Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi.

Can you have red-ear sliders and goldfish in the same pond? Or will the turtles eat the fish? I would like to have 20-30 pond comets and a couple of red-ear sliders live in the same pond. Is this dangerous for the fish?

Please let me know...

Thanks,
Lindsay

I have heard that the answer to that is it can be done, but be ready to lose a few fish. The sliders may not persue the fish too much, but if theyhave a chance, I have heard the sliders will take pot-shots at the fish. Also, I have heard goldfish are not healthy fish to let your sliders eat...
-----
-Ferg

"The only day wasted is the day in which nothing is learned."
-My neighbor and friend.

I'm really new to turtles, but I can tell you this much:

Goldfish should NOT co-habitate with other species. They're filthy fish.

When I worked at petsmart, we often had people coming in wondering why the fish they just purchased died- 90% of the time, it was because they put them in a tank with goldfish. They produce a lot of ammonia.

But we'll let a more experience turtle keeper give you their opinion.

The way i see it your giving the turtles food. The turtles will probably eat them since RES are mainly carnivorous. You could try big fish so that the RES won't eat them, but make sure the fish won't fit in the turtles mouths. And won't get aggresive towards the turtles.

I have put goldfish in both my turtle pond and in my indoor winter tank and the ones that don't get eatten can get very big. At this time I have a red-earred slider and 4 very big
(5 inch) goldfish in my pond.

my turtles dont let ANYTHING alive stay in their tank for too long... i just bought them some rosie reds the other day, and they were GONE by that night! i'm telling you... my turtles are PIGS disguised as turtles! haha
-----
~ Evie

Pets:
RIP 0.1.0 German Shepherd {Dusty}
0.1.0 German Shepherd/Collie mix {Shadoe}
0.0.2 RES turtles {Booger & Snot}
1.0.0 African Clawed Frog {Bingo}
0.0.2 Snail {Gary & Larry}

From my personal experience and judging from the responses I would say it totally depends on the specific turtle. Some may co-exist just fine with gold fish, while others will bite at them every chance it gets.

I have two separate tanks of turtles, each with fish in them. My large tank has a RES, painted, and map with a very large oscar with them. Even though the RES is a good amount smaller than the oscar, I still catch it biting at the oscars tail.

On the other hand, I have three gold fish in my other tank with a map and painted. These turtles have never shown any aggression towards the goldfish even though they are about the same size.

So, I would say give it a shot and monitor things for a while. You'll know fairly soon how your RES is going to respond. Good luck.
-----
Mike
-----------------
2 Painted
1 Musk
1 Common Snapper
1 Cooter
1 Map
1 RES
1 Corn Snake
1.1 Water Dragons
2 African Frogs
1 Toad
1.0 Degu
1.2 Chihuahuas
0.1 Cat

i had my turtle with my goldfish in the same tank for 3 YEARS. then one day i put a betta fish with the turtle and goldfish. after a few weeks...the turtle ate both.
-----
0.0.1 Red Eared Slider