Turtles and fish?

[MrMiyagi]

I just wanted to know if anyone has had any experience with mixing fish and turtles. I currently have have a 90g set up for 3 turtles and was hoping to maybe add some excitement to the tank.

I'm pretty sure my tank could handle fish well. I have AWSOME filtration, a constant pH of about 7.4 - 7.5, and it is densely aquascaped with planted plants and rocks. I guess the only thing i would have to do is improve the lighting.

Tell me what you guys think.

 

[GIMojo]

turtles will get bigger and will eat the fish lol.

i know for a fact they eat rosey barbs

 

[beblondie]

''hoping to maybe add some excitement to the tank.''
Oh the fish will be excited alright -Anne

 

[Devilishturtles]

I wouldn't try. Even if you add large enough fish to where the turtles won't be able to eat them whole, they'll take chunks out. Maybe not right away since turtles are usually half blind, and slow anyways, but when you least expect it. Add some nice decorations, plants, or driftwood to spice things up a bit, if you'd like.

 

[unfamous]

what kind of turtles do you have? because i have a soft shell turtle with a golden malawi cichlid and they do perfectly fine together

 

[MrMiyagi]

hmmm bummer. The reson i was thinkin was cause i had put in like 5 feeder fish a few months ago. Right away 3 got eaten i guess but the other two have been living in total harmony with them. They're red rosies and at about 2 or more inches right now. I noticed that the fish even swim next to the turtles. Also during feeding the turtles don't even take a second look when the fish swim around them eating the bits of food.

I don't know. I don't wanna kill any fish but i guess i was just really hoping that they will live.

 

[MrMiyagi]

I have a spazoid red ear slider, a little hatchling map turtle, and a musk turtle. The only one that i think would be fast enough to catch a fish would be the red ear but he's too afraid of eveything. The musk isn't a good swimmer though and the map is just tiny, for now.

 

[MrMiyagi]

oh yea the musk is about 3 1/2 in. and hasn't grow in like a year and the red ear is maybe 4 any still gettin bigger.

 

[unfamous]

well i hsve seen red ear turtles in a large tank with large goldfish and koi but that would kind of mess up your aquascaping but there are plenty of catfish that may be ok like a common pleco or something like that

 

[rich311k]

My red eared slider loves to munch on goldfish. His 10+ years old and about 8 inches long.

 

[MrMiyagi]

Yea mine r still babies. Except for maybe my musk, i think he's fully grow, very small though. I was gonna try some danios since they're pretty fast and yea maybe a pleco or two. I might wait till the winter season though cause the tank is really warm right now. It's ok for my turtles but most fish would cook in 86 degree water. It's cause my tank is in the garage/game room. I was gonna make a chiller but i might wait on that for a while cause i'm gonna use the money to setup a live rock curing tank and a small vat for making salt water or an auto top off system.

 

[Toirtis]

Couple of issues:

1) Since you need a good-sized land area for the turtles, your water volume will be restricted.

2) Turtles are mucky...you will need excellent filtration to keep the water clean enough for fish.

3) Even the best fed turtle is going to view those fish as potential snacks, so do not love the fish too much.

 

[MrMiyagi]

Yea. Well i'm currently working on a wooden canopy enclosue for that tank. I fixed the land problem a long time ago. I purchased a Turtle Dock a while back and have it set on top of some floating plants and my turtles love it. Rigth now the tank is almost full, except for the top 2 inches or so cause of evaporation.
I'm not too concerned about the filtration right now, I have a pretty good system. I'm running a Magnum 350 with a foam pad and carbon inside. And then I have a home made drip/canister filter with a 300 GPH pump. It's a 3 stage cascading filter with a whole bunch of ehime bio substrate airation and more mechanical filtering. I'm also getting in a bio wheel to add to the bio load. Turtles are pretty messy so i've really had to bulck up my equipment.
If I do try out a few fish i'm gonna have come up with a way to feed the turtles and fish separate. I have the turtles trained right now to eat floating food on the right side of the tank. So maybe I'll be able to feed the fish on the left with some sinking food or something. I dk. Maybe loaches or other bottom feeders would be a choice.
I guess it's still up in the air. Right now i'm gonna go ahead a prepare to add fish because I might move my turtles out anyway. I'm making plans to build a nice 400g pond in my backyard. I'll see what happens.

 

[kimberly]

I kept a turtle with fish several years ago. I named all the fish "turtle food". For the most part my turtle (a mud turtle) didn't mess with the fish, although every once in a while it seemed that I would have fewer fish. He was very well fed and hand raised (I hatched him). But one summer b/w school years I put my pleco in with him. The pleco had gotten really big, probably around 6-8 inches, which was bigger than the turtle. One day I found the pleco with one bite taken out of him, dead in the bottom of the tank. I guess the turtle tried him, and decided he didn't like the taste.

Anyway, lesson learned was to not keep any fish I really liked with the turtle. I don't have a problem with keeping them together as fish are a natural food for turtles, but know what you may be getting into.

 

[frenchpea2002]

I personally don't mind letting nature "happen" (I'm actually eating samlon right now! )and I give my newt small feeders, and it adds some excitement, plus food, and it's cheap to restock! =) but maybe that is just my newt, he's a little odd... for starters, I've had him for about 14 years, and everyone has told me they only live 3-5 years! Plus he was so poorly taken care of most of the time, before I got into aquariums (within the past 12 mo or so) and didn't know better.

But anyway, as long as you don't mind loosing the fish, IMO it is okay to add them, but obivously stick with feeders, either guppies or goldies

 

[mr86mister]

yeah if anything, stick with feeders and nothing to expensive and you should be fine

about 10 feeders should do well and give movement to the tank

 

[spongebobson]

It sounds like "sushi" for me

 

[Toirtis]

If you must put in 'feeders' use minnows and not goldfish...feeder golds are very poor nutrition for turtles.