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I was wondering about putting a Red eared slider in with my oscars.. can you put them together in one tank and everything will be cool??

simple answer..no..the turtle will always try to bite the oscar..and you'll need to provide a basking area for the RES.

does this go with any kind of fish? i also have gouromis and convicts.

kenny

Also aren't turtles massive waste producers?

well the topic really wasnt about the waste of the turtle. oscars produce probably just as much as the turtle. just can the turtles go with other fish?

i kept red eared sliders for years as a kid. i wouldnt put them with any fish, only because their natural food IS fish. IMO i think they need a tank all their own, and they definately need basking room. I would also agree that they produce ALOT of waste... you would have to be cleaning that tank ALOT, if the fish lived that is.

moral of the story.. preditor and prey were not made to live harmoniously.

*Chelle*
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I love the fishes cuz they're SOOO delicious...

Turtles dont produce shocking amounts of waste per se, in terms of venting it, and unless theyre using pharangeal inspiration to breathe underwater during brumation, they tend not to cause ammonia from breathing, but turtles unfortunately cannot be stopped from ripping prey literally to pieces, and not bothering to eat all the pieces. If you liquidised a fish in a blender, poured it in a tank, and let it sit for a while the pollution couldnt probably be much worse. They will constantly dig up the substate, tip things over etc. Their stomachs, while not producing shocking amounts of waste - their digestion is very thorough if kept at the correct temperatures and provided with terrestrial basking spots ( something else commonly overlooked by aqaurists)) , will produce a hell of a lot of bacteria, and its fairly usual for fish that live with them to suffer from repeated bouts of finrot, and columnaris, even if theyre not actually eaten. Reptiles also carry pinworm sometimes , and that can wipe out the fish too. Turtles also commonly harbour protozoa, and 60% of captive turtles will almost constantly vent salmonella into the water at least weekly.

Probably the number 1 creature you dont want to be keeping with fish in a confined space. In a big pond or lake with very large fish, you might just get away with it, but even then turtles are capable of maiming and killing fish many times their size. They can predate via ambush techniques and slow wounds causing infection and waiting for the fish to die, so fish unable to get away stand no chance.The size and speed of the fish makes no difference, and no fish has armour strong enough to resist the bite power of a beaked turtle.


Filter rates for turtles are commonly rated at about 13 times the entire water volume per hour, and thats with vast bacterial cultures and loads of media, not the usual principles youd associate with a hob filter. A small specimen , even a baby really needs at least an eheim external, if you wanted to keep fish in the same water ,and for full size adults (up to nearly 2 foot carapace length , you really have to make something yourself. They just dont make anything except pond filters that big. If you dont have that kind of filtration, water changes may need to be in the region of 50-100% per week, unless your tank is vast , and as you probably guessed , most fish will eventually die under that level of stress from the constant destabilisation of water quality.

Its far easier just to keep turtles without fish, then filtration isnt a worry , and you just dump the water. Actually, its easier not to keep turtles .

Worse choices to keep with fish include , giant otters, crocodiles, tigers and hippopotami, possibly a dead elephant. Youll see turtles kept with large fish in zoos etc, but then look at the size of the fish, the size of the enclosure and bear in mind its somebodys job to keep tidying it up all day. Dont do it at home, it will lead to tears. People will, and do keep turtles with fish, but they do so at the risk of their fish. Do not be fooled by the false bravado and ignorance you will encounter in this, and the herpetocultural hobbies, its a very, very stupid thing to do. A few people have the gift to get such setups right, but they are in the extreme minority, and as much as your average enthusiastic teenager likes to boast and say they are of zoo-keeper standard, we know this isnt the case. Even people that can make it work function on a level of morality and risk that most people wouldnt find truly acceptable if they understood those risks.

Forewarned is forearmed.

shall i show him my turtle pic?

yes.. i think i shall..

This is what turtles do to fishies

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-8/1065763/FluffyNFish.jpg granted this was a much more aggressive turtle than most breeds.... but still.. the danger is there.

*Chelle*
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I love the fishes cuz they're SOOO delicious...

That's members only, can't see it.

I can imagine what they can do to a fish though. I was snake minding for a junior high school teacher when I was in college, he had two RES turtles, a pac-man frog and some fish as well. He told me I could give the turtles a frozen mouse as a treat halfway through my time sitting them, I did and what a mess! I had to use a diatom filter to clean it out, and I had never siphoned before so I got a mouthful of YUCK! as well. Definitely keep the turtles in their own tank with a nice place for basking. Keep the fish in a tank beside the turtles if you must but not with the turtles, unless you want to see The Wonder of Nature baby!

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

Just like to echo those before me, a resounding no.

FIXED!! thanks... im retarded sometimes.. ::Tries to lick elbow::

*Chelle*
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I love the fishes cuz they're SOOO delicious...

Wow chelaine what on earth is he eating- catfish of some kind? My sliders eat whole trout and the 2 adults can make a whole adult trout disappear between them in about 10 minutes. The pic is a bit small, is he a common snapper? I could only get the alligator snapper I kept to take fish he could swallow whole, or whole chicks. He does have a big tail,and keeled scutes so I guess he could be an alligator snapper. In which case thats lucky cos itll make him so much easier to feed.

If you can get a nice shot of the mouth people would be able to see the fish lure on the tongue

Technically thats overfeeding that is , lol.

he was an alligator snapper and that WAS a catfish it was about 14 inches long... i caught it on a fishing trip and he killed it within the hour. all that was left was the spines from his front fins.

*Chelle*
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I love the fishes cuz they're SOOO delicious...

Yeah its amazing how a fish that big can disappear. Make the turtle eat small amounts all week or even maybe for two, then give it a big fish. About an hour later you look at the tank,and the fish is gone! They must compress the flesh into a little solid brick in the stomach. You sure notice the weight difference when you pick the turtle up afterwards. That, and it cant quite retract its limbs into its shell properly any more Gators get those big fat forearms not long after a feed, it makes them look like they went down to the gym or something.

For anyone watching and wondering how to feed a turtle normally you should feed it small bite sized foods every other day or so , but when they get big once a week will do. Fish like the one chelaine gave the turtle in that pic are really a one off treat thing, Christmas dinners etc.

Does show you what they can do though.

I usually fed him packets of lunch meat during the week because buying fish (as most of you know) can get pretty expensive. turtles such as this one need stable protien in their diet, and floating pellets alone cannot substain his diet properly.. larger prey and big meal should be a treat!

*Chelle*
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I love the fishes cuz they're SOOO delicious...