My New Baby Turtles

[three-fingers]

LOVE the turtles . I've been really wanting a musk turtle for a while now though I doubt I'l be able to get one .

Lovely turts.
Sand is a REALLY bad idea in a turtle aquarium. As is standard gravel.
Sand is a hige abrasive to the digestive sytem to turts so avaoid that idea.
Only use gravel if it is bigger than the turtles head as a general rule. it becomes easily lodged inside the intestine. Not good.
do you have a Uvc emitting lamp?
a basking lamp?
Keeping turltes is very demanding.
But very rewarding.
Nice turts.
Dan

Sounds like it makes sense, but why is it so bad in aquariums when they would encounter sand/mud/small stones in the wild? What makes them more prone to eating these things in captivity?
Musk turtles don't necessarily need those things though. They spend most of their time looking for food at the muddy bottom of ponds so receive very little in the way of UV in the wild.
Giving them a source of UV wouldn't harm, but unless they are basking directly under it for any considerable length of time, it would kinda be a waste.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

I have a UVB light but no basking light, on the same logic as mentioned. Nothing I have found relates to musks in captivity as yet, but they seem happy, they don't bother with basking and don't spend too much time near the water heater either, which tells me the temp is about right for them.


I have yet to see them eating, though they are just as fiesty today as they were when I bought them, telling me they are eating and I'm not seeing it. I have tried ground dried fish, prawns, shrimp, turtle pellets, as well as frozon bloodworm. I'll see if the bloodworm is gone tomorrow!

The angel is for sale at £35, I got half that in the trade. I know the trade was steep, I got £70 for the fish I traded in and the shop is retailing at £140. But, I never go on monitary value when I am trading goods. I go on necessity and what I want out of it. I had a load of fish too big for the aqurium they were in, the aquarium also being an unsuitable shape for them. They had turtles that were perfect for my tank, and I liked them. Fair trade, in my book!

The angel was a beautiful specimen which is why the shop is asking so much. It was jet black, with clear angular sections at the back edge of its fins, making it look ragged kinda like a ghost ship. It was also approximately 10" tall fintip to fintip, with bright red eyes. I was sorry to see it go, but it was just too big for my tanks and I could not afford a larger tank to house it at the moment.

I will update with more pics as they grow! I would also love anyone with experience and advice to get in touch via PM, as I have never kept turtles before. I do have experience with other reptiles, as well as tarantulas and many other extotic species, and thus far the basic principles have always been the same.

 

[MMM... fish]

Because naturally they will inhabit areas of muddy bottoms. Rarely will you find a lake with a fine gravel on its base.
Uvc is essential to their growth. Although they are highly aquatic they still bask, and still do require this source of lighting. Bare in mind, uvc can penetrate water, so is still of benefit even if the turts are submerged.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Well, my light is a reptileglow thingy specially for reptiles, I'll post details of it tomorrow when I find the reciept!

Any advice on diet, since I've not seen them eat?

 

[PRW1988]

hmm... tried anything live yet?? If you can, get a couple of pinhead crickets and drop em in, aswell, baby guppies or baby fish that aren't too fast.

 

[paul_219]

Very nice cute turtle looking gr8. Very cute.

 

[MMM... fish]

Mine took a while to settle in before they started eating.
Try them with some big thick bloodworm - live.
They wont resist it.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

They are now eating! The reason I haven't seen them eat is cos they are nocturnal!! But, I found some half eaten stuff in there today so they are eating well. They are also gravity defying, I saw one this afternoon climb a near verticle branch to get out of the water, apparantly with no effort at all!

Time for a water change already though - they are starting to smell a little! It's only been 4 days with my Fluval 205 pumping less than half the 180 litres that were in the tank before hand! It's more like 60 litres now!

 

[three-fingers]

Because naturally they will inhabit areas of muddy bottoms. Rarely will you find a lake with a fine gravel on its base.
Uvc is essential to their growth. Although they are highly aquatic they still bask, and still do require this source of lighting. Bare in mind, uvc can penetrate water, so is still of benefit even if the turts are submerged.

That's what I had thought, but I'm not sure about that any more. I was speaking to a guy a while ago who had been out to a few ponds/lakes in the US (think he went to Texas ) fishing, but because he kept turtles, he was also on the lookout for them. He said he thought it was silly people recommend turtles be kept in bare bottom tanks or only those with large pebbles when he saw lots of turtles in lakes that had tonnes of tiny stones and sand in them. I've never personally heard of anyone having trouble with a turtle ingesting sand or gravel, and I've seen many people who keep turtles in tanks with sand. If you go out to a pond, dredge the mud at the bottom, you will find lots of small stones and bits of grit in it.

What is UVC essential for? As I've never heard of it being essential (or even recommended in the slightest) for reptiles, only UVA and UVB.
UVC is used in aquarium sterilisation units - to kill living cells. Doesn't sound very safe .
In addition to this, UVC is an even shorter wavelength that UVB, so is hardly going to penetrate the water enough to reach the turtles.

UVB supplied by a florescent reptile tube is barely going to penetrate the surface of the water either, and even in nature, the UVB from the sun will hardly reach muddy bottom of a pond (linky, linky 2). Musk turtles can be kept in captivity without a UVB light source because they seem to have adapted to low amounts of UVB in the wild, like nocturnal geckos and the fish in our aquariums - while they still use UVB to synthesise vitamin D3 they can get it from other sources too .

 

[fall-apart-dave]

They are largely nocturnal anyway!

I have a UVA / UVB light anyway, but I also have bamboo growing out of the tank so it's kinda needed.

I plan to replace the substrate eventually, but for now I want to let them settle in properly. They've been through enough already!

Live food I will try on the weekend when I got to my LFS, if they have any!

 

[three-fingers]

I have a UVA / UVB light anyway, but I also have bamboo growing out of the tank so it's kinda needed.

Watch for the leaves of the lucky bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana) turning yellow btw, IME it doesnt take well to being exposed to UVB after growing indoors for ages...
Even sitting too close to a regular 'daylight spectrum' tube seems to be too much light for it .

Good luck with the turtles, seeing yours has actually made me take a few steps closer to being able to have my own...I've set up an old tank 'temporarily' as a fry tank...but when the fry are gone .

 

[fall-apart-dave]

The bamboo has always had a lot of natural light anyway but I'll keep an eye on it. If it goes sour I'll find something else that will do the trick (anyone know of any plants that are suitable? lol!).

I'm glad I've been an inspiration anyway! They are settled in now, they have found fave places to hang out, can get in and out of both pools and I have found a few more prodicts to vary their diet further.

I thought about adding something like shrimps to clean up after them, and to be food for them when they fancy something live somewhere down the line once they have grown a little... Anyone know of what may be suitable?

 

[fall-apart-dave]

More pics now I've added more bits to the aquarium - much more turtle friendly now!

Pics not the best but my camera is poo! Just cylcilng a new tank ready to breed live food now. Changing the substrate to sand and adding cold moonlight next week, more plants after that and some snails to deal with waste. Hopefully the turtles will tuck into them too!

 

[fall-apart-dave]

More plants added, looking better and better!

One turtle passed away recently, reasons unknown

 

[CrashingWaves]

That's pretty cool, I like your setup for turtles . I at one point considered getting one myself, but decided against it due to space. But yours look great

God Bless,
Joshua