Help Needed by Newbies

[RyanZena]

Today my girl friend bought our first ever turtles from a local aquarium shop 2 red ear sliders and 2 aquatic snappers. The four turtles came with the tank, bogwood, gravel, filter, light n heat etc etc.

However, upon closer inspection tonight as we were shifing around the bog wood, we realised we had acquired a little bit more than we thought. We are not sure what they are, but they are like a kind of beetle thing, looks like a type of cockroach. They were in the wood, and well, we cant really be sure what they are, or whether they will harm our new little babies. There are also what seem to be eggs on the underside of the wood, but do cockroacheslay eggs? We don know!

Can anyone help us find out, or give us any info, or point us in the right direction. Obviously we have taken the bog wood out, and have found five of these beetle things so far. We want to keep our new little turtles, but to be honest we are thinking of returning them to the shop as we fear it may be too late to help them, and are quite angry with what we have found.

Any help or advice would be great right now, cheers, Ry n Z

[georgieabc123]

put the wood in the freezer for 24 hours it will kill any nasty beetles

[sophs87]

yea cockroaches lay eggs alot, and if u squash them they spread there eggs everywere kind of a survival thing, i certainly wouldnt put and bug ridden thing in my freezer with my food....but its up to u.... i would put it outside and pour boiling water on it bin it and get new one or bag it up and return it to the store asking what they are ect and get a replacement. and take everything out the tank and clean all bugs out.good luck

[Reece]

Sounds nasty, i would prolly pour boiling water on it, and then boil it in a saucepan for an hour or so to make sure they r killed. or take back to the shop.

[carliz]

i,d return it asap being polite saying there snastys in wood bark, i had same problem @ my local pet shop, went to buy it @ £10 but full offf jeepy creepys so i never bought it . but brought it to staffs attention

[Paul B]

just going back to the turtles. Did you say 2 red ears and two aquatic snappers as in snapping Turtles ??

If you did....I dont think you should be keeping them together as the snapper is a most ferocious of turtle and can grow to two feet in diameter and weigh 12 stone. It will eat everything in the tank including the red ears as it gets bigger.

Probably ok as babies but as they get older watch your fingers.

Did you buy (Common Snapper (Chelydra serpentina)) the cheapest version.

Or Aligator. These can llive for 150 years and once established are very hardy creatures

[Graham]

You should definitely not keep RES and Snappers together, when they get bigger you probably won't even be able to keep the two Snappers together without them killing each other!
Snappers will eat anything, including other turts of any species, they are very aggressive and grow very big, this one is not fully grown yet but is already big enough and powerful enough to remove a finger...