Can I keep an 1 Baby Oscar with my 2 Baby RES Turtles??

[AznYanTheMan]

Are they compatible and would they be able to live without fighting each other??

Thanks

[annageckos]

Ok I had it all typed out and then it went away, aarrrrrrrrrrr. Ok short answer, no, do not keep them together. The turtles can bit chunks out of the fish and the fish can injur the turtles. Baby RES need shallow water as they can drowned if it is too deep. They need a land area with basking light and a UV strip light. Without the UV light they can not apsorb caluim and that if fatal. You want to stay away from they UV compact bulbs (spirl bulbs) as they are dangerous and can be fatal. Oscars need a large tank and deeper water than the turtles need, the turtles too need a large tank but shallower water than the oscar needs.

[Rue]

I agree with Anna.

[Northernguy]

Its not a good idea!
A baby oscar will be near 11" in a years time if properly housed.A 75 is the suggested minimum tank for an oscar.
You would need a massive tank to consider these two together.
As a baby the oscar could be considered turtle food.

[AznYanTheMan]

Its not a good idea!
A baby oscar will be near 11" in a years time if properly housed.A 75 is the suggested minimum tank for an oscar.
You would need a massive tank to consider these two together.
As a baby the oscar could be considered turtle food.

Thanks for your help all of you. I had a feeling it was going to be no cause my turtles seem to have nice meals when I put in a new aquatic creature like goldfish to make the tank look more nicer and the next day, the fish is gone.

Thanks for all your guys help!!

[jay2487]

goldfish are the worst for your turtles too. They are extremely high in fat and are proven to lower your turtles life span. Even though you probably read that anything bigger than the turtles head is safe that is far from true. If your turtle gets half a chance, especially RES's, they will take a chunk out of your oscar. I have had luck keeping certain fish with my turtles but never tried oscars but if it's bigger than the turtle then it will probably think it has nothing to worry about until it's tails bit off. If you've ever seen a one legged duck at a pond, that's a turtle bite, so size does not matter. Here is a good rule of thumb about keeping fish with turtles; if you want to keep the fish and are not willing to lose it or it's really going to disappoint you if it gets ate, Don't put it in with your turtles. Plus even if it's too fast or a good hider, being chased by a turtle is going to stress it out and make it more succeptable to disease and poor health.

[AznYanTheMan]

goldfish are the worst for your turtles too. They are extremely high in fat and are proven to lower your turtles life span. Even though you probably read that anything bigger than the turtles head is safe that is far from true. If your turtle gets half a chance, especially RES's, they will take a chunk out of your oscar. I have had luck keeping certain fish with my turtles but never tried oscars but if it's bigger than the turtle then it will probably think it has nothing to worry about until it's tails bit off. If you've ever seen a one legged duck at a pond, that's a turtle bite, so size does not matter. Here is a good rule of thumb about keeping fish with turtles; if you want to keep the fish and are not willing to lose it or it's really going to disappoint you if it gets ate, Don't put it in with your turtles. Plus even if it's too fast or a good hider, being chased by a turtle is going to stress it out and make it more succeptable to disease and poor health.

What kind of fish do you keep with your RES then? I want to see if my tank can look beter than being empty with 2 crazy turtles that are always hungry.
:hmm3grin2orange:

[jay2487]

I have watched my RES bite a pleco right on the head several times and the pleco not even flutter much less move. It is said that once plecos get real big they could be dangerous with a turtle as they can attach to their backs and sink them but I've never seen anything like that and my pleco is bigger than my turtle. Every once in a while the pleco will attach to the turtles shell but the turtle just swims to the top and the pleco falls off. I put several caves ranging in size in my tank and got 2 pictus catfish. They are fast and agile and they don't let the turtle get too close, and there good hiders. They were the first fish I put in the tank with the turtle and never had a problem out of them but I should have more than 2, there a 4 to 5 school fish. Bala Sharks, you have to have at least a 100gal but they are lightning fast and pretty smart, they are also sensitive to bad water quality so you have to watch out. Also a 5-6 schooling fish and they get 10" long. My favorite of all is a wild bluegill. Mine came right out of a pond where he dodged turtles way bigger than mine so he has no problems in my tank. He'll steal food right out of the turtles mouth and if the turtle tries to chase him he just swims circles around him. Believe it or not, swordtails, Guppies don't last to long once put in my turtle tank. I have a few fancies the turtle has given up on but most get eaten. Swordtails on the other hand thrive and even bear offspring in my turtle tank, I'm lucky to have one baby make it to a helf inch but occasionally one will. Never had a guppie baby make it inside the 100g. I have 20 swordtail in with my RES and may lose one or two a week. I think that when you don't have a lone feeder it's like zebras and lions, they all look the same as to confuse the lion which is how it goes with the turtle, he chases one and gets distracted by another and so on until he gives up. Hope that helps but remember to watch closely. Any of those above mentioned fish WILL BE EATEN if there the least bit sick or unhealthy or injured. The turtles natural instincts will take over when he sees wounded fish and he will chase non stop until it's dead.

[AznYanTheMan]

O
Thanks for all this information. I think I am just going to wait until the turtles get bigger where they have to eat veggies more and I will add some fish in the tank to keep them company but that would be years so I think I am just going to keep a couple fish that could be food for the turtle as they get tired chasing after many fish.

[rhonin]

O
Thanks for all this information. I think I am just going to wait until the turtles get bigger where they have to eat veggies more and I will add some fish in the tank to keep them company but that would be years so I think I am just going to keep a couple fish that could be food for the turtle as they get tired chasing after many fish.

Have a RES (about 9") that I have raised from 1". had a mate that died (trapped in a rock shift).

Over the years I have tried numerous fish/inverts with these and the ONLY survivor is my red-clawed crayfish (about 8" now). I have the RES in an wide 100g with rocks and basking area, water about 12" deep. The only time she gets live food is if I have some excess small fishes. Had to strip almost all decoration - she (named her Puppy - begs for food) destroys anything she can.

18085 18086 18087

:22:

[AznYanTheMan]

Have a RES (about 9") that I have raised from 1". had a mate that died (trapped in a rock shift).

Over the years I have tried numerous fish/inverts with these and the ONLY survivor is my red-clawed crayfish (about 8" now). I have the RES in an wide 100g with rocks and basking area, water about 12" deep. The only time she gets live food is if I have some excess small fishes. Had to strip almost all decoration - she (named her Puppy - begs for food) destroys anything she can.

18085 18086 18087

:22:

Yeah
I was thinking of putting in a blue crayfish for the turtles but the crayfish looke kinda of big compared to the turtles so I am going to hold off on that idea and I am scared if the turtles might pick on the crayfish and I don't know a lot about crayfish except that they eat fish and algae.

[jay2487]

Have a RES (about 9") that I have raised from 1". had a mate that died (trapped in a rock shift).

Over the years I have tried numerous fish/inverts with these and the ONLY survivor is my red-clawed crayfish (about 8" now). I have the RES in an wide 100g with rocks and basking area, water about 12" deep. The only time she gets live food is if I have some excess small fishes. Had to strip almost all decoration - she (named her Puppy - begs for food) destroys anything she can.

18085 18086 18087

:22:

That's funny that you've had luck with crayfish, I've tryed putting a couple in their several times and they always get eaten within the hour. They can even hide in caves and the turtle will just flip there hiding spot over and eat them bit by bit.

azyntheman: If your just looking for something to color the tank up a little bit, buy a dozen feeders and throw in there, if your turtles don't eat them too quickly then leave them be. If they eat 2 in a day then take them out. Also get a dozen ghost shrimp. The turtles love them but there good hiders also.

[AznYanTheMan]

That's funny that you've had luck with crayfish, I've tryed putting a couple in their several times and they always get eaten within the hour. They can even hide in caves and the turtle will just flip there hiding spot over and eat them bit by bit.

azyntheman: If your just looking for something to color the tank up a little bit, buy a dozen feeders and throw in there, if your turtles don't eat them too quickly then leave them be. If they eat 2 in a day then take them out. Also get a dozen ghost shrimp. The turtles love them but there good hiders also.

I have tried both of your sugestions before as the turtles eat most of the feeder fish but only a couple survive. I have had only 1 feeder fish survive from my recent batch of 15 feeder fish and today I added 3 feeder fish(common goldfish I raised and had them for about a year now) and the turtles don't seem to try and kill them or anything at all but just continue on with their day and so far the goldfish are doing fine as I only put fish that can swim fast and no slow fish at all. I have also tried ghost shrimps since when my turtles were still babies, and I had them for about a couple months, I read online they eat fish when they are little so I decided to try it out. I went to a different LFS that sold feeder guppies at 50 for $3.50 and I picked those instead of feeder fish cause they look about the right size for my turtle to eat since they were small. And when I was going back home I noticed 3 ghost shrimps that I hadn't noticed earlies so I kep those for awile in a seperate contaner. After I got to know the ghost shrimp for awhile and what they need to survive, I added the ghost shrimps to my turtle tank and my turtles didn't harm them at first except they looked kinda curious so they observed the ghost shrimps for awhile. I wasn't sure they could see the ghost shrimp but they kept looking at it and when they got too close to it, the ghost shrimps darted away and the turtles followed them so I knew they could see them. The ghost shrimps looked nice in the tank but eventually, the ghost shrimps started disappearing and I knew the turtles must have eaten them. The ghost shrimps are a bit pricey but I will give it a try again and see what happens. I am going to make a YouTube video on my turtle tank so I will show you how it looks if you want to see it and give me other sugesstions to make it look nicer.

Thanks

[jay2487]

I'd love to see a video and give you some pointers, I can tell you you don't want to let your turtles eat goldfish. It's not even good to have them in the tank as they along with turtles put out a ton of waste which means tons of ammonia in your tank. If you can get swordtail feeders or get 2 females and a male and a 10gal tank and raise your own. There livebearers and very easy to raise 20 to 40 in a month or two. They are rapids fish from fast moving rivers and are extremely fast and nimble. My turtles have a lot more trouble out of them then guppies. They will even try to swim up your filter stream or up a water hose running when your filling the tank. Also try to add some plants or caves where they can hide from the turtles.

[AznYanTheMan]

I'd love to see a video and give you some pointers, I can tell you you don't want to let your turtles eat goldfish. It's not even good to have them in the tank as they along with turtles put out a ton of waste which means tons of ammonia in your tank. If you can get swordtail feeders or get 2 females and a male and a 10gal tank and raise your own. There livebearers and very easy to raise 20 to 40 in a month or two. They are rapids fish from fast moving rivers and are extremely fast and nimble. My turtles have a lot more trouble out of them then guppies. They will even try to swim up your filter stream or up a water hose running when your filling the tank. Also try to add some plants or caves where they can hide from the turtles.

I will make a video but my tank is pretty bare on the bottom and all the ghost shrimp died when I tried the idea again(they ate them all). And I had to take two of the common goldfish out and I think I will take the last one out too but leave the small one in there since he still is alive after a month or so.

[AznYanTheMan]

I'd love to see a video and give you some pointers, I can tell you you don't want to let your turtles eat goldfish. It's not even good to have them in the tank as they along with turtles put out a ton of waste which means tons of ammonia in your tank. If you can get swordtail feeders or get 2 females and a male and a 10gal tank and raise your own. There livebearers and very easy to raise 20 to 40 in a month or two. They are rapids fish from fast moving rivers and are extremely fast and nimble. My turtles have a lot more trouble out of them then guppies. They will even try to swim up your filter stream or up a water hose running when your filling the tank. Also try to add some plants or caves where they can hide from the turtles.

And are breeding Platies okay too instead of Swordtails? I never really had Swordtails before and can you tell me how you breed a livebearer and grow the babies until they are big and adults?

Thanks

[jay2487]

You can breed any livebearer you want. Platies are good to for when your turtle gets big you can get some varieties of platies that are plenty big enough for a meal. Anywhere you can find platys you should be able to find swordtails. I only suggest them as that's what I breed and have luck with. I don't want to keep a seperate tank for breeding AND storage so I just throw the ones who've grown to feeding size in the turtle tank. If my turtles eat to many I have to take them out so I try to get fish that survive the longest so I can just throw 30 in every couple of months not 1 every two days. Swordtails are the only ones I've been able to do that with. They are just too fast. Now if you drop one swordtail in with a hungry turtle it will probably get eaten within 30 minutes but if you drop in 30 swordtails the turtle will get distracted from chasing one by seeing another and so on until he gives up. Now of course you need a pretty big tank to do that and plenty of live plants and caves to hide in. But if you give them all of that you will see, you will only notice a fish missing every couple of days which is perfect for your turtle when eating livebearers. That goldfish is putting out more bioload than 5 livebearers of the same size so just get rid of it. If you can only get goldfish for your turtle only feed him one a month, where you can feed him one livebearer every two or three days.


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Here is a simple DIY i did for a turtle forum. You might also want to sign up for this forum as they have a lot of good info and deals.

[Mavrick813]

A friend of the niece threw a Baby Slider into my Koi pond without my knowledge. I found the little guy hanging off the tail of a 14 inch koi. My rule of thumb, Only fish in the turtle tanks should be food.

Mike

[tyrone681]

hi all i have a saw shell turtle that is 13 yrs old and i have her in a 114 us gallon tank with three electric blue dolphin nose chiclids and a white convict and a couple of peacooks and she loves her tank mates

[fishsafari]

Why are spiral bulbs dangerous?