Fly River Turtle Care Information

Although I can provide you information on what works for me in my personal Care Info page, I don't by any means consider myself an expert, so on this website i've included a bunch of other links to research the care needed for the Carettochelys species .

Remember that the shell serves the same purpose as skin. It of course is used to protect the interior of Fly River Turtle's body. If skin, or shell, is penetrated, that gives access to bacteria, fungal spores and parasites. Shell fungus infections, shell rot, spots on the shell, or other shell disease these turtles may suffer from, must be treated as if it were lacerated skin. The tissue and body cavity must be treated first before the shell is closed up.

My Personal Experience

If you've never owned a Fly River Turtle before, you might be somewhat nervous about the maintenance required. I've never owned a turtle before let alone a rare Fly River Turtle, but when I first saw the Pig Nosed Turtle through a friend, I immediately knew this was the first turtle I wanted to keep around my home. They are so interesting, curious, graceful, and unique. Like any new good pet owner I did alot of research before I picked one up.

I've read forums and have heard stories about other Fly River Turtle owners who received sick turtles suffering from shell disease, shell rot, spots on the turtle shells, or just eventually got sick and died in a short period of time. The most common problems the Pig Nose or Pig-Nosed turtles suffer from is infection by shell fungus which appears on the upper top of the shell. Well it's not a problem if you keep in mind a few basic requirements regarding water conditions to prevent the inhabitants of fungus. Excellent water conditions will help prevent shell fungus overall and if these Turtles are healthy, they have no problems eating, so feeding a healthy turtle will be the least of your worries.

I received my Fly River Turtle sometime around May of 2005. As you can see from the Photos below they grow quite fast. The first photo was taken around June 2005, and the second photo of the Pig Nose Turtle was taken in November 2005. Yes this is the same turtle. The colors will vary from a light Olive to a Darker gray. Some say it depends on the amount of sun the turtle has.

As a small Pig Nose Turtle I started him out in a 10 gallon tank. From all the research I did, I pretty much treated the water as I would for a Cichlid. Kept the PH above neutral, the temperature around 80F, and made sure the water was hard. To help keep the PH up (someone advised me) I used crushed coral. Supposedly coral brings the PH up and things like drift wood can bring it down. The crushed coral doesn't seem to hurt the turtle as he seems to dig into it just fine. You'll need a good heater. Take my advise on this one and go get a really good heater. I think I had to go through three cheap heaters before I finally went out and bought an Ebo-Jager. It's ok to get one slightly larger than what you need for the tank as it just doesn't have to work as hard to heat up the tank.

As far as filtration goes, I just use one Aquaclear overflow. This is a photo of a smaller model than what I have. The turtle is now in a 20 gallon aquarium with crushed coral for the base and a few aquarium plants. I still only run one Aquaclear overflow made for 20-30 gallon tanks. It does great and you'll need to clean out the sponge at least once a week, and change out the carbon and ammonia filters maybe once a month.

Now if you've ever had a tank before with Plecos, a Turtle, and other fish, you know how much waste and garbage end up at the bottom of the tank. The overflow Filters don't always get the garbage at the bottom. Let's face it, it doesn't get the garbage at the bottom at all. But I'm not going to upgrade to larger filters since I don't want any heavy filtration causing too much water current in my small tank. I'm also not open to running undergravel filter systems because i'm using some fine crushed coral that this Turtle loves to dig into. So my only option is to end up sucking up the garbage with a siphon (aquarium vacuum) into a bucket. Problem with using this technique is you end up changing a huge percent of your water each time you do it.

Let's summarize my problem .
I don't want to run bigger filters.
I don't want to run an undergravel filter.
I want to siphon the garbage frequently, but I don't want to change the water too often.

It might sounds cheezy but here's what I came up with as a quick & cheap solution to all these problems. Filtering through T-shirts! Yup, just plain old white cotton t-shirts (clean of course) to quickly filter the water as I siphon it from my tank. This is a real quick and cheap solution to filter out any particles in the water you vacuum up from the bottom. This is especially perfect for those that run undergravel filter systems and want to clean the bottom of the tanks more frequently than when water changes are necessary.

The great thing about this technique is that you can remove as much water as you want (like 90%) since you'll be placing it back in the tank. There is no need to treat the water all over again such as balancing the PH, setting the temperature, removing the ammonia, growing healthy bacteria, etc. etc. I actually came up with this idea when I was putting a coffee filter into my coffee machine.

What you'll need is two large buckets, a large cotton t-shirt (2 shirts layered one on top of the other are better), and the siphon or aquarium vacuum. First suck out all the garbage you want using the siphon into one of the large buckets. When the bucket is full you'll notice you have a bucket full of water with a whole bunch of crap. Now place the shirts over the second bucket (layered one on top of the other) and pour the water right through like a coffee machine would through a coffee filter. The cotton shirts will quickly strain all the particles, waste, and garbage. Now you can pour the water back in the tank - less all the crap.

If you really want to get fancy, pick up a picture frame, stretch the t-shirts across (layering them to get the best filtering effect) and staple them on the frame using a staple gun. This way it holds up over the bucket when you're straining the water through it.

Of course this should not be a reason to never change a percentage of your aquarium water to new water every now and then. This process will also not filter the ammonia like activated carbon filters do, but it's a great cheap way for keeping the aquarium floor free of crap. Here's a photo of my last cleaning session. Afterwards I rinse out these shirts and then bring them to a laundry mat.

I also changed the bulbs in the Aquarium to one of those reptile bulbs that put out UV designed for reptiles / turtles. I've read somewhere that this is not necessary for Fly River Turtles, but i've also heard that it doesn't hurt and most turtle species will need some type of sunlight or UV exposure.

By the way, they love to dig and hide into the sand or underneath something. Try not to use coarse rocks when setting up a cave-like hiding place as the turtle may injure himself if he panics and starts swimming in a frenzy.

I found the easiest thing to start my turtle off when he first came home was with the sinking wafers and pellets. There are basically two different types you can try, but variety in your turtle's diet is key so keep trying the fruits and vegetables. They may do fine on sinking pellets for weeks at a time but in the long run this shouldn't be the main staple.

Look what I happened to find. There's even a picture of a pig nose turtle on the cover. My turtle has not eaten this stuff (as far as I can tell).

In the tank I have also two Plecos and a bunch of guppies. They say it isn't a good idea to have fish that can potentially suck on your turtle's shell in the tank as it may cause problems for any open wounds or sores. I'm keeping an eye on them everyday and for the months they've been together I have not seen any issues.

Most people will tell you these Pig-Nosed Turtles will eat only fruits and vegetables, but my guppies will tell a different story. I thought he looked quite lonely one day and decided to get a couple of fancy fan tail guppies. They disappeared the same night. Not quite sure where they disappeared to, I purchased some plain old feeder guppies. They disappeared the same night also and I just happened to see a tail sticking out of the Fly River Turtle's mouth. I guess that answers my questions about the disappearing guppies.

So far I have not experienced any problems with my Fly River Turtle, but once I began to see some spots or imperfections on his shell. My friend told me that this is normal as they grow. I can't say I trust that a whole lot, but without any changes to water or diet those blemishes did go away.

I don't change the water too frequently as I don't believe they are a big fan of water changes. I might take out 10-15% when sucking up the garbage and then adding new water back in about once every few weeks. I do filter the water out more frequently by sucking up all the garbage from the bottom using the siphoning technique through a shirt and then putting that same water back in. This helps keep under control all the waste and garbage that my overflow filter can't get to.

To reiterate - I don't by any means consider myself an expert, especially for the treatment of disease, shell fungus sores, or fungal infections, so please do more research and get as much information from different owners. I have some links to helpful websites related to the Pig-Nosed Turtle here . These links may help you get an idea of how to treat and care for a sick fly river turtle suffering from shell disease or shell fungus infections.

 

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