Feeding and Nutrition

Hi all. I have a 3 month old RES turtle. He's 3 and a half inches long and I feed him pellets and leafy veggies. He adores lettuce. Gonna try to feed him carrots as well. For the main question, what is the right time for and RES turtle to eat live feeds like small guppies? I watched some videos of RES which are about 4 inches plus long and eats guppies or even goldfish. I don't want to force my dude to eat so I'm asking here.

Thanks in advance fellas.

Welcome, you can get feeder fish any time of the year. Your turtle will either chase them and try to eat them right away of some of the fish may be able to avoid your turtle and survive a while. It really depends on the size of your tank and how many hiding places you have for the fish. What size is your tank? To give you an idea, I have a 150 gal tank with one adult male Slider, the tank has 4 bala sharks, 3 flat head minnows, 2 Chinese algae eaters and 30+ guppies that are permanent residents. With space a fast fish can evade turtles.

I have a 30 gal tank with a janitor fish (hi tried to bite the tail but gave up after a few tries). Wow you have a lot of fish. So I assume that I can put other fishes with the RES. I still need to put some plants and rocks for them to hide and play with. I just bought the tank. So any ideas on what type of fish to avoid buying? He might toy with them and die but I will buy some guppies for his live feed.

I just buy 2 feeder fish every couple months and if they don't get eaten with a week or so, they usually die from the ammonia in the water I would guess.

You shouldn't have that high of ammonia levels, that wouldn't be healthy for your turtle since he drinks that water. My fish are permanent residents. I designed the tank to be that way. Yes my turtle will eat one every so often but they live in his tank with him. Its a community turtle, fish tank. I have been successfully keeping fish with my turtle for several years now. Do you want to keep fish with your turtle or just use them as feeders?

In my case, I want to keep the fish with the turtle but if I can't prevent the predator-prey scenario for the turtle and fishes, then so be it. I'd want to breed guppies too. For keeping and feeds.

What kind of tank setup you got? The bigger the better, I have good success but I credit the big tank for most of it. Everyone has their own space, when needed.

I only have a 15 gallon tank for now. It may not be the best choice to breed other fishes with the turtle in it with the tank size. I need to put on some logs for the fish to hide.

yeah anything you put in will most likely become a meal.

Good thing he's not eating the janitor fish inside the same tank with him for days now. He bit the fish by the tail and ignored it afterwards.

Yeah, I tried a pleco and it got shredded. So I went with Chinese algae eaters and have had no problems.

slider_keeper wrote:You shouldn't have that high of ammonia levels, that wouldn't be healthy for your turtle since he drinks that water. My fish are permanent residents. I designed the tank to be that way. Yes my turtle will eat one every so often but they live in his tank with him. Its a community turtle, fish tank. I have been successfully keeping fish with my turtle for several years now. Do you want to keep fish with your turtle or just use them as feeders?

Well I don't know that the ammonia levels are that high. I have a 40 gallon tank with a Rena XP filter set up. I change the carbon monthly and use sachem as well as do 20% water changes on a weekly basis. The feeder fish at Petco arent the healthiest of fish and I just assumed were not very hardy after a few days.

I think compared to the ditch bayou that some live in here and the ammonia levels in them, my tank is actually like a 4 star hotel :lol:

Feeder fish from the store are kept in horrible conditions and are probably weak, it is easy for a healthy turtle to catch and eat weak prey. I notice that when I added minnows from the feeder tank at petsmart, that out of 15 only 3 survived. This leads me to think the others were not in the best of shape to evade a slider. The 3 minnows I have a fast and alert, they don't let Toku get too close, but will swim around him when he isn't in attack mode. The guppies are the same way. A pregnant female is slow and lethargic, they can become a meal but they stay on the opposite side of the tank from my turtle, knowing they are vulnerable. When starring at my tank and the inhabitants you can see a small eco system, with hierarchy. The bala sharks are very peaceful and mined their own. They are super quick to and getting over 2", I think Toku has learned they aren't worth trying to catch. With that said, I'm sure if one wasn't paying attention, it would become a meal.

slider_keeper wrote:Yeah, I tried a pleco and it got shredded. So I went with Chinese algae eaters and have had no problems.

Yeah I saw those algae eaters. They behave like a janitor fish too. Do they really eat the dirt from the tank? Probably yes.

They are scavengers and will eat any left over greens. They eat the algae mainly!

Feeding and Nutrition :: Best month for RES to eat live guppies or other fishes?

Who is online