New to turtles texas cooter turtles

[Cody Reed]

I have recenty built an outdoor pond 300 gallons -+. I was making for my fish

I then got myself a permit to catch turtles.

Now I have 6 texas cooter turtles. One of the turtles is bigger than the others 6 inches the rest are under 4 inches the smallest one being about 2.5 inches.

I have been reaserching turtles and am feeding lettuce and reptomin pellets evey 3 days. I have not seen them on the basking rock yet only had a couple days.

One of my turtles has eggs and I will be putting a fence around the pond and a way for them to get out of the water. Also going to start adding some wild mollies or mosquito fish for them to catch and eat.

I plan on getting some rio grande cooters and releasing some of the texas cooters. I'm going to brownsville and have a private lake near a gun range that the guy is going to let me catch some turtles. I also want to get a wild pair of Rio Grande Cichlids but that's another topic.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

300 gallons sounds like a lot, but it's really not all that big for that many turtles. The rule of thumb is 10 gallons per inch of turtle. Do you have a filter?

 

[Cody Reed]

Yes i made my own filter with two 5 gallon buckets with a mag pondmaster 9.5. Im going to add another with 1000 gph pump.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hello Cody

 

[Cody Reed]

Thanks

 

[Markw84]

Welcome to the forum Cody. You'll love the cooters. They're really fun turtles that love to bask and swim eagerly to you for food once they are accustomed to the setup

They will probably outgrow 300 gallons pretty soon if you keep 5-6 in there. Sounds like they're pretty young by the sizes you mention. In fact at 6" that is about the smallest size you will see them start to lay eggs

When they're young like yours they pretty much prefer a more carnivorous diet and will pick at the vegetable matter. But as they mature the become decidedly vegetarian. I feed my almost exclusively Mazuri aquatic turtle pellets. Well balanced diet and a 25 lb bag is only about $30 or so at a feed store (purina now owns Mazuri). They will thrive in that diet

Enjoy your turtles

 

[Paul M Jones]

Welcome

 

[Cody Reed]

Thanks mark, I will probably only keep the little guys after i get the big turtle to lay eggs. Hopefully i will get some small rio grandes. I'm so excited to go turtling for them.

 

[Speedy-1]

Hi and welcome Cody !