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Hello fellow turtle enthusiasts!

So I wanted to buy some minnows for my turtles, and I did! I told the pet store lady I was going to add them to my turtle tank as food and general companionship (lol!) and she told me that if they weren't eaten within a day or two, they would die and cause massive disease/destruction throughout my tank . I've read around the forum that people use them as food every now and then to add variety to the turtle's diet, which was my plan, but the lady freaked me out. I put them in a few hours ago and my turtles are intrigued, but they haven't bitten at them yet or anything. Should I be worried? Take them out tomorrow? I just want to be safe and I trust the forum over the pet store lady anyday

P.s. I have three turtles, in a 55 gallon tank. The temp in the water stays at about 75 degrees (thx to the heater) and the turtles are nearly 2 in. Thanks!

Haha, good old petstore people.Just because they work in a petstore doesnt mean they know what they are talkign about =P

Fish will be fine, if they dont get eaten they will thrive and grow. A few people on here have some actually expensive fish with their turtles. Its all chance if they eat them. I had two goldfish accidently come with my last purchase of minnows. The goldfish have been alive for over 5months now and are actually getting to be very big.

Haha yeah that's why I came straight here! Thanks for the quick reply, I can rest easy now! As much as I'd like for the turtles to have a nice snack, it'd be cool if a few survived. They add some more life to the big ol' tank. . Thanks again for the reply!

ya 90% of pet store advice is retarded. The pet stores iv noticed that actually know what they are talking about and give great real advice, is the Family Run small pet stores.

SINI5T3R wrote:ya 90% of pet store advice is retarded. The pet stores iv noticed that actually know what they are talking about and give great real advice, is the Family Run small pet stores.

Yep agreed, all the private ones i go to know their stuff where as big chains like super pets, petco, petsmart. The people are there just for a job.

I actually went to fill out an aplication at a private owned petstore. They wanted to make sure you knew your stuff really well let me tell you.

i tried to get a job at the one here but they said they are all family run and dont hire people. I know the owner she is a cool lady. they keep huge birds at there house and breed them. she knows alot about fish, reptiles, birds, all sorts of crap. only thing is is there fish area ant that great and usually the fish are sick looking. but they are a great shop. its called Pick-a-Pet in Casa Grande, Arizona.

Alot of pet store people think they know it all, I mean really, if I asked some pet store employee what does it mean when a fish has two heads and three tails, the employee would prolly say its normal, just feed both fish. The only way it will die while in the tank, is if the water isnt good (ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, ph level, blah, blah), also, if the tank that you got the fish from had alot of dead fish, do not buy from the store, usually the pet stores have a local breeder selling them fish, most likely, that batch of fish were bad/sick, so it could make your turtle sick aswell. Be careful when you ask for pet store advice, because alot of those employees can give you false info, and then you end up accidentally killing your pet, or wasting more money, then when you go back saying they gave false info, they will most likely do nothing.

Over the years I visited a lot of pet stores from Texas to New Hampshire and the sales people know two things and that is where the bathroom is and when payday is. When it comes to turtles they are clueless. I buy feeder fish and freeze them for a day or two before feeding them to my turtles. The freezing kills any parasites and the turtles make less of a mess when they are easy to catch and eat. I feed then a couple a week.

hill wrote:Over the years I visited a lot of pet stores from Texas to New Hampshire and the sales people know two things and that is where the bathroom is and when payday is. When it comes to turtles they are clueless. I buy feeder fish and freeze them for a day or two before feeding them to my turtles. The freezing kills any parasites and the turtles make less of a mess when they are easy to catch and eat. I feed then a couple a week.

Interesting idea... How do you freeze them? Are they alive when you freeze them? Or do you kill them somehow and then freeze them?

And I agree with you on the lack of knowledge and high amounts of false info provided by pet stores. I worked for a small, family run pet store on evenings and weekends around my regular full time job for about a year between 2009-2010, and it was quite the interview to get the job- I had to provide current and past photos of my pets, give detailed descriptions of my current pets daily care, and of what my past pets had died of (old age on all of them) and answer a ton of "What if..." questions too, such as "What if a customer came in and told you that they had recently changed their puppy's diet and food and that now their puppy was limping on his front left leg, and coughing a lot?" (Tell customer to take puppy to a vet! Do not sell them a new kind of food!) Once I was hired, it was a nice surprise to learn I would actually have to continue taking courses (online) and complete exams on a monthly basis to continue building my knowledge...

Anyway, it was great working where people were actually educated about the animals they sold, and the supplies/products they had and could be HELPFUL to new pet owners, no matter the animal involved. I really miss working there, but having the full time job and the part time job got to be too much, so I had to quit.

I'm for sure going to look for a family run pet shop around here. It sounds like the only way to go :p. Thanks for all the great advice.

Fish = bacteria, dead or alive.

Remember that every living thing you place in that tank is going to poop and pee at some point. Fish aren't bad for turtles, they eat them in the wild, but, I recommend feeding them to your turtle in a separate bucket.