Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a two year old alligator snapper. He (or she?) will eat nothing but live fish and crayfish. I feed it mailnly goldfish because they are hardy and crayfish are only available in the summer where I live (Detroit). I just dump a bunch of goldfish in the tank and they slowly get eaten over a month. I have heard that they accumulate some sort of copper chemical in their tissues which is used as an antiparasitic or anti-fungal. I wanted to know if its safe to feed the turtle nothing but goldfish. I occasionally buy minnows from the local bait shop but they die within a day or two. I have tried night-crawlers and raw chicken but it goes untouched.
thanks

I wouldn't suggest feeding your turtle only goldfish. The fish are treated with copper sulfate which will build up to toxic levels in your turtle, ultimately killing it. I feed mine an occasional few goldfish but stay away from them for the most part.

I feed mine Rosies. They are not treated with the copper sulfate. Ask for Rosies at your local pet store. Mine will also eat superworms, minnows, and guppies (that I raise). I keep water lettuce in the tank and keep adding snails as they must be getting eaten because they keep disappearing.

>>I feed mine Rosies. They are not treated with the copper sulfate. Ask for Rosies at your local pet store. Mine will also eat superworms, minnows, and guppies (that I raise). I keep water lettuce in the tank and keep adding snails as they must be getting eaten because they keep disappearing.

I just stumbled on this thread but thought I would say that as a long time pet store worker.....we treat our rosies more often than our goldfish. We tell folks when we do but still. Rosys sit in meds the first couple days of the week when they come in covered in crap. Goldfish rarely (okay....never in the years we get them) come in treated. The only trouble we have with goldfish are deliverys in too warm weather.
Feeder Guppys.....come in dead more often than not.
Supplier says he has changed supplies lately due to sources have epidemics of fungus or bacteria whipping through populations of guppys and rosys. Both are shipped in treated water. Goldies come in water water.
Detoxing any feeder is likely a good idea. But parasites are gonna run through any anyway.
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny

Goldfish are definitely bad because of the copper sulfate. It builds up in their kidneys and becomes toxic eventually. I found out the hard way. I had a few water snakes and fed them nothing but goldfish. They all started dieing after about a year or so. I have two common snappers and an alligator snapper. They all eat turtle pellets I buy at the pet store. I give the big common snapper dead shad I catch in nets as treats. The small common gets crickets as treats. He goes crazy when he sees them kicking on the top of the water.

Have you tried raising your own feeder fish? You could get a group of mollies and breed them. Feed them well with slightly boiled greens, sea algae and a tropical flake food and they will be very nutritional for your snapper. You can control their nutrition level and be sure not use any chemicals on them and then you will know they are safe. Infact you can even keep mollies in salt water and then they will also be parasite free (at least from fresh water parasites, salt water parasites would die when the mollies are put into fresh water). If your snapper is smaller you can breed platys or just feed it the younger mollies. Mollies can get up to 2 inches so are a good candidate for even bigger turtles.

I used to do this when I had a turtle that would eat only live foods. Feeder fish from petstores are very lacking in nutrients because they are usually half starved by the time you get them.

>salt water parasites would die when the mollies are put into fresh water

True for ick, etc. I'm not so sure about internal parasites, though. So don't assume salt vs. fresh is a cure-all.

However, yes... if you breed your own feeders, you have much, much better quality control.

Most livebearers such as mollies and platies breed better in brackish water (just a little aquarium salt - read the jar of salt) rather than fresh. Don't be scared off by "saltwater", which can be tricky and expensive.

Be sure to keep them in a large-enough tank, do regular water changes, etc. Sure, they are just feeders, but proper care (which isn't all that hard) produces healthier feeders.

First off, I doubt copper accumulates in goldfish. Copper sulfate is used to treat food fish and the FDA gets a little concerned about things that can accumulate. Now malachite green can be used on "bait fish" and it can be absorbed by fish. This substance is an organic coal tar dye, whose color resembles the color of copper mineral malachite but it does not contain copper. It also is a nasty chemical but I don't think it's used routinely in gold fish production. Common salt would be the most likely treatment.
So what is the problem with goldfish? It is something that is natural in them. This is the enzyme thiaminase, this enzyme breaks down the vitamin B-1. This most likely the culprit in deaths of animals fed goldfish as a sole food. Fish in the minnow family share this enzyme, ie rosy reds, smelt.
So what to do the obvious simple thing is to gut load the gold fish with food high in B-1. The other would be to use non-goldfish. I found this list on a website see the link: http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Articles/Thiaminase.htm
Note Sunfish do not contain this enzyme and would make a more natural diet. As for as crayfish go you might check seafood stores for live crayfish. Doing a web search for live louisiana crayfish turns up a lot of people that ship live crayfish from bait to super jumbo size. 5lbs of crawdads should last you awhile. Sachs Aquaculture sells small quanities of cray fish see: http://aquaculturestore.com/index.html

HTH
Thiaminase

Just to give you a clickable link to Sachs. Note he does pond stocking so he might be able to ship small sunfish, blue gills etc.
Sachs Aquaculture

i think goldfish are bad with what some of the people are saying, plus i feel that they carry a lot of parasites(worms). i think that feeder goldfish are kept in unclean aquariums. when i first got my snapper he was eating just little guppys and worms. when he was large enoug i started to feed him just goldfish. i came home one day and he had worms all strung out around his cage. (they were long and see through. also they were segmented so it might have been tape worms.) none of the other turtles kept in the same cage when i got mine got worms so i feel it came from the goldfish. i treated him and stopped feeding goldfish and never had a problem since. as far as foods go, i fed mine minnows, earthworms, insects, retopmin, and thawed out rodents. as he got larger i added crayfish, larger fish, trout chow, and larger rodents. he now mainly eats just fish and rodents. during the summer i stock up on fish that i catch. lots of sun fish and bluegills that i then freeze. during may i go catch him small trout that were stocked at a local pond. he still goes crazy over large crayfish and nightcrawlers.

Go to local Fish Market buy the small sardines which arent treated or better yet buy his unwanted small fish heads . Rinse them out in freshwater . Tie a string lightly around,threw them dangle them infront of your turtle . He will taske it .

My neighbors snapper loves fish heads and great looking turtle . It might be saltwater fish but it wont harm him just rinse it and its clean no meds added you can get fish heads probably for pennies .