Feeding and Nutrition :: More on fish --

[koreyleigh]

The topic of fish (feeders, trying to live with, etc) comes up a lot here, but I just wanted to see what sort of success people have had?

In 5 months time, I have gone through quite a few fish -- some left for dead, others who have disappeared. I had originally and mistakenly got 9 (i know) Comet fish. All but 3 were left, two died during a tank cleaning and the one was there until last night.. another tank cleaning death.

A swordtail also lasted 3months plus and died in the same incident last night.

Those TWO aside, I've had a pleco destroyed within 2 hrs of entry to the water, a chinese algae eater who disappeared after a month, 2 more plecos who were disabled and died, and just today a black moor ALMOST mauled to death who is currently quarantined in hopes to give him to someone without fish.

So, i knowwww i knowwwww any fish is a potential target -- but has anyone had mistaken success with any breeds / colors / methods? I think the standing 3 comets made it because so many went in at once he ended up losing interest.

Thanks for your insight

[Daniel3507]

i know some people have had fish live with their turtle for a long time. personally, the longest i have had fish last is 4 or 5 months.

[Raphulk]

a lot of people have had their feeder rosy red comets breed and become food after that. it just really depends.

fish don't last at all in my tank.

[koreyleigh]

i am, apparently, suffering the same issues raphulk lol.

your signature made me smile, ps.

[Lantic]

so far my fish have lived for 6 months now. But remind you, the fish and my turtle are about the same size, or a little smaller.

[Chrisbarnett]

I put in about 20 guppies a while back, now I still have about 10 or so. My turtle loses interest in fish really easily so if they aren't ridiculously easy to catch, he doesn't try after like 5 minutes.

[Caphits]

My turtles totally ignore my fathead/rosie red minnows. The only time I see them even look differently at them, it when the minnows try to clean the turtles face.

....lol at chris's new avatar.

[koreyleigh]

I think, especially based on these responses so far, the key might be overexposure and/or the larger sized fish. ^_^

I saw some platys at petco today that were under observation and not for sale.. but they were itty bitty and VERY fast to react. a finger to the glass and they were whizzing away. i might try it.. as a sort of turtle research.. and see what happens.

update: the black moor went to a girlfriend of a friend who loves him even though he was literally mauled. my turtles takes nothing from nobody haha

[Caphits]

Well, my minnows are: 1 big & 1 small fathead, & 1 small rosie red.

Also, 1 medium goldfish.

[koreyleigh]

update #2: After talking to the fish specialist last night, I picked up my final attempt at fish. As mentioned, Hank had lived with a swordtail and comet no issues - even when they stole his food! So with all hopes high, she recommended a small and very agile fish. The choice? Zebra danios. I got 6 of them, and thus far everyone is accounted for. Hank's been hunting them but by the time he goes in for the bite they're long gone.

We'll see!
Thanks everyone who responded <333

[Caphits]

I bought 2 danios. They lived for about 3-4 hours each. I guess they just got tired.

[neshkaa]

1 large goldfish, and 4 small goldfish. turtle lost interest.
the large goldfish is like a brother/sister to my turtle. they swim beside each other always when preparing for feeding and always knock into each other. these fish wont get eaten unless they get slower, or until my turtle grows much bigger. thus far, i have a cute little family

[Caphits]

Update on an older post: I like Chris's new avatar again!

All fish still living.

[untsmurf]

When I originally got my turtle, I put in some goldfish as feeders (as well as the more decorative fish) Mikey ate every fish except for the all orange gold fish. He ate the goldfish with black/white tipped fins but not the all orange ones. We ended up giving the goldfish away after about two years. They were about six inches each by then and we got them as babies from the pet store. We also had some guppies in with Mikey (we put the goldfish in a separate tank for a while) and they lasted a long time. We ended up having like six sets of babies. We thought Mikey was eating all the guppy babies, but it turned out the goldfish were. We removed the goldfish and had two more (i think) sets of guppies. Then we got tired of them and put the goldfish back in. Finally, we found out which one the female was (she was very decorative and looked like a male) and removed her from all the males. All the surviving fish (about twelve including the goldfish) were donated to my husband's school.

We've also lost about a half dozen plecos and three or four snails and dwarf frogs. But the frogs jumped down the sink during cleaning.

[jameshermanto]

9 mosquito fish and 3 goldfish