fish tankmates?
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Hi, I’m a new member. My name is Bonita Taylor and I live in Texas (Near Fort Worth). I’ve recently acquired a pair of Texas Diamondback terrapins. I studied http://www.diamondbackterrapin.com extensively before I got them. They are yearlings and I’ve set them up in a 75 gallon freshwater aquarium (previous owner kept them in FW) with a water level at about 13″ deep (approx. 50 gallons). I also have crushed coral as a substrate, Zoomed Turtle Dock (Large), Fluval submersible filter, submersible heater, flourescent UVB/UVA lamp across the entire tank, and a basking lamp above the turtle dock. I don’t have any tank ornaments at this time, but am looking for Mangrove root and plants to put in the tank. I do have a separate feeding tub for them. What I couldn’t find on the site is when I get ready to change the water over to brackish water, do the turtles need a transition period or do I just take them out and tub them, then put them back in when the brackish water is ready? Also, once I get them in the brackish water are there fish that I can put in with them as tankmates? White tip Shark Catfish? The turtles look so lost in that huge tank! It’s 4′ long x 18″ wide and the water is 13″ deep. They are only about 3 1/2″ to 4″. Thanks, Bonita Start your day with Yahoo! – make it your home page
Bonita…why on earth would you want to take them from FRESH WATER to Brackish???? I am a Breeder and all I do is try to Make sure all my Diamondbacks are TOTALLY ACCLIMATED to Fresh water. I have purchased on occassion Large Females for Potential Breeding and have discovered that they were misrepresented as far as CBB in FRESH WATER and had to resell them! Just because I don’t want to deal with BRACKISH WATER. If you have discovered that they are not doing well in Fresh WATER and have constant fungal problems and/or Shell rot I would certainly agree and recondition them back to BRACKISH, However if they are Captive Born And Raised in FRESH WATER and are doing FINE…there is certainly NO need to take them back to brackish! Regards, RCFTX
Hi Bonita. You certainly did good getting info BEFORE getting your TexDBs. Most people would get the turtles and when they were sick or with sell rot, cry for help. YOU DID GOOD!!! Adult Wild Caught Diamond-backs do not do well in fresh water and is better to keep them in brackish water because of health problems that seem to pop up. Sometimes they may do okay, but it’s better to do the Brackish thing for their best interest. Young DBTs do okay in captivity in fresh water all their lives and you and the turtles will be happy for doing so. Hope this helps and I did not step on anybodies toes. Dane in CaliforniaReptile Design
Thanks for the replies. I’m not going to do anything different for a while. I want the turtles to get used to me and visa versa. I would like to put some fish in there though. I’ll try the guppies and see if that works. But not until I have ornaments in there for them to have places to hide! BonitaDane Fagundes
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