NANFA-- Fish & Turtles / separate feeding bins?

Jeffrey Fullerton (tcmajorr_at_westol.com)
Thu, 04 May 2000 09:21:49 -0400

Separate feeding containers are a great idea.
Another method might be to keep fish with the turtles. I stumbled upon this
idea years ago when some goldfish origionally intended as feeders for a
group of Mississippi Mud turtles and a Stinkpot survived and ended up
coexisting peacefully with them. The fish then grew quite big feeding off
the scraps of Reptomin and other foods. This helped keep the setup clean.

Strange to note that while any new fish were subject to be eaten, the
survivors were never molested. It was as if they had been accepted as
coinhabitants by the turtles.

Had a similar experience keeping green swordtails and guppies with Central
American woods- although that was less surprising since these turtles are
predominantly veggie eaters and won't even eat fish that are pre killed and
laid right before them.

I kept fathead minnows, chubs and black-nosed dace with young wood
turtles- they seem too slow to catch them. But spotted turtles are a
different story. They chase the fish down unrelentingly. Still a few
fatheads survived in the spotted tub by hidding in crevices and darting out
to feast on scraps.

Best suggestions - use expendable species of fish like minnows, goldfish or
livebearers - ie Mosquitofish, guppies, platties or swordtails that can be
cultured in a separate tub as feeders/ replacement stock. Give fish lots of
swimming room and hiding places inaccessable to turtles and some are sure
to survive.

Jeff

Brian J wrote:

> I have been doing this for a few years. It is kind of
> a pain but still better than changing the water and
> cleaning there ponds out.
>
> --- Ian Murray <apollo_at_zianet.com> wrote:
> > does anybody feed their spotted turtles in separate
> > bins to ease up on
> > the cleaning of their tank? Just curious.
> > thanks
> > ian
> >
> >
>
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