# Turtles and fish



## TurtleJohn (Jan 29, 2011)

Wots on every one, i am new on here. 
I have been looking around the internet in general about keeping a Musk Turtle with fish, i encounterd this website and found a lot of different opinions so i have decided to give mine.
I own a 350ltr tank and have community fish, Penguin Tetras, Female Dwarf Gourami, Male Gourami, an Angel fish, a Plec and a Silver Shark. I have owned the fish and the tank for well over 18 months and in September i bought a Musk Turtle after lots of research from my local fish shops and reptile shops and neither told me that you COULDN'T or SHOULDN'T put both together, to be fair they did say that there was no guarantee that the Turtle wouldnt harm anything but more than likely not. Like anybody that owns pets they know to keep a good eye on them and i keep a vigelent eye on my Fish and Turtle (and my Staffie) and to this date the only problem i had was when i put a smallish Carp in the tank (also after much reserch to see the temperatures in which they can live comfortably and stress free, and making sure it didn't jeopardize the comfort and saftey of my other fish) the Turtle followed it continuosly for about one hour and then gave up, they are all living happily together as i type!!! 
Also about water levels and water changing obviously i have to have mine high because of the fish but the Turtle loves it, he swims, climbs, eats healthy, gets plenty of exercise and best of all basks on his dock and dives in! 
I have had no problems with water quality or clarity....EVER. 
All i would say in conclusion to this is if any body is thinking of mixing Fish and Musk Turtles do so carefully, have enough space in the tank for everything living in there to have its own space, have a good filtration system, good lights, living plants, a good heater, big bits of Bogwood that come out of the water, rocks, temperature guages, a docking station for the Musk and lots of areation!!!

Dont want to spark WW3 im just giving my opinion and you can feel free to disreguard it if you like but to all the people wanting advise here is mine. TurtleJohn


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## SkinheadOi85 (Sep 28, 2008)

any pictures of the setup please


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## Shellsfeathers&fur (Jan 18, 2009)

Interesting post. Musks need shallower water but as long as there are "resting places" they are able to cope but it can be a struggle. As you said a good filter, external one, is needed. However, turtles should not have a lid on their tank whereas fish do, does yours? It causes the humidity to build up which can lead to a respiratory infection. As the Musk matures he will no longer need such warm water. I presume if you bought him in September he is still only small - it could well be a a different story in a few months' time!

Presumably those fish you have can all live happily alongside one another? Don't some of them though get rather large?

Could you possibly re-post this in the Fish Section and/or Shelled Section, where more users will see it?


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## TurtleJohn (Jan 29, 2011)

Wots on, just reading your comments and i would like to thank you for your advice. As you said about respiratory problems how do u notice if things arn't good?.
I do have a lid on my tank but it has specially built in condensation holes at either ends that keep the air circulating. My Turtle was 1year old when i bought him ( as the babies in the shop were all reserved ) and the owner told me that the temperature would be fine.
The fish in my tank are 'community' fish, they are all a peacefull species and as for the size the gourami's are dwarf fish and already fully grown. As to my knowledge the only things still growing are the Carp, the Shark and the Plec-possibly the Angel fish.
As i said in the first post im new on here, how do i re post this on to said forum???. Once again thanks for the reply!!!!


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## TurtleJohn (Jan 29, 2011)

Also how do i upload pics on here???


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## Graham (Jan 27, 2007)

http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/foru...9989-how-post-pictures-using-photobucket.html

Holes in the lid are unlikely to provide sufficient ventilation to keep the humidity down unless they're really big ones, I'm also wondering how you manage to mount the basking and UV lamps high enough above the basking area if you have a lid on the tank? 

If your turt had a respiratory infection you might not notice at first, if you've never seen the symptoms before it might have to get quite bad before you even suspect anything is wrong. Typical symptoms include excessive basking, loss of appetite, general listlesness, bubbles appearing at the mouth or nose, a slimy discharge from either, gaping, swimming lopsided, any one of these could be an indication of RI.

You can't move this thread, you could ask one of the global mods to do it for you, but it would be easier just to start it again in the main Shelled discussion section.


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