Feeding and Nutrition :: Water plants that don't get ripped into shreds?

[xiaoali]

I have two baby RESs. I recently put in some Anarchris for them. The problem was when they were chomping through, a lot of leaves and pieces fell apart and created a mess in the tank. Just bits of anachris floating around. Now I realize they'll each any plants I put in there, but which ones don't just fall apart?

[SpotsMama]

I recall one person on here says her turtles don't like to eat plants that end in "...wort", example Hornwort. Those might last.

Duckweek consist of a lot of little floating pieces to begin with so it's not susceptible to being torn to pieces and making a mess.

[industrial_girl_2000]

The babies LOVE to make a mess out of anacharis, LOL. Don't worry....after a while, they will eat all the leftovers floating in the tank.

[emma]

My turtles will always make a huge mess when I add anarcharis in their tank. It gets very frustrating after a while.

[LOBO]

i was thinking of putting waterlettuce in my tank, mostly for decoration but i also read it was turtle safe. is there anything i should know about this?

[xiaoali]

I'm not really worried about the plants lasting. I just don't like having pieces of plants all over the tank. I figure they'll probaly eat anything edible I put in there. Still, can't help but want to keep a cleaner looking tank.

[grey goose]

My two girls love to tear it to shreds then watch as it floats over to the filter intakes......I think the little stinkers are doing it on purpose....

[dawn9800]

I dont think that there are any that they will not make a mess with maybe try smaller peices

[marisa]

I was the person who said that her turtles don't like to eat aquatic plants ending in the word "---wort." But that doesn't mean the plant will remain as is in the tank.

My turtles spent most of last summer outside, and in their stock tanks, among the plants they had were bunches of hornwort. When they were brought inside, the hornwort came in with them. The bunches in two tanks have become quite small. I don't think they were eaten (my RES, however, is rough on plants, he likes to move them around and lay on them), but little by little the pieces fell off the stalks leaving some spindly-looking hornwort. In contrast, the hornwort in the third stock tank is looking lush and green and will most likely be around to go outside this year. I think the reason for it's longevity is that the tank gets sunlight in the afternoon, which directly hits the hornwort.

[scripta_elegans]

My two girls love to tear it to shreds then watch as it floats over to the filter intakes......I think the little stinkers are doing it on purpose....

They are. I know mine do it for fun. They love watching me slop out the plant pieces.

[BATMANandROBIN]

ive noticed my turtles will rip fake and real plants no matter what.

even my bubble skeleton thing. I can't get them to not move the rocks off of it.

which makes the plants and skeleton bubbles float to the top and disconnect the tube for the bubbles.

any way to get them to stop?

they move everything around!

[xiaoali]

I just bought a greek column from petco to put in the aquarium along with 2 chinese algae eaters. They definitely knocked the greek column around abit.

[Paul D]

I have what I think is an Amazon sword plant, and my turtles don't eat it (apparently it tastes bad), although they will try and chomp off the odd piece of leaf once in a while. They also don't touch my moss.

[FLhaven4strays]

i was thinking of putting waterlettuce in my tank, mostly for decoration but i also read it was turtle safe. is there anything i should know about this?

I have waterlettuce in my pond & it does well outside, but not so good when I bring it inside for the tank. It gets yellow / brownish pretty quickly - within a week. Maybe if you had it in the sunlight? I don't know if the turtles eat that plant very much - they prefer to munch on Water Hyacinth, which does pretty good when I put it in the tank. All 5 of my turts like to eat the roots and 2 like to take bites out of the bulbs (what the leaves sprout from). One guy though likes to take bites of the leaves & spit them out. Guess he doesn't like the taste, but can't seem to quit chewing on it. The spit out bites make a pretty good mess after a few days, but we clean it out a couple times a week anyway & it's ok.