Feeding and Nutrition :: Can turtles eat sunfish?

[Squishy]

I catch a lot of sunfish/crappies when I go fishing (current record is 57 in two hours) and the possession limit is 25 on my license. Does anyone know the nutritional merit of these fish? They aren't horrible looking fish so I wouldn't even mind if one or two stuck around as a "turtle pet".

Oh, and what about perch? I can get bucketfulls of these as well when I am up in cottage country.

[megcornell]

Don't sunfish have spikes on them? They're also a bit large to be fed to turtles. That would be a lot of fish for one day.

I'd avoid it.

Not only that, but you never know what the fish could carry. I know here in NY there's a big problem with fish in the Hudson because of pollutants that were dumped in decades ago.

[Squishy]

You're right about fish disease and pollutants. I didn't consider that, but the government actually publishes guidelines on how many fish humans can eat based on species and which lake it came from, so the concentrations can't be too good for a little turtle.

[Bladedvixen]

The family Centrarchidae (the sunfish and crappies) are very bad Ideas for a turtle. They are very agressive fish and have spines that can REALLY damage your turtle. Greens and warmouths are exceptionally agressive sunfish. There are not only pollutatnts but parasites and little bacteria that could harm a turtle. Lastly, the warmer water suited for turtles is actually perfect temperatures for those fish to breed... so one or two fish could wind up to be 100s