# Convicts and turtles



## lmhollist (Aug 7, 2009)

Hello all!

Kind of looking for some advice and thoughts on something I'm considering in the future for my turtle tank. 
Here's the plan: My boyfriend recently acquired a 300 gal. rubbermaid stock tank that we are going to house our larger turtles in once we move again. The plan has kind of bounced between just the 300 gal by itself with an island basking area or setting up our 300 and our 150 stock tank (same height as the 300 but half the size otherwise) right next to each other with an above tank basking area resting between the two of them (so basically the turtles can travel between the two tanks).

Anyway, here's where the convicts come in. I originally bought them to provide a food source for the turts. I currently have two breeding pairs plus two extra females and an extra male. My thought was to add them to the 300 or 150 but I'm unsure if the adults will be able to successfully breed. My hope was that as the fry are raised they get bigger, more adventurous, and in their adventuring, end up as a tasty snack.

Anyway, it'll probably be ugly as sin but I was thinking about just dumping a bunch of pvc like connectors, 45* angles, that sort of thing into the bottom of the tanks along with some scattered river rock. This way the adults have places to escape to (and breed in).

The potential issues I'm seeing are 
1) the whole idea is a failure from the start, all my cons are just gonna get eaten right off the bat 
2) a 300 gal. stock tank maybe doesn't have a big enough footprint for three breeding pairs of cons 
3) what if the turtles don't provide successful population control and I'm overrun with convicts 
4) the turtles and convicts have different temp. requirements. We'd like to keep the temp. of the stock tanks at about 75. Is this going to be too low for the convicts to even consider breeding?

Sorry for the novel, but thanks in advance for any comments you might have!

PS I just realized I forgot to provide the dimensions of the 300 gal stock tank, it's 25 in. tall, 63 1/4 in. long and 69 in. wide. The 150 gal is 58 in. long and 39 in. wide.


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## mlancaster (Jul 24, 2009)

lmhollist said:


> a 300 gal. rubbermaid stock tank


Can you post a picture of the tank you noted above... is it like a pond tank?

I do not know anything about turtles, so i am not sure on population control or the adults being eaten. However, I think it sound like a cool idea. The convicts will be fine at 75 degrees.

Thanks,
Matt


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## lmhollist (Aug 7, 2009)

Rubbermaid stock tanks are pretty much used for agricultural purposes, for watering livestock and such. Although I could see their applications as a pond tank too. They are really heavy duty, they come with a drain plug built in near the bottom. We have a hose with a gate valve hooked up to ours, it makes water changes really nice. Here's a pic:










It's good to know the temp. shouldn't hinder the cons any. I was concerned that their metabolisms would be too slow at 75* for them to even be interested in spawning.

My biggest worry was that the turtles would eat the adult cons before they even spawned. Some of our turtles are more predatory than others, so it's kind of tough to say. I guess I really won't know until I try it. I just asked because you never know if someone else out there has done something similar.[/img]


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## adam79 (Jun 27, 2007)

I think it largely depends on the kinds of turtles you are talking about. I have kept an african helmeted turtle and a red eared slider in with my cichlids, which included a con, a firemouth smaller than the con, and a juvi GT. I never had any problems with predation. I think if you provide plenty of hiding spots for the cons to feel at peace, it should be fine.


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## lmhollist (Aug 7, 2009)

Yeah a couple of the species we have are more predatory than the others. I went on ahead and tried it. I added 4 convicts this evening. The bottom of the tub is already scattered with some boulder type river rock, a piece of driftwood I have soaking (hollowed out log type of shape), some clay pots and an aquarium decoration that is like a huge holey rock, so we will see how it goes. I don't think any of them got eaten right away at least ... they do have plenty of places to go where the turtles can't reach.

Who knows ... maybe 5 months from now when I move I'm going to find oodles of convicts all over the place in that tank.


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## adam79 (Jun 27, 2007)

What species of turtles do you have?


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## maddyfish (Jul 23, 2004)

How about you block off one end of the tank with egg crate in order to provide the cons a safe haven?


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## Bkeen (Mar 13, 2009)

maddyfish said:


> How about you block off one end ofthe tank with egg crate in order to provide the cons a safe haven?


 :thumb:

Also, watch the water parameters- IIRC turtles can create different issues with nitrate spikes, etc.


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## fishEH (Sep 15, 2008)

I have a tank set up that houses a turtle and cichlids. Here's the list:
Southern Painted turtle x1
Firemouth x4
Black Convict x4 (plus 5 remaining fry and more even newer fry)
Jack Dempsey x1
GT x1

The Cons have successfully bred twice now in that tank. There are 5 original fry left and I just saw some more newer fry the other day. The breeding pair of Cons were able to defend their territory against the other fish and even chased away the turtle a few times. I don't think you'll have any issue with them cohabitating, but you may end up with a surplus of Cons. But you could sell those or just give them to your LFS.


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## lmhollist (Aug 7, 2009)

*adam79*

1 Peninsula Cooter, 1 Florida Chicken Turtle, 2 Southern Painted Turtles and 2 Western Painted. The cons are currently in the 150 with our Pen. Cooter (larger turtle, but not full grown yet, carapace is probably 10 inches) and our larger Western Painted (she is probably close to 6 inches). The other four turtles live in a 75 gallon aquarium.

*Bkeen*

Yeah, we're aware of the water quality issues. I have a system of connected tanks which probably is just over 500 gallons. That kind of helps to dilute pollutants. As far as filtration goes, an FX5, a couple of Fluval 405s, and a few HOB filters to create extra water circulation and filtration in individual tanks. In any case, we have to be strict about weekly water changes and rinsing out any mechanical filtration parts once a month.

IIRC?

*maddyfish*

Hmm, a good idea. Definitely a good way to keep adults contained but allow fry to swim into the main tank area. I dunno, I saw all four cons today so for the moment what we have seems to work. I may have to change the setup when I get the 300 gallon stock tank going and all the turtles together once again. The Pen. Cooter is more of a vegetarian and doesn't actively go after the fish, but he'll take a snap at them if he gets the chance. The Western Painted is more interested in fish but she's too big to get at them in any of their hiding spots.

*fishEH*

That's cool! My set up may have some success after all. I don't know if I'll sell any surplus fry, I'll probably just give them to friends who have piscivores in their cichlid tanks. There isn't really a market for cons around here (if there is even a market for those guys anywhere...).


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