baby cooter?

Question

i got a baby cooter out of a creek. ive had big ones that were easy to keep in small pools but this one is about the size of my hand and ive got him in a ten gallon tank with rocks to get out of the water. will those little sucker fish at walmart clean up his tank a little leaving me less work? or do i need to get carp?

as with in the reptiles section a cooter is a southern word for snapping turtle. sorry y'all

Answer 1

Unfortunately, any fish will only add more waste to the tank. Carp get to be 4 feet, and the suckerfish (probably plecos) get 18 inches - you won't be able to keep these fish in a 10 gallon, plus if they fit now, the cooter will probably make a meal of them.

I'd suggest getting a fluval submersible filter for his tank instead. They don't have the problems of hang-on types for using thm with turtles. With hang-ons, the water level is below the rim for a basking area, so it wears down the motor with the extra distance the filter has to pull the water, plus if there's a power outage, the hang-ons lose suction and the water is drained from the filter back into the tank, sometimes causing them to run dry when the power comes back on. Unfortunately, the submersibles aren't as convenient to clean.

Another possible solution would be to feed him in a separate tank if part of the problem is the food is getting into the rocks where the turtle can't reach it.

BTW, "cooter" can also refer to another group of turtles (pond turtle more like sliders) besides a snapper: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudemys

Answer 2

What is a cooter???