Getting 5 females.. help
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Im getting 5 f northerns and am going to put them into a 200 Gal stock tank.. any suggestions would help.. they were/are in brackish water now and i will keep them that way..
Hi Sam, You will want to examine your terps for any signs of shell rot first thing when you get them. Look for white spots or bloody areas underneath the plastron. If present, start treating aggressively by maintaining a high salinity environment (specific gravity ~1.019) and adequate basking area with access to UVB light. Chances are very high for shell rot to affect adult females, even if it is not immediately noticeable or present. Try offering them frozen fish (smelt is a common choice) and gradually wean them on to pellets. You may even have to jump start their appetite with live foods prior to this. Keep us posted. -Chun
Hi, I am assuming that the females are fresh wild caught. Your tank sounds like it is a very good size for them. They will need to be kept in brackish water and I very strongly suggest keeping the salt level at 1.018 for the first six months and then you could lower it to 1.014. If the salt level isn’t at 1.018 they is a good chance they will develop shell rot. The water also needs to be kept very clean, WC develop skin problems much easier than CB dbts. They most likely won’t take to pellets, at least not for a long time, they should eat smelt with no problems. It might take them a week or two to start eating after shipping but keep at it and I am sure they will take to the smelt. If smelt doesn’t work try shrimp. Good Luck Jonathan http://www.diamondbackterrapin.comSam
Are they wildcaught adults being acclimated? Or captive hatched and raised? If they’ve been kept in brackish, then I would agree you should continue that for the present. Do you know the salinity they’ve been kept at so you can duplicate it for now? If everything goes well, you could consider decreasing the salinity gradually over the long term if your filtration is excellent and you wish to do so. Otherwise, you can keep them in brackish for the long term. Depending on how high the salinity is, you’ll want to offer them a drink of fresh water periodically. The easiest way is to put them in fresh water in a feeding tub with their food a couple of times a week or so. And then make sure they can all get completely out of the water to dry off and bask to keep skin and shell problems at bay. If they’re larger wcs, many just won’t switch to pellet diets and will only eat shrimp, smelt, feeder fish, snails, etc. However, some wcs will switch to pellets, so its worth trying repeatedly to see if any will take pellets. If they do happen to be large, fairly recently caught wcs, perhaps coming out of the food market trade, be prepared for very serious skin and shell problems and treat them aggressively. Let us know if you need advice along those lines. Good luck and let us know how they do, ToddSam
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