Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey- I'm mostly a tortoise guy, so please excuse my lack of knowledge of Softshells. I live in Central Florida, and I'm considering purchasing a Spiny Softshell for an outdoor 130 gallon pond. There is a sandy bottom, and everything a Softshell would need. Florida Softshells are everywhere around my house, so I think this would be a good enviroment for them. In the pond I have two medium Koi, and six very large comet Goldfish. Would an adult Spiny be able to eat these? I've had them forever, and wouldn't want to lose them. They produce hundreds of babies I'm sure he could have fun with, but I really don't want them to be hurt. What do you think? Thanks. Brooks

First off, how big is the Spiny? If he is a hatchling,you have nothing to worry about. If he is say 8 or 9 inches or larger, he may eat the baby fish, but I can't see him tackling a Koi or large goldfish, or even being able to catch them in a 130 gallon pond for that matter. I had a 7 inch spiny softshell in a 55 gallon for over a year with 5 or 6 cichlids, a channel catfish, and a plecostomus and never had any problems. He chased them for a while at first, but seemed to ignore them after he realized he couldn't catch them. Just make sure he is well fed, and is long as he is not exceptionally large you shouldn't have a problem in my opinion. Hope this helps, Chris

I agree, chances are he will never actually catch your fish and eat them, but theres always that possibility. Ive never caught my softie eating any of my favorite fish, but in my other aquariums my western painted and RES will take big chunks out of the tail fins of the fish.

They may not completely eat the larger fish but they are fast swimmers and will not hesitate to take pieces out them. This can cause bacterial infections and end up killing the fish. Probably not worth the risk. If you really want to try it I would just very careful to keep a close eye on your large fish for signs of damage. If a problem arises get the turtles out.

I would be very careful letting a SS with fish if you want the fish to live. A lot of times a SS will wait on the bottom of the enclosure and wait for fish to pass by and then attack them. This may not kill them for a while but to will not help and may cause the fish to die. If the fish are big and the turtle is small the turtle may be afraid if the fish but the turtle might not be afraid of the fish. I have seen a couple of SS make a sport out of killing things. On the side of this SS are extremely lazy if you repeatedly feed food that does not have to be chased and killed they may not see the moving fish as food or they might be to lazy to chase it. Is a pretty dangerous gamble.