Chun-Ming Chew
I believe there are several factors involved in the acclimation of wild-caughts: 1) Availability of fresh seafood/live bait for consumption – no wild-caught is going to accept pellets from the get-go! Weaning them from seafood to pellets can take months. 2) Stress/injuries during capture, holding and transport. 3) Age – younger specimens adjust more readily while capturing older specimens is almost always a recipe for disaster, in my opinion. 4) It’s been my experience that wild-caughts should always be started off in brackish water. Minor, sometimes microscopic scrapes and bruises occur frequently during capture and transport and should be allowed to heal. Keeping in freshwater can cause bacterial/fungal growth in the injuries and lead to sores, shell rot, etc. Once fully acclimated, the keeper can slowly adjust to freshwater if this is more desirable. 5) Subspecies – ornates and texans seem to be very robust and not as delicate as some northerns and carolinans. Personally, I think I’ve had a 75% success rate with wild-caughts, which is a lot higher than my success rate with captive born hatchlings. I had an 8″ northern that was old and withered – she hardly ate and was unable to overcome the shell rot that had infected her blood by the time I got her. I had a 7.5″ Carolinan that succumbed to the same thing, but this time, it was more likely my fault. Another male Carolinan came in with some liver/kidney disorder, never ate, swelled up and died. Medication was given in all 3 of these cases to no avail. However, the other 8 wild-caughts that I’ve had over the years have given me absolutely no problems in acclimation. In conclusion, I think the most important factor is the condition of the specimens when they arrive to you – whether captive or wild-caught… -Chun