Feeding and Nutrition :: Fish That Can Live With Turtles

[rturtle1]

I am starting this to clear up questions on what fish can live in the tank with turtles. I recently got a new aquarium and want to have fish in there also. This should clear up most questions on what fish can survive and others that are not so fortunate so here we go.

1/11/10
First Test!

Fish
(2)Bala Shark
(2)Red Minor Serpae Tetra

I bought these fish and soo far they are still alive after 24 hours. Now this is not a feeding day and if i know my turtles (3 of them) they have been trying to catch these fish all day. I even watched them hunt them and these fish are pretty good. A hiding spit such as root systems or anything that will allow these fish to swim through and hide is necessary no matter what fish you have. I bought a underwater boat and soo far the Bala Sharks love it thouhg i have not seen the tetras in it yet. The sharks are very alert and can evade my two smaller turtles easily. I have not seen them go full speed yet but soo far they can easily outrun any turtle as long as they have a hiding spot. My two Bala Sharks are semi-agressive meaning they are not dumb enough to attack a larger fish(or turtle) but are smart enough to be on their guard and wont attack tank mates(including smaller fish).Rating out of 10 is an 8. Over all very good tank mates and will survive
The tetras are pretty smart though they are not as good as the sharks. They are also semi agressiveThey are both still alive though and add nice color to your aquarium. They can evade turtles ok but may eventually get cought. I recomend larger groups of these as they are schooling fish and have less chance of getting eaten in larger groups. The reason for this is the turtle gous after one, gets distracted by another,ten goes after that one, gets distracted and so on. I have two and they are doing good soo far. I think seven or eight of these would be good. They have not figured out how to hide yet and get chased around by crash at lease once every 7 minutes. My rating out of ten for the tetras is a 6.5. Over all rating. One may dissapear every two weeks or so but overall wil survive because of breeding habbits.
To find images simply search the fish names on google.
Signing Out-Reggie

[Kemul]

This is going to be an interesting read. Please do keep observing and write it up!

[jay2487]

Bala sharks worked good in my tank for a while but you will probably eventually lose them. First thing that will stress them is their a schooling fish so they need at least five to feel comfortable. Which is fine except for the 2nd thing which is Bala Sharks will get close to a foot long and would take a 200 to 300 gallon tank to keep 5 comfortable. Once they start succumbing to the stress of too low a numbers to school and too small of a tank they will slow down and get sick, lose their slime membrane, be succeptable to disease and once one is sick or injured your turtles instincts will kick in just like those bass from the banjo minnow advertisements(lol)Plus Bala Sharks are in the carp family, they put off a lot of waste so it will take better filtration to keep the water quality up which needs to be near perfect for them to survive for long periods of time. It is cool to watch them disregard their equilibriums and swim upside down and sideways, its weird

[vear]

I'd like to add my 2 cents of observations. I only have small fish with my RES, I didn't feel like coming home to a mess of fish "pieces" in the tank. I figure fish he can eat in one bite are better, plus they're pretty fast.

I have various fish as you can see in my signature, but Tomi seems to be really attracted to the bright colored ones. In this case, the RED PLATYS. As of today I only have one left. He doesn't pay any attention to the other fish though - perhaps the bright red really stands out for him.

[jay2487]

I have noticed the same things, thats why back when I didn't know an better and I'd drop a comet goldfish in it would be gone in seconds. I have to fix my signature, my two pictus catfish died:( I think the water got to cold or something, there super sensitive. But I got 7 different types of cichlids now and they seem to do great with the turtles. I had a few Bala Sharks but they just aren't made for turtles. One of them was being chased by my biggest turtle and shot off super fast in a straight line, crossed the entire 6 foot tank and slammed full force into the glass on the opposite side. It made a loud noise on the outside of the tank so I know it was a hard hit. The fish stunned itself then the turtle gingerly strolled up and started to dine. If the fish would have been half it's full grown size it would have shattered the tank that's how hard it hit.

[moldygrape]

the best fish i have ever kept with my res was 2 large convicts they are chiclids and can survive in brackish water and are very smart. the females are very coloerfull on their backs when in heat i recomend NOT geting a pair . my male and female convicts spawned about 300 fish in one yr i was giving them away like crazy. i had 3 10 gal. with fry and my 100 gal with the turtle and the larger convict chiclids. good luck finding a match.

[ericschranz]

I've done a fair bit of research on this exact subject but seem to be coming up short.

So far I've tried a small school of Zebra Danios with Tucker (my 3yr old RES). I chose Danios because they were supposed to be fast swimmers. Well they are fast but man they're a lil dense. They don't seem to run until practically inside Tucker's mouth. Let's just say school was out early, ugh.

In my research I came across this video of a breeding pair of convicts chasing an adult RES away from their fry, unreal!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dddMFnK46A

Moldygrape did you ever happen to have convict fry in the same tank as your RES? Would it be evil and/or unhealthy to use the fry as feeders for a slider?

[Kemul]

ericschranz,

That's actually not a RES, more like a Yellow Bellied Slider or something else
similar. It's also too calm to be a RES among delicious fishes.

[rturtle1]

After over a week the fish are still there. my feeding schedule is pellets every other day and lettuce every day. all fout fish are still here. About how bigh the bala sharks get it is true, but when they get too big for your tank try to arrange somthing with a pet store. U used to trade and give away guppies to them. larger bala sharks are in higher demand than the babies. you can probably get more money than you paid for as many as you got. Thats a little more money that can go to turtle food,lights, and anthing else. The tetras are doing really well though and if you want to go with them bee my guest. i suggest 7 tetras because they are schooling fish.

[jay2487]

@rturtle1 Yes I would have loved to grow my balas up large enough to sell back to the fish store but they just didn't make it long enough lol. Hopefully you have better luck than I did with them. They are awesome fish, I love watching them swim all upside down.
Kemul, My YBS is 10 times more aggressive than my RES and it was captive bred where the RES was found in the wild. If you are adjusting things in the bottom of my tank you better be weary because my 2 inch YBS will take nips out of your hand. And she always aims for the webbing in between fingers lol.

An awesome cichlid vs turtle fight in the wild in lake tanganyika africa where 800 different cichlid species originate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo4KcsBN--A

In my tank cichlids and turtles get along fine but this makes me worry about the future

[jay2487]

@rturtle1 Yes I would have loved to grow my balas up large enough to sell back to the fish store but they just didn't make it long enough lol. Hopefully you have better luck than I did with them. They are awesome fish, I love watching them swim all upside down.
Kemul, My YBS is 10 times more aggressive than my RES and it was captive bred where the RES was found in the wild. If you are adjusting things in the bottom of my tank you better be weary because my 2 inch YBS will take nips out of your hand. And she always aims for the webbing in between fingers lol.

An awesome cichlid vs turtle fight in the wild in lake tanganyika africa where 800 different cichlid species originate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo4KcsBN--A

In my tank cichlids and turtles get along fine but this makes me worry about the future

[Kemul]

Well, I guess I was wrong about turtle behaviors then.

[jay2487]

I think you are right in a total species sense, it would be a good question for zoologist. I think that in general RES are one of the most aggressive in the pet market, I know they are way more invasive than YBS. I was just speaking about my tiny ecosystem, not trying to say your wrong, in all actuality your probably right. Also my YBS seems to be developing orange ear spots so I might actually have a hybrid which could explain the over aggressiveness

[Watson&Crick]

Just thought I'd throw in my observations from my tank with a small RES. I've found that pet store feeders are gone very fast, typically within a few hours, even if put in the tank in a large group. Pet store fish typically lack the prey response.

However, now that I've bred some guppies in a separate 10 gallon, I've found my guppies are much better at evading my RES, likely because they learned as fry to stay away from the adult fish that were trying to eat them. These fish give my RES lots of exercise and it typically takes him a day or two to catch one.

Finally, I recently put an Otto in my tank to try and clean up some of the algae that appears so quickly. It's been a couple of days and though my RES has chased him a bit, he's still surviving. They're pretty small (2-3 inches) and blend in really well with his environment, and at $1-2/fish, it's not a big investment.

[jay2487]

what are they calling feeders at your pet store watson? At mine guppies are a type of feeders, they seperate the fancies but the rest are sold as feeders.