So I took a trip too the zoo and they had a cool tank with several Painted Turtles in there with a bunch of native cold water fish like bluegills. They seemed to get along fine. I have a native tank but I'm thinking about maybe setting up a turtle tank with some natives like bluegills and crappie. Does anybody have experience with painteds and other fish? Thoughts?
Painted Turtle With Fish, thoughts?
- Thread starter Ambervikings91
- Start date
I believe I answered in your native tank thread (or someone else's)
Turtle tanks are cool. They are amazingly successful dinosaurs and skilled predators. Any of the slider types are incredible swimmers and I've seen them out swim fish and catch them. Juvenile turtles won't bother fish that are 5xs their size but when they get to 5-8" they'll be able to over power these fish by biting at the fins til the fish have none. Then they go for the kill. If the turtle was raised with the fish they are less likely to bother them.
They are still predators though and can always surprise you. My first turtle way back when left 4 of the goldfish I feed him alive. Everyweek I'd add more and she left the same 4. Eventually they grew up and big and would eat her food clouds/crumbs and eat the dead skin she was shedding and she floated around or slept. I was beginning to think she kept them for the housekeeping. Then one night couple years later I heard slashing in the night and they were all gone. I always wonder what she was up to. Fattening them up?
Now I keep large brown carp which were born in my pond in my 125 w/2 adult red ear sliders. They overpopulated my pond so I try to get rid of them. They are the same size of the turtles so the turtles (who haven't had live fish in 7+ yrs) didn't chase em around like they would have a bright orange feeder fish. But again one night I came home and could smell fish right away. The biggest turtle violently incapacitated the biggest carp and ate as much as she could. To escape sharing with the other turtle she brought up the carcas to the basking area and left it or forgot about it. It was a spine with ribs a head and gills still moving.
So only keep turtles with junk fish you don't mind losing.
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Turtle tanks are cool. They are amazingly successful dinosaurs and skilled predators. Any of the slider types are incredible swimmers and I've seen them out swim fish and catch them. Juvenile turtles won't bother fish that are 5xs their size but when they get to 5-8" they'll be able to over power these fish by biting at the fins til the fish have none. Then they go for the kill. If the turtle was raised with the fish they are less likely to bother them.
They are still predators though and can always surprise you. My first turtle way back when left 4 of the goldfish I feed him alive. Everyweek I'd add more and she left the same 4. Eventually they grew up and big and would eat her food clouds/crumbs and eat the dead skin she was shedding and she floated around or slept. I was beginning to think she kept them for the housekeeping. Then one night couple years later I heard slashing in the night and they were all gone. I always wonder what she was up to. Fattening them up?
Now I keep large brown carp which were born in my pond in my 125 w/2 adult red ear sliders. They overpopulated my pond so I try to get rid of them. They are the same size of the turtles so the turtles (who haven't had live fish in 7+ yrs) didn't chase em around like they would have a bright orange feeder fish. But again one night I came home and could smell fish right away. The biggest turtle violently incapacitated the biggest carp and ate as much as she could. To escape sharing with the other turtle she brought up the carcas to the basking area and left it or forgot about it. It was a spine with ribs a head and gills still moving.
So only keep turtles with junk fish you don't mind losing.
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Agreed with Cramer on the point of being prepared to lose anything you put with a turtle. That being said, painteds aren't nearly as bad as sliders or cooters are, specifically because as they age they become largely herbivorous. In the wild the majority of the protein intake of wild adults is from scavenging or eating slow moving inverts, not hunting fish. I've kept them successfully together, but it's always a crap shoot. Good luck.
Josh H
Josh H
I do not think it will work long-term as the amount of space the fishes have to get away from the turtle is very different between the zoo's display & your aquarium; there might not be any injuries beyond some fins getting nipped here & there at the zoo while in your aquarium there could certainly be fatal injuries as a result of a turtle attack.
Yeah, a mud turtle or musk probably wouldn't bother the fish if they are larger than it. They stay small and mostly eat vegetation.
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From my experience with my painted turtle he didnt mess with fish when he was younger (he was kept with fish almost all his life). As he got larger he started to look at fish as food he even attacked my 16" LMB. He was then moves to his own setup where he has been for the last year. Bottom line unless you dont mind loosing your fish stock dont do painted turtles or sliders. It may work in huge aquariums long term but im shure even then there are occasional losses. Kinda funny story for you a huge RES i had years ago would eat or kill anything but for some reason decided to be best friends with a feeder goldfish and lived together for years.
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Not sure where you get your info, but muds and musks are predominantly carnivorous. They may not swim well enough to be very good hunters, but they certainly don't eat mostly vegetation.
Josh H
Sure they do, Josh. They're more scavengers than predators and most of their meat in the water (wild) is scavenged carrion or larvae. They are very terrestrial, unlike sliders and painted, and on land their meat diet consists of things that can't outrun them as well; earthworms, insects, slugs, grubs. Their natural diet is about 75-80% vegetation. My point that they most likely wouldn't bother a healthy fish bigger than them is accurate (again, there's always a risk).
But that does bring up the point that a mud turtle would need more land areas to nest (may want to hibernate in mud) and roam. So scratch that one off too unless you're going to completely commit to tank retrofit.
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I'd like to see a source for your claim of 75-80% of the diet being vegetation. As for most of their protein being carrion or invertebrates, I don't think anyone would argue that point. Plenty of people house muds and musks with fish with ne'er a fatality (though there are exceptions, not including when the turtles eat each other).
As for being very terrestrial, that's true for many of the kinosternon genus, but not nearly as true for the Sternotherus genus. While Sternotherus have been noted as being more prone to basking, they're aestivation activity is rare compared to the Kinosternons.
Josh H
I have 3 razorback musks and I keep red eyed tetras, glass catfish, cories, C.regani and the E.lucanusi and 3 Red Head Tapajos growing out in there. I've not lost a single fish to the musks. 1 is a full grown adult and the other 2 are around 3 inches.