# RES Turtles and plants.



## Osteomata (Jan 11, 2005)

Anyone try this? I am hoping to find a couple of hardy species that will grow in my RES turtle tank. The turtles are quite destructive, and tend to eat or heavily damage most species. So far I have only had luck with one plant in the turtle tank: Anubias Nana. Apparently they don't taste good. For two months the nana's have been doing just fine in low light, no CO2, and constant battering from turtle feet. The other half dozen or so species I have tried have either been eaten, can't tolerate the harsh water conditions, or get uprooted by standard turtle oafishness. Here is what I have tried:
Anachris: eaten and melted
Hairgrass: Uprooted (If it could get a start, this might work)
Java Fern: eaten and torn up by claws (I had high hopes for this one)
Java Moss: pulled out of the fishing line, strewn about tank, may have been chewed on.
Emmersed lily pond plant: eaten
Hedge: (I know its not true aquatic) this sort of works. The turtles love to lay on top of it (even more than their drift wood island) they don't seem to eat it, but it does shed a lot of leaves due to the constant turtle love. I consider hedge as my "distraction" plant: it supposed to keep them from messing with some of the others.

OK, so anyone got any recommendations? I will increase the lighting soon, so don't limit your recommendations to low light plants.


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## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

Have you tried any other anubias species? There are quite a few varieties, and I believe all of them are bad tasting.


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## Osteomata (Jan 11, 2005)

Dang it, I pride myself on doing research before going off half-cocked and asking unnecessary questions. 10 minutes after I started this thread, I found this article:
http://www.resoasis.com/ATP_Articles/plantedturtletanks.pdf
I have been to the resoasis site several times, but I guess I never scrolled down in the right place to find the article.

Anyway, feel free to comment but I think I have my answers from that very nice article. If you are in a similar postion, check it out, its very helpful and addresses plants for all kinds of small turtles.

Sir blackhole,
I have not tried any other anubias species YET, but considering my luck with the nana, I fully intend to. Probably a barteri and a coffefolia

Based upon the article, I'm gonna look at these species (after I have increased the light):
Anubias various
Red Ludwigia
Crypts: If I can arrange a protected base I might give these a go 
Java Fern and Moss: I may try this again once I'm set up better.


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## tsunami (Jan 24, 2004)

After keeping sliders for several years (yellow and red eared), all I can say is that I would never use anything but large boulders with my turtles. They may be small and carnivorous now, but when full grown, these turtles turn from a protein-based diet to a vegatarian diet. I assure you that they will try to devour even the leathery leaved Anubias sp. in the future.

Pouring more light into this type of tank is a recipe for massive algae outbreaks. Turtle tanks are EXTREMELY rich in nutrients. When large, their tanks will require water changes at least two times a week just to keep the water clear.

That said, I really love turtles. Just don't put them anywhere near my planted tank or try to make their tank a planted tank. I used to feed cuttings from my tank. They especially liked to eat/shred the Cabomba and Ludwigia. 

Carlos


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## chiahead (Dec 18, 2004)

I agree with tsunami. I too tried the planted RES tank. When the turtle got bigger I couldnt keep any plants in there. I now house 3 RES in a 200 gallon with just rockwork. I feed cuttings from main tank and vegies from kitchen. They will clean up just about any mess I throw in there. Maybe when there small you can plant a turtle tank but these things get 12" accross and eat everything that is in the tank. Including 8" pleco's.


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## Osteomata (Jan 11, 2005)

Yeah, I'm aware of their eventual size, (males 7", females 12") but right now they are 1.5" carapice length. The long term plan is to put them in an outdoor pond. There will be some significant expenses with that plan (have to buy a house first, hehe.) While they are small and I am keeping them in a tank, I just wanted to try to keep some plants in there. Based upon Carlos and Chiahead's warnings, I will stick with cheap and/or excess plants in my experiment.


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