African sideneck turtles

TLWR

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Every time I walk into Petsmart, they have at least one of these. Always cute and personable.
But I don't find a lot of useful info on keeping them inside.

I would have a 65 gallon tank to house one in if we decide to go this route (there are currently still a few fish that would be brought to the buy back program at our LFS).
I know I'd likely need a different filter (we have 2 HOBs, I don't recall the gph - but it is a lot as they were originally purchased for when we had gold fish and needed lots of filtration) and we'd need different lights (LEDs for live plants now)

Can anybody point me toward some good resources for keeping african sidenecks so we can decide if this is something we might want to do and make the change over for the tank?
I've only ever seen red eared sliders and african sidenecks at our stores and maybe one other, but wasn't too fond of whatever that was.
 

Pastel Tortie

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Every time I walk into Petsmart, they have at least one of these. Always cute and personable.
But I don't find a lot of useful info on keeping them inside.

I would have a 65 gallon tank to house one in if we decide to go this route (there are currently still a few fish that would be brought to the buy back program at our LFS).
I know I'd likely need a different filter (we have 2 HOBs, I don't recall the gph - but it is a lot as they were originally purchased for when we had gold fish and needed lots of filtration) and we'd need different lights (LEDs for live plants now)

Can anybody point me toward some good resources for keeping african sidenecks so we can decide if this is something we might want to do and make the change over for the tank?
I've only ever seen red eared sliders and african sidenecks at our stores and maybe one other, but wasn't too fond of whatever that was.
You're right, there isn't much care information out there (and some of what is may be out of date, depending). Most of my go-to resources don't have care sheets for African sidenecks.

Try this one... It should mostly be applicable to other types of African sidenecks.
http://turtlepuddle.org/exotics/pelusios.html

In general, African sidenecks (Pelusios and Pelomedusa) are the African version of our mud turtles.
 

Pastel Tortie

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The Turtle Source (http://theturtlesource.com) has some of the better (short) write-ups in their Mainland African Water Turtles section. Admittedly, I'm biased (I've known the owner/operator for 20+ years), but he KNOWS his turtles.
 

Pastel Tortie

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@TLWR Did that give you the information you were looking for?

Sidenecks didn't used to appeal to me, but the more I learn about them, the more interested I am. I think I will get one eventually. Maybe more. ;)
 
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