# short neck turtle



## ang71 (Aug 21, 2007)

Hi,
My daughter has a murray short neck turtle, the thing i wanted to know is why she wont eat the feeder fish. She is about 12cmx12cm. We have her in a 160L 3ft tank. She eats her plants and what ever else we give her but not the feeder fish. She wont even eat the snails or yabbies.
We have a friend and they said there turtle goes through about 200 feeder fish a week,plus crabs, snail's ect..

Does anyone know why???


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## cris (Aug 21, 2007)

I wouldnt worry to much, its actually illegal to feed them live fish, shrimp and crays in qld anyway. Short necks arnt that great at catching fish so it easier just to feed them dead stuff anyway.

How big are the snails? try crushing some up to start with.


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## markars (Aug 21, 2007)

i have found that they dont seem to like some species of feeder fish. my turtles (of different species) wont seem to touch zebras but will nail mountain clouds- seems the more expensive the fish the faster they eat it! lol,try mosquito fish as i have never met a turtle that wont eat them
ps it sounds harsh but with short necks, some time you have to give the tail fins of the fish a "trim"- but most seem to eat them no problem in a tank.


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## ldheav (Aug 21, 2007)

It does not really matterif its not feeding on small feeders 


just feed them dead fish


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## ldheav (Aug 21, 2007)

It does not really matterif its not feeding on small feeders 


just feed them dead fish


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## expansa1 (Dec 10, 2007)

cris said:


> I wouldnt worry to much, its actually illegal to feed them live fish, shrimp and crays in qld anyway. Short necks arnt that great at catching fish so it easier just to feed them dead stuff anyway.
> 
> How big are the snails? try crushing some up to start with.



It is not illegal to feed your turtles live feeder fish freshwater shrimp or prawns, and small or baby yabbies.

I agree that short-necked turtles are not good at catching live fish as opposed to long-necked turtles. It is a good idea to pinch the fishes tail to make it difficult for them to swim and will then be easily caught.

Expansa1


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