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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Have you ever had a mata mata actually drown due to deep waters?
 
AttackFish;3309177; said:
Enjoy having your fish bitten in half.. and having an un-happy mata..
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Matas physically CAN'T bite a fish in half.
 
postskunk;3386925; said:
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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I don't monitor PH, my water temps are anywhere between 78-82 degrees at any given time, and I could care less about Calcium. I use straight well water for all my Turtles, it doesn't matter who or where they came from. People tend to over complicate things way too much, and when they do and the animal fails, they blame the animal and not themselves. All the Matas I've ever had have been collected in the Ripinuni flood plain in deep, flowing, water. I've actually found it hard to kill one of these guys off. The problems come with the way they are handled and held for Export. If I could get Matas out of Surinam, I would in a heart beat. Anything that comes out of Guyana is more than likely death warmed over. The last Mata I have is the last I'll see out of Guyana, as my Exporter died the 31st, and I wouldn't trust anyone else with my money down there. I could barely trust him, and he was American............
 
EricIvins;3386262; said:
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.........
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100% agreed deworming unless its clearly necessary (really emancieted turtle with feces testing showing huge parasite load) will do nothing but disrupt a already delicate digestive sistem and killing much beneficial gut flora, and that for all reptiles;) And you are also completly rigth in your feeding regime, matas have a very slow metabolism, grown up matas dont need any more food then what your currently giving to them. My line of though is this: imagen that each of your matas consumes say 100 grams of fish in one sitting, insted of giving them in a copple of 50 gram big fish your going to give them in quite a few smaller say 20 gram ones, that greatly enhances food digestion and absorcion. By simple words give preference to many small fish then few biiger ones. Ufornatly matas can have bigger mouths then their guts just like softshell turtles, they can gorge themselfes in a amount of food they cant difgest with fatal consequences. This is a super tip and gives you a safety edge. Also dont overfeed matas with any food your using the rule I use here is feed untill you see the turtle a bit still hungry but declining in its will to go after food
 
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