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I'm looking to set-up a small (10 gal.) tank to throw some feeder fish in and slowly feed them to Cricket. Hopefully while he's slowly being allowed to eat them, they'll breed a bit. Any preference on rosy reds vs. guppies? Cricket's still pretty small, probably about 2", so I know he can easily eat the minnows, we haven't tried guppies yet.

Guppies breed quckly. Mine have had a batch of babies about once a month. .

u wont breed minnows but it will take a lot of effort for your turtle to catch them and keep your turtle very entertained. guppies breed a lot and your turtle can catch them rather easily

rsour24 wrote:u wont breed minnows but it will take a lot of effort for your turtle to catch them and keep your turtle very entertained. guppies breed a lot and your turtle can catch them rather easily

do the minnows not breed easily? I did notice this week that after buying 6 minnows and planning on giving him 2/week, they quickly died in my extra 10 gallon tank, but the pet store people claimed that 6 minnows was too many for a 10 gallon tank.

I don't have a problem doing guppies, but I was worried about having too many fish. I was hoping with the breeding colony set-up I could feed him* 1 fish/week. Would that be too much protein? He'll only get a ration of veggies on the fish day and then his normal pellets and veggies on his other feeding days.

*disclaimer: technically Cricket is a it, but since we won't know the sex for awhile, we've taken to calling our turtle a him until we know

I had minnows for a couple of years and they did not breed. I'm sure I did not have the right setup for them, but you'll likely have to do some research into the subject.

I dont know about your area but in terms of breeding your better off with guppies. As for minnows, like I said I dont know about your area but here where I live I can get 5 rosies for a buck which isnt a bad deal since I only ever feed Niko fish but once a month if I remember to buy them.

Hey - I just bought some minnows for 12 cents/each! That's a pretty good deal. Plus they're small and fast so it's entertaining to watch your turtle try to catch them. I put five of them in yesterday and he's only had 2. (Keep in mind my RES is about 6").

With that said, I just bought some guppies and I'm going to try breeding them - from what I've researched, it's not that difficult to breed them. There's a sticky about it on the forum. I fed Tomi a guppy and he caught it a lot easier than the minnows.

Guppies I think are better. It is healthier. It is easier to take care.

To check if Cricket is a girl or boy, check "it's" claws. If you find the front claws much much longer than it's back claws, it's male. Females have much shorter front claws compared to a male.

As for the feeder fish, guppies are much easier to breed and keep. My friend had about 10 guppies to start, but she started realizing a few weeks later, that there weren't just ten guppies anymore. Lol. I also personally think the guppies are prettier looking so I like having them around.

It's hard to accurately sex a RES unless the SCL (straight carapace length/ length of the carapace without the curve) is closer to 4 inches. At 2 inches, Cricket has a ways to go yet.

Guppies are definitely easier to breed...I just started another breeding tank and put one male and two females in(I think that's the general rule for breeding them one male to two females)it's been three days and one of the girls is already pregnant..I'm pretty sure that she was pregnant within one day!! I had originally started breeding them as feeders for my turtle but he shows no interest in them so they're just one big happy family!!! Of course that could change at any given moment!!
If you decide to go with guppies I would suggest one male with two females in a 10 gallon. I have always removed the male once the females are pregnant and then removed the females once they give birth to give the fry a fighting chance!!

Minnows are a right pain to breed from everything I have read. Guppies do breed easily. Minnows are much faster, which makes the turtle work for his meal, but guppies might be a better choice for a younger turtle learning to hunt.