Are Pig-nosed Turtles Easy to Keep? Care Methods and Why You Should Not Keep Turtles in Pairs
The pig-nosed turtle is a highly aquatic freshwater turtle species, able to live in deep water for long periods, and rarely comes ashore except to lay eggs. The pig-nosed turtle swims with a very vigorous and elegant posture, making it an expert swimmer among turtles. Many people keep pig-nosed turtles at home, so how exactly should pig-nosed turtles be kept? There is a rumor that pig-nosed turtles cannot be kept in pairs. Is this actually correct?
How to Keep Pig-nosed Turtles
1. Because of the pig-nosed turtle's unique combination of traits and its rarity and preciousness, many people want to try keeping one. Keeping a single pig-nosed turtle is relatively easy. Provide it with a spacious living environment, offer shelter and a place to rest, and strengthen management of temperature, lighting and diet, and the pig-nosed turtle can grow healthily. Keeping pig-nosed turtles places great importance on water quality; good or bad water quality can prevent the turtle from developing rot, fungal infections, and diseases of the eyeshield, claws and abdomen.
2. PH8 water quality requirements, nitrifying bacteria, under established water quality conditions, denitrifying bacteria, how to set up new tank disinfection (I use iodophor), inject water and disinfect, use a larger pump power and submersible pump for oxygen aeration and aeration time, open the cylinder head.
3. Pig-nosed turtles require strict water quality; before the digestive system is established, a good filtration system is a must. How the filter media are arranged must also be given careful attention. The first layer is filter cotton, the second is biological cotton (two or three layers of biological cotton must all be wet), the third layer is biological cotton (in order from top to bottom), and some ceramic rings are laid at the bottom; if the filter trough is relatively small, the ceramic rings can also be mixed in by halves (the ceramic rings should be placed in the path of water flowing back to the tank after the filter cotton and biological cotton, and soaked in water).
Are Pig-nosed Turtles Easy to Keep
1. If you can keep tropical fish well, they are easy to keep. Why must the water we call “aged water” be “aged”? Because tap water contains chlorine. Chlorine is used for disinfection and is basically harmless to people, but the chloric acid and hypochlorous acid in the water can easily irritate the turtle's body and cause bacterial infection, so it must be left to stand for a period, preferably in full sunlight, so that the chlorine fully evaporates.
2. When preparing the water, to ensure safety, a water stabilizer should be added to neutralize residual heavy metal ions and chlorine in the water, and an air pump should be used to aerate it. The time is 2-3 days. Ultraviolet lamps can kill bacteria in the water and can be considered for installation, but you must pay attention to how they are used, so as not to kill the turtle along with them.
3. Sufficient sunlight can promote the growth of aquatic plants and indirectly improve water quality, though pig-nosed turtles often also like to bite aquatic plants. Pig-nosed turtles very much like to dig at the crushed sand and gravel at the bottom of the tank; smooth-surfaced gravel is very suitable as a substrate. However, too thick a substrate may make cleaning difficult and can easily lead to the turtle accidentally swallowing it, so some keepers prefer a tank with no substrate.
Why You Cannot Keep Turtles in Pairs
1. Not keeping turtles in pairs is a rule; places that sell turtles put many turtles together to save costs, and turtles in a group environment cannot produce good results. When kept as pets, the environment is better than in the market, and they easily develop territorial awareness; turtles do not distinguish male from female, the big ones always bully the small ones, and keepers often find the flesh bitten and damaged.
2. In the broad sense, "turtle" refers to the collective name for the order Testudines. In the narrow sense, it refers to species under the family Emydidae. Turtles are also known as golden turtles, grass turtles, mud turtles and mountain turtles, and in animal taxonomy they belong to the class Reptilia, order Testudines, family Emydidae, and are one of the most common Testudines animals. They are the oldest surviving reptiles.
What Common Diseases Do Pig-nosed Turtles Have
1. Saprolegniasis, symptoms: the infected area forms a grayish-white cotton-like covering. The lesion site is round in the early stage, then becomes irregular patches in the later stage, and in severe cases the skin breaks down and the muscle is exposed. Tissues will also be invaded and infected, causing death.
2. Wash the turtle's wound surface with 10% concentration saline, remove the necrotic skin, and do it gently to minimize the pain caused to the turtle. Then evenly sprinkle sterilized sulfonamide crystals on the affected area, or apply chlortetracycline ointment (eye ointment).
Friends who keep two pig-nosed turtles at home must always pay attention to the daily behavior of these two pig-nosed turtles, as well as the internal environment in which the pig-nosed turtles live, because pig-nosed turtles are very prone to fighting. Therefore, the container for keeping pig-nosed turtles should be large enough and have places to hide.