Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Since no one in here replied, I went ahead and got a common musk and a DiamondBack terrapin. They are both living shy but happily in my 55 gal aquarium. If anyone disagrees with these living arrangements, well..it's too late now. I made the post over a week ago and no one has yet to respond.
Sorry guys what's done is done
~Mark

You got plenty of replies on the main forum! I personally wouldn't know a diamondback terrapin if one bit me on the nose, so I didn't feel qualified to answer. That probably goes for a lot of people, they only know about one or the other.

I only have those two turtles. I decided not to get a box turtle and I also decided not to get a savannah monitor. I like aquariums I think they're cool!

I hate them personally, too heavy. Especially if you need a big one. The only advantage is the view. That's not to say I don't use them, but if I had it to do all over again I probably wouldn't have bought them.

As long as they get along, i don't think it would really matter if they're housed together. The only thing you need to watch is that the DBT may eventually need brackish water and I'm not sure how the common musk would respond...but it probably wouldn't hurt it...

Just my 2 cents

Jeff
1.0 Albino RES
1.0 Three Striped Mud
0.0.5 Common Musks
0.0.1 Carolina DBT
1.2 Russian Tortoises
0.0.1 Eastern Boxies
0.1 Florida Boxies
0.0.1 Smooth Softie
0.0.2 Spotted Turtles
1.0 Eastern Painted...

How old is the terp?...it doesn't need brackish water. but so you know, the common musk has a very low salt tolerance and will not do well if you add any salt.
terps all adapt fine to fresh water unless they are wild caught adults and even then it can be done if you are careful to watch for shell problems and the blaoting associat6ed with osmoregulation. of course a hatchling will be easier to get started in fresh than an older terp.

Also any terp (even a male) will out grow a 55 in a few years.

They are both highly carnivorous so that shouldn't be a problem.
BUT the terp is diurnal (though i have seen them in the harbors on Long Isalnd at night) and the musk may tend toward crepuscular or nocturnal habits. Te depth thing might be an issue as the musk will probably like a shallow area in the tank wheras terps have a tendancy to get fat in captivity and they need as much exercise as you can give them.

i think multiple basking spots ans a partially submerged platform (of plastic or cork bark flat for example) might help for the musk not to be shy of the terp and to have an area of shallows to walk about in.

I think its funny how its everyone else's fault if something goes wrong because we didn't warn you. ; )
I think it will be fine though.

Thanks, I think the 55 will do for at least a year. And both the common musk and DBT are captive breds and still are trying to get acclimated to their surroundings. I'm going to add a big cork branch so the musk can easily climb onto it to get to the basking rock. The tank I got is pretty tall but also pretty deep so I guess there are all kinds of creative things I can do with it. I'll try to take some pictures pretty soon and post them.
~Mark

1 DBT
1 common musk

cool.
good luck.
are they both hatchlings?
or are they bigger?
the hatchling terps seem to really like live black worms andthe tiniest ghost shrimps.

Thats very ignorant. These turtles shouldn't be together at all. Diamondbacks are a brackish turtle(partial saltwater) and enjoy deeper water,whereas musks are poor swimmers. why not just get 2 setups for them?? And don't say because you don't have space or money as you shouldnt have the animal if you can't properly keep it.
Matt

Well at first glance this might seem the case (that he's done a dumb thing)
but there are about 6 generations of terps now which have been raised to adulthood in freshwater without any problems whatsoever.
In fact, knowing what we now know about how they drink and osmoregulate, its probbaly better to keep them all in fresh water unless they are wild caught adults.
I think he said his were cb babies so he'll probbaly have no problems other than the depth issue and the possiblity of them keeping each other awake which we touched on.
So on the surface you're right (that the details of life history are very important in judging compatible tankmates) but i think in this case he'll be okay.

True enough...Another point though, if they are both CB hatchlings,the diamondback will be quite a size larger than the musk and could possibly devour him...Again,I do not know the sizes. The irritating part of his post was (as someone else mentioned) that he blamed his actions on other forum members as they didn't reply, also that "what's done is done".
Matt

yeah and terps certainly seem to be tail nippers but they are also pretty gentle in general.
i agree that blaming someone else is pretty, well, lets just say, "silly"
but i think it'll turn out fine...if not i am sure we'll all be sued. ; )