# Some advice needed for setting up a Planted Aquarium with a Baby Snapping Turtle



## Scorps (Aug 2, 2014)

Hey all,

Recently I ended up rescuing a baby common Snapping Turtle, the little guy was severely dehydrated and had fallen down a window well and gotten stuck there for a few days (i'm basing this off the fact that I usually check the window well's when I visit my parent's place on a daily basis to rescue any toads/frogs/voles and other critters that fall down, and i'd missed a few days on checking them). After a few days in water the little guy started getting his energy back and finally started eating again (and his appetite's been growing like mad,  )

Now, i've finally gotten him set up in a temporary 10g at a friend's place, as i'm in the process of moving to a new home, but my concern is this:

I want to set up a Dirted Aquarium habitat for him, but I want to avoid the use of any gravel or sand. He's still small (shell size is about 3 inches long, think: smaller than a hockey puck, but bigger than a Reese Peanut Butter Cup) so i'm concerned about him accidentally snapping up a grain of sand or piece of gravel and having that wreak havoc on his digestive track. 

So, does anyone have any good advice on what I should use in regards to just a base layer of soil to line the bottom? I'm planning on making it a few inches thick and also trying to stick with dirt to more easily replicate a natural pond/riverbed setup for him, but I am also very concerned about him eating some stone. Right now i've got his tank lined with large river rocks and some larger rocks for him to rest on, but being a snapper, he spends almost all of his time under water. Aside from that all i've got in there is a power filter to keep the water clean and moving, but i'd really like to see him in a more natural, dirt lined tank (and also it would put my mind at alot of ease). 

So any good recommendations on some soil I can purchase that will eventually settle after enough water changes? And eventually i'll probably get a plant or two to put in there for his eating needs, but being so young, right now he's just interested in eating most things that move (including the first time he saw column of air bubbles created from the filter dropping water back down into the tank...lol) Any advice is greatly appreciated!


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## pandragon (Jul 10, 2014)

Poor baby turtle! I am glad you were able to save it. Have you thought of leaf litter for the cap, or some heavier dirt/silty sand? As long as it is fairly fine so that the little guy doesn't try to eat it and heavy enough to stay down and keep dirt down. Maybe put larger rocks and driftwood on top of that? I guess you could try looking at the local waterways to see what the living in before he fell down the well?

Hope all goes well for you


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Welcome to APC!

In a tank with a 3" turtle and a power filter, soil will absolutely need some type of cap or it will cloud the water all the time. But let's take a step back. Why do you want soil? The only reason to put soil in a tank is to grow plants. I assume that you have correctly identified the turtle as a snapper, in which case it will remain carnivorous and will not eat plants. So you could have plants in the tank.

At the turtle's current size, you could use pea gravel as a cap and that would probably be too large to ingest. If you get a dense growth of plants in the tank, they will do a good job of keeping the gravel in place and minimizing accidental swallowing. Or you could do what many turtle keepers do, and take the turtle out of the tank to feed it. Captive turtles learn to eat in plastic tubs, and this keeps the water in the tank much cleaner.

If the soil seems like too much trouble, you could use dried leaves on the bottom of the tank; oak and beech leaves work well. You could also put sturdy plants in pots of soil with an appropriate cap. This would reduce the amount of gravel in the tank and the possible accidents.


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## Scorps (Aug 2, 2014)

Hey and thanks for the replies and tips 

I'll definitely check around the waterways and see their situation, the only thing is that they tend to inhabit lakes, ponds and slow moving streams/rivers, so most of those are clear enough due to the vast size or the slowly running water. I might give the leaf litter a shot though and some wood/stones on top of a layer of dirt.

As for why i'm concerned about him eating sand, well i'm trying to keep him on a variety of live foods and he goes bat-sh*t crazy for Potato bugs (Sow bugs, Pill bugs, Wood Lice, whatever you prefer to call them) and they tend to scurry along the bottom once they're under the water, but he'll snap them up with pretty impressive precision, just don't want one little slip up to have him with something bad in his gut. I could take him out of his tank to feed him like Michael mentioned which wouldn't be a problem, but it'd take abit. Once he's in a new habitat he tends to freak out for a bit before he's comfortable eating. Although in the tank it's easy enough to feed him worms, he loves those just as much and there's alot more space to grab than a smaller bug. 

Really i'd just like the mud/dirt bottom to make it a more natural habitat for him, the power filter I have now is just a small one designed just for smaller 10g tanks. However in regards to his diet, right now since he's young his diet should mostly consist of animal proteins and live food, but once they grow to a more mature age, roughly 90% of their diet consists of plants and carrion. He's an Ontario Snapping Turtle :canada: and they do alot to clean up the water ways by eating alot of algae and animals remains. However that's when they're older, when they're young, they've got this urge and need to try to eat anything that moves faster than a floating bubble of the water's surface, lol. However once there's more things in the tank, they tend to take nibbles out of plastic plants and they will eat them down to nearly nothing if left to it.

But as for making sure he's a snapper, well 100% without a doubt he's a snapper. The first two pics are from when I found him and had in water long enough for him to come back to and open up his eyes again. 

The three more recent pictures let you see he's noticeably more lively and gives a much better view of the trademark claws, shell shape, tail and slightly hooked beak that are common to the Ontario Snapping Turtle. (although with the newer phone and the glare of the tank, it's not *as* clear and sharp as i'd like)

I still have a good few weeks before I get a final setup, so I might just get some plants setup with a dry bark and/or leaf litter weighted down by some stones here and there


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## pandragon (Jul 10, 2014)

Wow, nice turn around for your turtle. I am glad he is feeling better. Are you planning on keeping him as a pet or rehabing and letting him go back to his natural home?


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Yup, snapping turtle! And I had no idea that their range extended so far north. Please post photos of your set-up when it is finished. Very few people try to keep plants with aquatic turtles, I hope you can make it work.

I understand about the sand/gravel problem. My fire bellied toads are susceptible to intestinal blockage if they eat too much substrate.


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## Scorps (Aug 2, 2014)

Thanks Pandragon, he's getting livelier and livelier by the day (as well as his appetite, R.I.P. to the countless families of Potatoe/Sow/Pill Bugs, snails and worms that have sacrificed so much for him, lol) I'm hoping to keep him around and take care of him, if I do plan to release him then it will be several years down the road and after I make sure I take the proper steps to make sure he's prepared. I mean he'll be able to catch food in the wild without a problem, but it'll be abit of work to get him accustomed to hibernation. Another reason is that up here in Ontario (and i'd imagine for alot of snappers) they only really have predators when they're small like he is, once he's a decent size he'll only have to worry about human and cars if he chooses to cross the road. Being a male snapper he tends to spend almost all his time under the water and usually the females really only go up on land to lay eggs, but just to be safe i'm gonna attempt to train him to look both ways before crossing 

For sure Michael!, Like i said, right now he's in a temporary tank and he's going to be taken to a friends to be taken care of for a few weeks while I move to my new place and maybe (if i'm lucky) end up snagging him a nice 40g tank so I can at least give him a setup with some sort of a small beachhead, plus...hell if i'm not rich enough to live in a mansion, might as well try my best to give him one  

I'm hoping i'll find some sort of resolution to the sand and gravel issue and i'm glad to see you can relate to the issue (plus, fire bellied toads are some gorgeous pets so I can definitely understand the caution to keep them healthy!) But as for us getting Snappers this far up north, to be honest I live in Windsor, Ontario (one of the rare Canadian cities to be located SOUTH of America, in this case we're south of Detroit, lol) But I often visit my Mother and her Fiance up in Cambridge, Ontario, about a three hour drive north-east of here. And I thought I knew pretty much all about the local ecology but wouldn't you know it: My first trip to their place (amazingly located in the "county" area of Cambridge with a Forest on one side of the property and a large corn field on the back side of it) I ended up finding (and finding out) that Ontario even has Tree Frogs :O 

And as gorgeous and cool as they are, the East Grey Tree Frog can be VERY loud when it's looking for a mate, lol.

Pics are unrelated to the Turtle, just thought i'd share some of the fun pics of the gorgeous Tree Frogs that i'd found out we're lucky to have in our area!
(Note: the 4th picture where you see the frog's underside, that's the window above the bed where I sleep when I visit, more importantly, in the background you can see the metal lining behind him, this is one of the two window wells they have that toads, normals frogs, voles and I guess now: baby turtles, tend to fall and get trapped in...however it's clear that for this frog, it wasn't an issue!)


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Love the tree frogs!


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## Scorps (Aug 2, 2014)

Michael said:


> Love the tree frogs!


I hear ya, first time I saw them I felt like a kid again! It was my first time seeing one that wasn't on a BBC documentary (which made me bias in the sense that I thought they were all based in jungle climates, never expected i'd see one in Canada!) They're surprisingly laid back too, but they've got a beautiful colouration.


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## Scorps (Aug 2, 2014)

Little update with some good news. I just managed to get a decent deal from a local custom tank builder! When I get set up in my new place and send the pictures of Mal's (the turtle, lol) new habitat, there's a very very VERY good chance that his new habitat will be in a nice, big, 90g tank with an included stand.

Looks like I may actually get to literally make him that beachhead and give him his Mansion! (at least for awhile until he grows and that mansion becomes moreso a condo, lol)

Also though I was curious, what about after laying down some soil in the tank, if I topped it over with some bark mulch, would something along those lines work? Not a thick heavy layer, but spaced out enough to add a more natural look, help keep the soil more settled and not block out any nutrients from any fish/turtle excrement. Combined with the obvious larger stones for sitting on, as well as some scattered rocks about the size of your average skipping stone. Would that be detrimental to the plants even if it was spread out enough and would it help keep the bottom dirt layer from completely swamping the water every time the turtle takes a step?


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## pandragon (Jul 10, 2014)

I don't know if you could get the bark to sink and it might cause a nitrogen spike as it breaks down. although, I guess leaf litter could do the same. 

I am very glad to hear about Mal's new home you have coming. By the time he gets big enough for that mansion to be a condo you might as well put him in a pond to find a nice lady turtle.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

The bark mulch is very likely to float for a long time.

I suggest you get a large wide-mouth jar, small cheap aquarium, or maybe just a plastic tub and experiment with different combinations of soils and caps. Using soil in a turtle tank really is uncharted territory, and you will have to figure out what will work in your circumstances.


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## devilduck (Sep 7, 2012)

As a former alligator snapper owner I wish you luck. These guys get huge very quickly. I'd keep the tank simple with hiding spots and sand or bare bottom. They are super messy and require major filtration.


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## Scorps (Aug 2, 2014)

Thanks Devilduck, yeah he's gonna be a beast before I know it 

Ok, so abit of an update, I got the 90g tank, stand and the undergravel filter, I just need to buy a pump. Now here's what i'm thinking and this is where it starts to get abit tricky...

The undergravel panels are roughly 12x12 inches which is fine, there are four of them in total but i'm thinking of only putting two down on the far right of the tank and setting them up with some larger gravel stones (like the ones already in Mal's temporary home). That's going to leave me with roughly 20 inches to play with on the left side of the tank where I don't have to worry about any dirt or substrate that might get pulled into the filter. I figure 24 inches of filter plate on the bottom of the tank on the right, covered with the larger gravel and an extra four inches of the gravel on the left of the filter plates, making it unlikely....I hope...for any dirt or whatnot that's placed on the left of those four inches of gravel to to be pulled and filtered through those four inches when it's because the only suction intake at that area would be the small amount coming from the side of the left-most panel.

Here's what I was thinking in terms of a starter for soil/sand as a starter. I watched this video on youtube.






This all-purpose sand manages (after a few rinses) to be made up of some heavy, fast sinking sand that won't stir up too much and that's going to risk the chances of any floating or drifting over to the gravel side and getting filtered. Leaving me with 20 inches of room to work on building up some land, putting some plant life in there and getting an island-ish type of foundation set up for Mal to bask or relax on.

Keep in mind that i'll only be filling the tank about halfway full, so we're talking around 12 inches (give or take) depth of water. So any thoughts, input or suggestions? I also plan to get some local wood/drift wood and treat it via boiling and waterlog it thoroughly beforehand to make sure any logs or branches I put in for decoration or utility don't let out a bunch of tannin and don't crumb apart or release a plethora of unknown bacteria or organisms.

I'll be adding the hot-tub and three car garage in the latter months...but one step at a time


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## TankAaron (Aug 8, 2014)

So, since they're native to where you found him, why not use dirt and plants from your parents' back yard?

You could use something like this between the filter and the dirt. That would keep the dirt away from the filter, and the water. It's a decent slope, and it's rough, so it can cling on to it with its claws to get over it. And it would serve as a floor mat to wipe the dirt off of it when it crawls back to the water.


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## Scorps (Aug 2, 2014)

The only problem is where I found him is about a three hour drive from where I live. I was visiting family, and here in Windsor, we're along the border of the Detroit River (which I believe is among the top 10 highest polluted bodies of water (or rivers) in the world) So it'd be risky getting him some dirt/soil from there or any of the local rivers...where there's a distinct possibility that even the fish you could catch there may be actually physically able to fight back with an extra appendage. Plus i've already purchased the plexiglass and proper silicone and well....the inner artist in me wants to make some sort of personal touch to his habitat (it's going to be a busy week of packing and getting ready to move, so working on a little project like that will also be a great way to unwind and de-stress).

I'd noticed that product the other day when I was getting some new tubing and a splitter for the undergravel filter and I was tempted, to be honest. But i'm thinking that some actual wood with the right texture of bark would have the same effect.

Like I said though, it's going to be a busy kinda week but when I get the initial rough sketch done of what i'm hoping to construct, i'll toss an image of it up here to give a better idea. The only problem with the product from petsmart is that i'm running low on my budget and the interior area of the tank that i've got to work with for his dry land option is roughly 20inches by 16/17 inches. So just one of those logs wouldn't be enough to cover the length  

But like I said, i'll have to see. I may end up getting some soil from a local field with no crop growth so I don't have to worry about pollutants in the soil and then just wash that dirt through enough rinses so that alot of the lighter top-soil is gone, so I can put it in the constructed part of the habitat to house some plants and not have too much concern of it drifting over to the filter side.


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## TankAaron (Aug 8, 2014)

How are the turtle, and turtle adventures going?


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