Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 1 year old pig-nose softshell turtle, I'm unsure of what his exact species is (if anyone has a website with pictures of the various kinds that would be appreciated), but I have had him in a 29 gallon tank with 2 baby red ear sliders for the past month or so...The other day I got rid of the RES turtles (gave to girlfriend) and filled the tank up so it has no land surface now, but it seems that he's stopped eating the goldfish. I just put some turtle food in there and he's eating that. What's going on with him? Just a major change in tastes or what? Please let me know. -Chris

My email is crt@students.uwf.edu if you want to email me feel free, much appreciated.

Turtles get lazy, ecspecially when it comes to fish. Try hold the fish in front of your turtles face, i know its unfair and unfortunate for the fish but oh well. Also you might try shiners, rosy red, and minnows instead of goldfish, goldfish have a high silver content in them.(correct me if im wrong on the silver)Also try earthworms and occasional crickets.

I have guppies in the tank with the goldfish and he's not eating them...how should I dangle the fish in front of his face? like take 'em both out of water or what?

Well depending how big your ss is catch the fish and either use plastic tweezers or your fingers, some softshells may not even responde to this mine only eats when i hide so he cant see me.

Yes as seen in a previous post, its copper not silver, sorry about that.

Hey got a softshell huh?

If you can get us some pictures of it , we can help you identify it so you will know exactly what species it is. Perhaps you can browse the galleries of softshell photois here and try to figure what kind it is for yourself.

If it is an american softshell, crayfish are a preferred food item. Some people feed only cooked or frozen (thawed) crayfish to teir softies to help avoid parasites.

As far as goldfish go, they are really a poor choice. although they are readily available they are among the most mistreated animals in the pet trade. They are often heavily parasitized (which can mean parasites for any turtle which eats them) and they are usually NOT even fed at pet stores or wholesalers and they are often raised in water which has been trated with large amounts of copper (to kill algae) which builds up in their bodies and will become very toxic to animals which eat them.

You can raise your own goldfish if you like or try to get bait store minnows or mollies from a pet store.

You might also try superworms (assuming the turtle is at least 5 inches long) wax worms and crickets as insects make up a large part of many softshell diets. earthworms as suggeste d above are a good choice as well.

Good job finding a new home for the red eared sliders, other turtles kept with softies tend to scratch their sensitive shells, so it is best to keep them alone.

As for the depth of the water, i would suggest trying to make it shallow enough that the turtle can easily get to the surface without swimming. Softies like to rest on the bottom or in the substrate and come up for air by reaching their necks or doing only a little swimming. They may become stressed in deep water (though they ARE excellent swimmers and some keepers do house them in deep water).

Try to use either very fine sand or very large smooth gravel as softies tend to get scrathed by sharp rocks and may eat small ones by accident when they are eating their food. So get rocks that are smooth and bigger than their head or sand which is very small.

My turtle looks very close to the Spiny Softshell. I have posted pictures at

http://students.uwf.edu/crt4/turtle/

I have purchased a fish bowl and I am going to try breeding some goldfish, and I know the people that own the pet store where I get my goldfish from and they told me all that stuff..basically telling me why I shouldn't buy them from anywhere else lol. Is he the kind that enjoys eating crayfish?

For a month while I had the RES turtles in there with him/her, the water level was fairly low and he was not too active. I filled the tank on up as shown in the picture, and since then he has become very active, swimming around all the time, seems to be enjoying the exercise.

The rocks I have in the bottom are just a little smaller than his head, but honestly I don't know where I could find rocks bigger than his head, and then since he likes to burrow under the rocks every now and then...

Now here's my last question..i've had some people tell me to keep my tank with a land area, and some people tell me no land area, what are the advantages of each? Thanks for all your help. -Chris

Even though many softshells bask by floating on top of the water, a completely dry area is beneficial. Its a place for your turtle to rest if need be, you can often see softshells basking in the wild, but as soon as they see you then their gone.

As far as shallow or deep water, you can have it both ways. For a softshell tank, I have always made a shallow area in a full tank by gluing in a tray of plate glass, so that when filled with sand is an inch or two below water line. Another option is to use something like a good sized flower pot saucer, placed on top of an inverted flower pot and filled with sand. You can break a hole in the lip of the pot and make an underwater hideaway as well. This works well for small turtles.

blisterbug's idea is great. you can use cork bark as well or simply slope the sand (sand really is better thna rocks in my opinion)

I think it can not be overstated how important the shallow area is. I think he is more likley expending lots of energy and dtruggling to breathe if the water is deep (not enjoying it) the activity is not as normal as you might think. they spend considerable periods still and buried when comfortable.

and you will never breed goldfish in a bowl. Contrary to popular belief, goldfish are among the hardest fish to take care of properly. they need well oxygenated, cool water and good filtration, as they make lots of waste and produce more ammonia from their gills than most fish. (Don't take my word for it; try asking at the fish forums)

I'd try mosquito fish, mollies or guppies they are easier to breed (though still ain't gonna happen in a bowl)

How big is your softshell? how big is your tank?

And as for the diet, crayfish are thought to make up a large portion of the wild diet of this species.

Thanks for all the info everyone, it's really appreciated.

Blisterburg....i'm having trouble picturing what you're suggesting. Is it something along the lines of This? (excuse my wonderful artwork lol)

My softshell is approximately 5 inches long, 4 inches wide, in a 29 gallon tank. (largest i'm allowed to have in the apartment i'm currently living, going to purchase a 75 gallon one this summer for him when I move.)

In case y'all didn't get to see them, I did post pictures here

The past few days I let him eat up the remaning goldfish, fed him some meal worms by hand (he loved those), turtle food from a jar, however it seems the only crayfish I can find are live baby ones. (Very, very expensive.) Also I'm worried about putting those in there with him, because of their pinchers. He loves ghost shrimp but $2 for a dozen is a little expensive, when he eats a dozen for breakfast ya know? lol...maybe for a treat.

Yes, that's the idea, now just add a 1 1/2" high piece of glass on the left hand, open side to contain the sand.