Four 3-striped mud turtles enjoying the good life
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Published 2011-07-16
Muddy has been with us since she was rescued off the street as a hatchling 7 years ago. Esther was rescued off the street as an adult last year after nearly being run over by a car. We placed her in the tank intending to release her in a safer location later. She seemed so happy in the tank that we kept her. Fern was hit by a car last year and rescued by our vet. He gave her to me to rehab. Fern's head and jaw were badly fractured. She has permanent injuries and can never be released. Romeo came from behind our house 3 1/2 years ago. I kept him because the rear of his shell was badly chewed away by preadators. He is the only male in the tank and certainly is living the good life. Romeo mated with Muddy within 20 minutes of being added to our tank. Guess he is happy.
All Comments (21)
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I don't know if you took these down for a bit or not but I loved these videos growing up. I'm so glad I found them again. Everything I ever did with my setups was based from these visuals. I rehabed at least 100 muds. Great work dude, thanks for inspiring.
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the tank is custom built, a bit larger than what you can buy ready made. Many aquarium shops have someone who builds acrylic tanks to size. Glasscages also builds some interesting acrylic tanks, you can find them online.
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this is my favorite vid so far. love the part where you're scratching Fern's head and how she falls asleep in the sand. She's such a sweetheart!
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Thank you so much for saving little Fern. God Bless you so much!!!!!
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Nice work! Awesomely done turtle tank. Enjoy the video thank you for sharing.
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@Dimunic you don't want that. It happened when she became gravid for the first time, caused her shell to expand like that. She became gravid at a very young age, only a couple years old, and that may have been why. I have seen the same condition in the wild a couple times. In addition that mud turtle (Muddy) has a ravenous appetite, steals food from the other turtles, can smell a mile away, and as a result, she is overweight.
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@Teppieification I have a wet/dry filter with overflow tubes. The water drains from the surface, not below. I also have a 'corner box' made of eggcrate and mesh that surrounds both overflow tubes and prevents large plant material from getting down into the filter. If you have a canister filter, you can use sponge foam over the intake to prevent clogging, but you must clean that sponge often or it will get gunked up.
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Great work! Thank you for sharing.
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@AquaJtang there are several fish that I acquired accidently when buying ghost shrimp. The aquarium shop told me that they were darters. Small little bottom feeders, very friendly.
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@siriusbabe88 I am not familiar with the fluval 405. Generally you want a filter than is rated at twice the volume you actually have since turtles produce so much more waste than fish. Stock tanks are okay if you don't mind not seeing in through the sides. Cooters get fairly large and are super swimmers, so the more space the better. We rescued a cooter/slider hatchling off the road just an hour ago. Dropped it into our mud hatchling tank and will release it at a large lake tomorrow.
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No one really knows how much space is enough. But turtles are roamers and can travel quite far. No turtle tank can begin to provide the space a turtle would normally use in the wild. I simply provide the maximum space I have available in my home.
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Incredible thank!
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aww.she's sleeping,so cute.
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NICE TANK!!!
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That's real nice to save that injured turtle. I remember when I watched one of the older videos, man was she beat up.
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What an amazing aquatic ecosystem you have. Do you by any chance have any videos of how to set up such a system?
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oh cool sounds like a good idea to re populate an area with healthy young turtles
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hard to tell in hatchlings, but in adults the males have a much larger, longer tail and the cloaca is further away from the body in the males. The males have a more pronounced notch at the tail end of the plastron. The mail usually has a slightly concave plastron to facilitate mating.
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@TerrapinTalk well, I didn't, but the aquarium shop I use has a tank builder and he built the tank. The tank is eight feet long, three feet wide, and 17 inches high with 12 inches of water.
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@BreakbeatTrancers Hikari carnivore wafers are the ones I do use. The Hikari sinking wafers are also good. Reptomin and Nutrafin make good pellets though they float. I believe in variety when it comes to diet and always include live or fresh food. I buy live earthworms from a local bait shop and feed them to my muds. I change the soil occasionally so the worms stay healthy. My turtles also love chicken, shrimp, and various kinds of fish.
