General Care Discussion :: Turtle friends

[Mech Cb]

I have these feeder fish in my tank with the turtle, and I kinda like them cause they liven up the scene. So after he finishes going through them, I want to put in a few small river fish and maybe a crawdad. You think as long as I keep everything as big as the turtles head or bigger, they'll survive?

[untsmurf]

Honestly, you shouldn't get attached to anything you put in there. RES are a force to be reckoned with and they can destroy pretty much everything.

[tammi]

They will eventually eat whatever you put in with them

[novroz]

they will eat them once they are fast enough to catch them

[Jbenjamin_kuN22]

small list of things i can remember my RES' ate:

1) over 5 crawfish
2) countless guppies and golfish
3) 1 saltwater crab
4) many pieces of my ZooMed turtle dock
5) PH balance tablets
6) 1 PLECO that it was fine with for 1 year then decided to eat him

[Mech Cb]

So far so good! Mr Crawdaddy's still alive and kickin!

[mackadocious]

i've got a cyclid that's been doing just fine for 2 years now, but patsy's eaten every other live creature i've ever put in there w/in a couple weeks time....the cyclid is pretty aggressive tho and nips at the turtle if she gets too close to him....i think she's scared of him even tho he's the same size as many gold fish or other feeder fish she's eaten over the years...

[mike hill]

Maca-do -- Fact of life: turtles like to eat fish. Eventaully he will nib at the fins enough to slow it up and then, gulp. I have a feeder last about a year and then one day, poof, it was gone. m.

[tanasha93]

My lil sis's turtle had a feeder fish in with him since he a baby. Finally he just died after about 8 yrs. I think they were tank friends.

[Mech Cb]

That's what I'm looking for-I know turtles aren't the most social of creatures, but I think it would be cool if I could find one other animal in the tank that lives with the turtle. I might have spoke too soon about this one though, because sure enough about an hour after I posted that, Tex started poking his head in Mr Crawdads log like he was trying to get some food. Maybe I'll have to get a bigger crawdad that can hold his own.

[mackadocious]

mike--yeah, i know....i've had turtles for years now....we decided to do the cyclids a while ago just to see if they would indeed be fast enough to get away after we got a bigger tank that had lots of hiding places....one of the 2 fish died within a couple weeks of natural causes and the other one's still around.....it was just funny cause at the time there were 2 turts in the tank and neither showed the least interest in the fish while they had always incessantly chased any fish we'd put in the tank before...maybe it's just cause the tank was so much smaller (40g to 135g) but the only interaction i ever see is the fish biting at the turtle an the turtle running away...that little guy is one bad a** mofo....tho the day i wake up and don't see the fish in there anymore i won't be a bit surprised, i'm still impressed the fish is alive to this day....2 years!!...my point is just that it's worth a try to see what they'll tolerate, so long as it's cheap so that when they do eat the little friend it doesn't hurt so much...

[heathersarver]

If I put fish in the tank that the res can eat, will they over-eat the fish? (I'm a new owner of res) I keep seeing that they will keep asking for more food.

[SabrinaF]

Hey Heather, try posting a new topic on the feeding section. You might get an answer sooner