General Care Discussion :: Can you put a bass with three turtles?

[DanielRES1180]

I just joined turtleforum.com, but I may have to pull out because alot of viruses are coming through the site. Looks like Red Ear Slider is the best herp site on the web, the members are awesome and the site is fabulous . I guess people here are serious enough to not put viruses in the site. Just a thought.

Anyway, I went fishing today at waht was left of a drained lake, and there was a small bass I caught with a shovel (guess you could call it ghetto fishing). I thought it would be a great idea to put the bass in the tank with the turtles. But then I realized it was too big. It was 6" when the largest turtle is barely 3". I'm not scared that the turtles will shred it up, I'm afraid that the bass will harm them. What do you guys think?

[sarah]

hm...I don't know that I've heard of anyone putting turtles and bass together :p

I would think that your turts still might try to eat the fish...maybe not, but they try to eat everything else!

How big is your tank? j/c.

[DanielRES1180]

Currently 20 gallons, though it will be 55 gal soon.

[sarah]

I don't know that I'd put 3 turts and a 6" fish together in that size tank....
Or even a 55 gal.

Maybe when you get the new tank you can keep the old for the bass?

-lol- I thought only Texans used "ghetto" when they talked :-p

[cam722]

I'd not put the fish in with the turtle for a few reasons.. one would be the competition for food and the waste that the fish would put in the turtles water would mean you'd have to clean it more often. I'm not sure if the bass would harm the turtles or not.. but I'd not take the chance.

sarah: lol I think most people use the term ghetto, I'm in PA and we use it too.. after all there are ghettos in NYC

[DanielRES1180]

Well, I thought the same thing, but I was wanting to save the fish, he is to darn small.

sarah- Me and my friends always use ghetto when we talk about things in bad conditions, like we say ghetto bag when we see a bag with holes in it that are tied up with strings from the garbage in it. We say ghetto shoe when we see a shoe that you can peel the sole off and see the bottom of the person's sock. I used the term ghetto here because fishing with a shovel is so uncommon. Have you ever heard of people gone fishing with nothing but a shovel and a bucket for the fish? Name two.

[missibsu]

Why not turn the fish loose in another location. Most likely if you have bass in your lakes, you'll have them in your rivers. In other words don't do it if you are going to be introducing a new species, but I doubt that you will be. He's better off in the wild!

[DanielRES1180]

The little guy died yesterday at night. If he were alive turning him loose wouldn't do. Creeks in this area are a mix of salt and fresh water, theoretically the salt would kill the bass. And the only lake/pond I know is miles from here. My parents wouldn't be willing to drive miles just to release a fish.

[cam722]

Normally trying to keep a fresh fish in an aquarium rarely works. My son tried doing that when he was younger and ended up releasing them back into their pond after they started dying. He wanted to "observe" them as he was going into Wildlife and Fishery Sciences at Penn State.

[DanielRES1180]

The fish died overnight as I said. I left him outside, for the birds I guess .

[marisa]

If the fish died because something was wrong with him, and birds eat the remains, they possibly get sick as well...

[DanielRES1180]

Is this painting some pandemic scenario? We haven't seen lesioned fish since 1998, but with the crappy condition of the Indian River Estuary, you can't be sure if the thing is diseased or not.

[DanielRES1180]

I'm adding this to the last post. Can it be possible for dieases to survive overnight, in the sun, and examination (my dad sliced him up to see the gills)?

[marisa]

I don't know. It probably would depend on the bacteria/germs involved. My only point was that I would not have left the fish out to be eaten when the cause of death was unknown.

[DanielRES1180]

Oh okay. I always complicate things.