Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I found a quarter size common snapper named "AGGRO" because he will probably grow up to be quite aggressive. I set up a 20 gallon long tank with a heat lamp and a UV light. He has a fluval 2plus in the tank and a heater which keeps the water around 78-82 degrees.

I have gravel set up so half of the tank is a 5.5 inches deep with a big skull in the middle. Its a decoration jaguar skull...looks awesome. Then i have a wall made up of big round rocks that leads up to a shallow part which i made the water as deep as his shell is long, by build up gravel against the big rocks. So he has a shallow part and a deep part. I have a big fake tree trunk made for fishtanks for him to hide under in the shallow part...he sleeps under it every night. Its made so underneath is open and the roots give him many holes to get into it.

So, for the first 2 weeks he only ate a feeder fish(out of my hands), a chunk of tuna, and a chunk of chicken. He may have eaten some feeder fish because i dumped like 6 in there. All he did for 2 weeks was hide under the log. But now, he is active as hell. He climbs the skull and sits up there under the light.(basking, even though i didnt' think snappers basked) and even climbs the fake tree trunk, which i thought was impossible for him.

I take him out when i feed him and put him in a tupperware container with his food and leave him alone for a half hour...This is to keep the tank clean of food chunks. I wonder how long i can do that for, until he starts biting when i want to pick him up.

today he ate 2 crickets i dropped in his feeding tupperware thing. He snagged them as soon as they hit the water.

Am I doing everything ok? Is there something im forgetting? Please let me know...I want Aggro to grow up strong and snappin!

Wow, the setup sounds great. As far as the feeding goes, add some beef heart, and maybe reptomin to his diet, and for a treat buy can o' snails from zoomed. My two snaps love snails and they go crazy for beef heart.
You can find beef heart at most butcher shops, or even supermarkets. Buy about a pound and cut it into chunks, freeze most of it, and take a chunk out and slice it thin or cut it into tine tiny pieces and feed him a little every day. Its pure protein and really tasty. And its cheap too. Don't feed him too many feeders, aim for rosie reds or minnows. A bit cheaper than feeders, and less fat. Post a pic of your setup...

And take care of Aggro...He will snap at you, but he is so small it won't hurt, and as he grows you have to learn how to pick him up with getting bit or scratched.

Set up sounds great.

I would cook the beef heart before feeding it as human-handled meat tends to be covered in salmonella and other nasty stuff which can cause infection.

Also might wanna becareful with gravel size. i don;t knwo what the other snapper keeps do but small gravel has a way to end up in turtle intestines.

And athos,you really have turtles that eat can o snails? i tried it on boxies, sliders, woods, painteds, softshells, diamonbacks.....none would go near it.

Should he keep his pH low?

Bloom,
I started out getting snails from the fishtanks at PetSmart. They love me for it (PetSmart and my turts). I would grab a net and a baggie and scoop as many as I could get out of the tanks, then dump them all into the kids tank. The great thing about that is, the snails move around and don't all get eaten at once. The bad thing is, I heard it can lead to worms, since live snails are notorious for being carriers. So I switched to can o snails... And so far they don't have any complaints...

I've never seen the can o' snails, but my turts love the can o' crickets!

My snapper is only 3 years old, but so far she has become very tame. I handle her carefully, and she has never tried to bite me. I even hand feed her, and she is very careful about avoiding my fingers!