Habitat - Indoor :: turtles and fish success

[rsour24]

Some of you may remember me, im kind of an old member at this point just havent posted in a long time since i'm away at college. I was just wondering if anyone on here has had success with keeping fish with their turtle yet. My female RES myrtle is about 6" and i keep her with a number of fish, a i have a pleco, 3 lined catfish, 3 rosy barbs, 5 tiger barbs, tinfoil barb, golden tinfoil barb, and in a grow out tank i have another pleco im waiting to get up in size and a lace catfish i cant wait to get larger. anyone else have the same luck i do? any pics to share?

[devilduck]

I did this once too. My barbs lasted maybe 3 months, then my turtle decided to eat all of them one day. Now 1 out of 2 dozen feeder fish survive for months, s smart fast giant danio has also survived 6 months. Just make sure you have lots of hiding spots for the fish.

I've since moved all surviving fish to my 20L planted tank except for the minnows and danio.

I have some pictures in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=32463

[slider_keeper]

I have a well established guppie community in my turtle tank. They are having success breeding and the fry surviving to populate the tank. On avarage there is about 20 guppies in total. The fish have learned to steer clear of my male slider. He will get one every once in a while but this is good to keep from over population;) I also have two chinese algea eaters that have been in the tank since I set it up in my house (just over a year ago now), one flat head minnow has survived the year as well. All the fish were added when I set the tank up. I put ten minnows in the tank, and four algea eaters were originally in the tank. The surprise is the guppie population doubled, they do breed like rabbits tho. I believe my success is due to the Basking branch I constructed. There is a opening on one end of the branch that the guppies will give birth in.

[rsour24]

i have guppies in my grow out tank, they breed like no other but im kind of over them, wanting a new project, but i cant just throw them in my turtle tank because pretty much all of my fish will rip them to pieces. my fish have been in there for a while now, and Myrtle just seems to not care. she steps on them, sometimes even gets face to face and doesnt do anything, she loves her veggies tho, i think it has to do with my keeping fish with her all of her life and getting the right kind of fish, and introducing them correctly. when im introducing new fish i completely re-decorate my tank. all new hiding spots and everything, it makes everyone have a better chance because no one is defending any certain spots. im aware of the risk i take in keeping fish with turtles, thats why none of these fish cost over 7$ i think. i'll post pictures if i remember in a couple weeks when i head home for christmas.

[ljapa]

My son's turtle has had black neon tetras since he was a hatchling and the tank was cycled. When he moved to the 55 gallon, we added 6 neon tetras as well. About two months later, one night there were 6 and one morning there were 2. This was as we were trying to transition to less protein and more veggies.

I've since moved the neon tetras to a refugium I added over Thanksgiving. The black neon tetras are still there.

[slider_keeper]

I like the guppies they are a color morph that was the result of different colors breeding and making their own colors. They add movement and color to the tank, its more busy in there lol. I think my turtle enjoys the fish as it is something to look at, chase, and sometimes get a snack.

[MEandYouPhoto]

I have two gold fish in my tank that started out as feeder fish (before I found out they were bad feeder fish) and they are like 4 inches now so they are left alone by the turtle. There is one fat head minnow that the turtle won't eat because he is silver and not "rosy red" like the others he came with and now there are two of the Rosy Red minnows in the tank that the turtle hasn't gotten around to eating in the last month.

I do want to point out something for those of you who like me feed in the tank and keep fish in the tank. If your fish are large enough that they will eat your turtles food or food leftovers be warned. They may have started out as feeder fish but if you wish them to live a healthy life while they share your tank you will need to be careful they they too do not overeat or they can end up with a swim bladder infection (do your fish swim on their sides or in an unnatural manner?) So be careful with your shared tank


Here are pictures to my tank with both the turtle and the fish.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=33545

[slider_keeper]

MEandYouPhoto, very good points, thats why I chose smaller fish. I do plan on getting several more flat head minnows. I actually like him/her in the tank, stays near the bottom to give bottom tank movement and the guppies stay in the upper region giving upper level movement. I like to see action in the tank and the fish accomplish this very well.

[apondfortimmy]

I might get some guppies for my Baby Timmy. They're all on sale for $1 at my local store. Seeing the colors in there would be nice.

[slider_keeper]

Be careful, you gonna need some places where the fish can evade a hungry and persistent turtle that will not stop till everyone of them is gone. Once they get established they will be good tho. Just remember when it gets crowded fish will become a snack eventually. I call it population control, these fish breed like rabbits. To think about about it, they breed more often and produce faster and more than rabbits. I always see them doing what appears to be chasing the tail, if that is politically correct. I apologize if it isn't.

[happycamper]

I have quite a few different types of fish with Sheldon. I have 3 Kuhli Loaches, a Killifish, a Swordtail and a Skirt Tetra that have lived with Sheldon for a couple years. I have a herd of Cory Cats, they actually laid eggs in the tank so I removed the eggs and raised them until they were large enough to live with the Killifish. I had a rather unfortunate die off a few months back, I lost most of my fish after a water change. Since then I have purchased some larger semi aggressive fish, a school of 9 Odessa Barbs, 3 Tinfoil Barbs and a rainbow shark. Only problem I am having now is that the Tinfoil Barbs are big enough to eat turtle pellets, and they are really fast and hungry! I have a bunch of pics of my fishies on my photobucket...

These are the Tinfoil Barbs, probably 3.5 inches long.


Raising the Cories


Killifish


This is one of my favorite fish (Jerry) I lost in the water change...


My Swordtail, we was actually born in the tank!


This is my old pleco, had to rehome him because he was actually becoming aggressive toward my turtle!