fred the turtle

[StarBelliedSneetch]

i have an asian box turtle named fred hes about 17 yrs old, as for the moment i have a small filter in his tank that does a really good job but could do better, but im already working on getting him another one, so to the point. he is soon about to be moved, i would like to put some type of cleaning fish in with him, no it has to be a hard core cleaner, some thing that also cleans waste and algea, if there is such a fish. actually it dont even have to be a fish, it will have ample space to hide and all that, plus it has to be fast so he wont eat it. any suggestions.
thanks

[angelcakes]

i wonder if shrimp would work? just a suggestion, have you any pics of fred?

[StarBelliedSneetch]

not at the moment i wanna wait till hes in his new home, thanks for the sugestion

[dustinpedley]

what kind of "Asian box turtle" do you have? the reason i ask is that there are about 4-5 species commonly referred to as "Asian box turtles" some need to be kept in water, i.e Cuora amboinensis, but most need equal land and water i.e Cuora (Cistoclemmys) galbinifrous. to make a long story short if you bought him as an Asian box turtle he "should be" either a Chinese variant or the Malaysian variant. both of which should not be kept in water and only in a tank with bark substrate and a small water dish with enough depth to soak himself in.

I'm not saying you don't know what you have but before we can make suggestions we need to know what exactly you have

[StarBelliedSneetch]

completly agree with you dustin, and your right, i just forget what what type he is i know hes malaysian varient, but hes also a very strange lil guy. we tried many many things with him to incluse the small water dish, and he hates it, he sleeps in the water, if there is more land than water in his tank he goes ape, he loves it in the water. so i keep him happy. i did at one point find out exaclty what he was and i read all i could on it and well hes his own breed is all i can say. he also can not stand warm water, hes a weird one

[StarBelliedSneetch]

Cuora amboinensis-- Malayan box turtle
thats what he is, to be completly honest when we first go him we were told to take care of him the way he is now, so i guess he just adapted and now hes like a new breed, not really

[dustinpedley]

yah non water turtles can get lots of health problems if they are kept in water. ie. shell rot, RI alot easier than aquatic and semi aquatic turtles

how long have you kept him like this?

what do you feed him?

thats also odd b/c when young these turtles are almost totaly aquatic but as they age the become almost totally terrestrial. i guess he just likes to swim lol.