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Does any one own any map turtles?? how big do they grow??? can you keep them along side fish or do they need shallow water???

Hi pictus_man_77

I am taking some discus to a shop that sells terrapins/turtles after work tonight and will get some info then. Alternatively you could speak to Rod at http://www.rift-valley-cichlids.co.uk he is based in Bournemouth and i think is usually there 'till five thirty or so. I took the photos there and most of the turtles were at most a couple of inches across although I know that several species can grow in excess of a foot. hope this helps
Tristan

OK. nice one.im thinkin of gettin sum map turtles or sum yellow bellied turtles

Hi again,

Spoke to the boss at the shop, he recons that they get to about 10" total length, (including the head & tail). Their shell measures about 5" in diameter. He also said that they take about 6-7 years to grow to that size. He has some small ones - 2-3" across and a couple of bigger ones- 5". He can send you some, i think it is £10 -£15 per box shipping but give him a call.

Tristan

You have to consider that turtles produce lots of waste that will prolly kill any not so hardy fish (we keep Guppys and Ancistrus with our S.odoratus).
And you need special UV light for most turtles which is quite expensive.
I wouldnt put anything special in with the turtles and never put a turtle in a fishtank without proper land part and lighting.

ta !!! does any1 know of any turtles that grow small cos i only have a small tank. Or does any one know how big rainbow crabs grow cos if i cant get SMALL turtles i would probably get two or three of those

Turtles, Crabs etc, all should be kept in a tank of their own....

rainbowcrabs are very nice to look at, but highly amphibic, like their water-part a bit salty, and they can and do make short work of any fish, even big ones.
some individuals are almost vegetarians, but others quickly learn to kill and eat fish; if you ever get your finger caught (wich I have YIKES), then you understand they can swiftly squeeze a fish to death; they're strong!


btw, they can reach an impressive size; not "long" (crabs are short, it's lobsters that go for length), but wide, and fairly highbuilt too; not to mention sturdy.

Compare them size-ways with two GoldHamsters stacked upon each other.
now how big would the "cage" be for such a critter? It likes to walk, it likes to crawl, dig and climb too.

if you have a small tank, best go for Indian redclaw-crabs (Sesarma bidens); those crabs stay small, they're nicely colored and not that difficult to keep; you could keep a small group of 3-4 (two isn't a good idea) in a 15G, with wood or rocks sticking out of the water; about 3-4" of water is OK.

i thought u wouldn be able 2 keep fish with crabs.how many Gal. is a 60x30x30 tank (uk)????

Did you mean in cm or inches? Here's both.

60cm x 30cm x 30cm = 54L => 12 UK gal (15 US gal).
60" x 30" x 30" = 884L => 196 UK Gal (232 US gal).

Calculating the volume of a tank is:
length * width * height in cm / 1000 => liters.
length * width * height in inches / 290 => UK gallons
length * width * height in inches / 232 => US gallons
length * width * height in inches / 61 => Liters.

UK Gallons * 1.25 => US gal
US Gallons / 1.25 => UK Gal
UK Gallons * 4.5 => liters
US Gallons * 3.8 => liters
Liters / 3.8 => US Gallons
Liters / 4.5 => UK Gallons

These numbers are approximations, but it gets you close enough for most purposes. [Ideally, you should subtract the thickness of the glass, since the measure of the tank is almost always the OUTSIDE measure. On small tanks with thin glass it makes little difference, but for bigger tanks, it tends to take a few liters away].

Note also that most people don't fill the tankt ALL the way to the edge, but there's usually a couple of centimeters or about an inch of gap between the top of the water and the top of the glass (water tends to escape when it gets very close to the top ).

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Mats