The Musk Turtle Tank

[Joshy]

Well this is my latest and biggest venture – baby musk turtles.
I hope you like their setup, they sure do! Haha!

Size: 100L (was)
Heater: 100W (sits at 27C)
Filter: Fluval 2+
Lighting: Two 15W tubes (one UVB)
Substrate: Sand
Plants: Fake!!!

Best Photo I Think

Overview

Closer

Closer Still (Close up of centre)

To The Side

----

And of course, just a quick close up.

Or Two

Would be really nice to hear your comments and views.
I know there are a lot of ‘fake plant haters’ out there.
Well anyway, im happy with it and the turtles are.

Sorry for the poor quality phone-camera photos.

Thanks
Josh

 

[rlhirth]

awwwwwwwwwww i love these turtles!!!! they are so cute!!!! did ya get the sand for there tank yet???

 

[Joshy]

I sure did, no more eating gravel.
Took me 3 hours to do the change over!

 

[rlhirth]

thats wonderful yo get that naught gravel out... tank looks great

i post pictures of my knife tank and then under reptiles my soft shell....

 

[lyotim88]

looks cool. turtles can climb trees?

 

[Joshy]

Musk's can, almost 90-degree branches and in the wild they can be found several feet above the waterline sometimes.
But they spend 90% of their time in the water whether swimming of lazing around.

 

[loraxchick]

Your tank is really beautiful for the tiny turtle. Just a word of caution spoken as one who raised a hatchling this year (who is now 5 inches in about 6 months)...those plants will NOT last long planted like that. wait until the tiny turtle can swim better and hang out near the bottom more, scouring and DIGGING for food. it'll probably be OK for now, but look into some floating plants or just get anacharis (which they like to eat) and float that around the tank. once they start digging around, they never stop and you'll be pulling your hair out trying to get it to stay in the substrate.
have fun with the turtle. they are AWESOME pets and fun to observe, especially in a tank so pretty!

HA.. i jsut reread the tread(i skimmed it the first time 'round) and i still say the even though the plants are fake (MISSED that point the first round), they still wont stay planted like that for long! looks GREAT, though!

 

[Joshy]

Thanks for the kind words.
Your not the first to mistake them for being fake haha

They are going to have a hard time pulling those fake plants up, because they are all attached to one another.
It is made up of several mats, joined together with weights and extra weights added, and sand poured ontop.
So the whole carpet is literally, a whole-carpet haha.

They love it though, forever darting ontop of it and travelling through it.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

that tank looks so fantastic!!
got any pictures of the turtle swimming around?

are all those plants real?
they look real but i cant figure out how you have the plant thats out of water planted lol

 

[wilchil64]

Looks great! The plants look so real And the turtles are really sweet ... I'm very tempted! How big do they grow?

 

[Davo86]

Looks great! The plants look so real And the turtles are really sweet ... I'm very tempted! How big do they grow?

Very nice setup you got there Joshy

Musks are one of the smaller turtles, males getting to about 3.5inches, females about 4.5inches

 

[Joshy]

Thanks for all your nice words.
I found with this tank, that as i was constructing it i kept telling myself 'TFF members will like this one'.

It means a lot hearing nice things after the effort put in =]

And Davo is right, they average 4 inches, but take 2 to 4 years to mature to that size!
They can live for 30-50 years if well looked after!

I'll try and get some photos of them swimming later.
Whether my rubbish camera is up to the job is another thing though.

Feel free to keep the nice comments (or constructive ones) coming, i know my girlfriend would like to read them all.
As the turtles are really 'her pick' =]

 

[wendywc]

Great setup. That's cool that they stay small. Should be a great setup for them in the long run as well.

 

[paul_219]

Very nice turtle amazing

 

[three-fingers]

Love the set-up and the tank looks wonderful for them.

I especially like the wood coming out of the water - is that grape vine or redmoor?

Not a fan of the plastic plants below the water line though, look too fake to me . Plants above the water line are nicer though, an acceptable fake plant .