My Turtle Setup

[Arturtle]

I had my snapper in a 300g rubbermaid for a while.  Unfortunately that did not fit down the stairway to my basement after getting a house, so I had to buy a fiberglass 270 last fall so he wouldn't freeze solid in my garage.  Like most of my projects, this one is never ending.

Premove





setup in the garage


new tank

[danotaylor]

awesome mate....thanks for sharing...that a nice looking snapper...keep your fingers out...lol

[E.Y.]

So cool. I definitely need to make that happen. My gf is going to be so happy with the new addition to the house!

[Kulasik]

that dam snapper wants to get you !

what do you have in the other tub

[Arturtle]

Thanks for the compliments.  I don't really recommend that anyone get a snapper.  It's a big dedication with a lot of future cost and random requirements.  It's bad enough I had to think about if I could fit a a tank for my turtle when I was house shopping.  I've had this guy for 14 years and a 270 is probably too small and temporary.

Honestly, he will bite anything in his tank.  That is one of the reasons for running a sump.  Being cheaper is the other reason.  I have plastic planter pots with him that he used to hide in, but he more just bites them now.  They seem to help trim his beak.  I used to have large rocks in his tank that seemed to keep his nails trimmed before, but I am scared he will push them into the window now.

The 100g rubbermaind below is just the sump.  The funny thing is I needed all of the 100g for a sump with the 300g rubbermaid, but with the 270 fiberglass, I only see an inch or so difference from full running to power off.  I'm guessing it's the surface area on the rubbermaid.

I run a 1/2gph drip on his tank too

[Steve]

Pretty cool, not something you see very often in a tank. I know they get pretty big, I've seen some massive ones while wade fishing the rivers up North, so what's the plan (tank size) for him once he is full grown?

[Arturtle]

Pretty cool, not something you see very often in a tank. I know they get pretty big, I've seen some massive ones while wade fishing the rivers up North, so what's the plan (tank size) for him once he is full grown?

That has been an ever evolving plan.  I don't know where I could even rehome him, so I am doing the best I can, and a reason I may be rude to people that want to keep them.  It's not like everybody has a 300g+ tank they can house and feed a snapping turtle.

I got him in a coffee can from a kid in high school.  I'd love to get some some land and build him a pond, but for now I'm doing what I can.

[Steve]

Pond would be a cool idea if you could do that. It'd be hard to let go of something you have had for so long for sure.

[E.Y.]

Right.  I definitely would do something smaller than a snapper.  Maybe a river cooter or something along those lines.