Feeder Fish For Turtles (Beginners Guide + List)

Turtles love to eat fish, and as soon as they see one they will swim toward it and try to catch it and eat it. But what turtles don’t know is that not every fish is good for them, so it’s up to us to ensure that only certain fish end up as their meal. And those fish are called feeder fish.

Feeder fish are fish that a turtle can safely consume. A good feeder fish will have low amounts of fat, and very few bones. The best feeder fish for turtles are Bluegills, Bass, Crappies, Guppies, Killifish, Platies, and Mosquitofish.

The most important thing that you have to remember about feeder fish is that not all of them are safe for turtles. Some of them can harm your turtle if they are eaten, and some of them will harm your turtle before they get the chance to be eaten. So let’s take a look at what fish you should avoid.

Feeder Fish That You Should Avoid

There are multiple reasons why some fish should be avoided so I will split this part of the article into categories, and list some of the more common fish that fall into that category.

Fish That Are Too Fat

Some fish have way too much fat for a turtle to safely eat. If a turtle has too much fat in its diet it will lead to a vitamin E deficiency, which can cause a lot of health problems.

Some common fish that have a high percentage of fat are:

Goldfish
Kribensis Cichlids
Rosy Barbs

If by mistake you’ve given your turtle one or two fish that have a lot of fat, you shouldn’t worry too much. Just a little bit of extra fat won’t harm your turtle, but if you keep giving your turtle the same fatty fish, then problems will start to appear.

Fish Containing Thiaminase

Thiaminase is an enzyme that blocks the absorption of thiamine, also known as vitamin B1. Vitamin B1 is very important for a turtle as it helps them regulate their metabolism.

Fish that contain a lot of thiaminases are:

Bullhead Catfish
Fathead Minnows
Goldfish
Carp
Gizzard Shad
Spottail Shiners
Buckeye Shiners

Fish With a Lot of Bones

Most fish have a lot of bones, but some of them are more dangerous than others. Some fish can harm your turtle before they get eaten, due to their exterior sharp bones, and some of them will harm your turtle after they are eaten, due to all the sharp and solid bones on the inside.

Here are some bony fish that you should avoid:

Swordtails
Angelfish
Bichir
Cockatoo Cichlid

The most dangerous thing about those fish is that most of them will cause internal damage, not external, so it can be quite hard to notice. So, if due to a mistake your turtle ends up eating a fish that you see on this list, make sure to pay close attention to it and see if you notice any behavioral changes. If you do you should go to the vet for a checkup

Fish That Are Too Fast

As strange as this might sound, some fish are way too fast for a turtle to catch, and if they manage to escape the turtle for enough time, they will start to reproduce, and in a just a couple of months you might end up with more fish then you started.

This can especially happen if you have decorations in the tank, which the fish can use to hide from your turtle,

While this is not such a big problem in itself, your turtle won’t be able to eat the fish, which is the whole point of feeder fish.

Some small and fast fish that can escape your turtle are:

Neon Tetra
Zebrafish
Tiger Barb

Wild Fish

Wild-caught fish contain bacteria that are harmful to turtles, so you should never add any wild-caught fish to the turtles’ tank, no matter what species it is.

Fish sold in pet shops are bred under strict conditions and are raised in safe environments. While fish in the wild are exposed to a lot of bacteria that can be harmful to a pet turtle that has not previously been exposed to them.

List of Fish That You Should Avoid

Here is a list of the fish that we discussed so far, and came to the conclusion that you should avoid:

Goldfish
Kribensis Cichlids
Rosy Barbs

Bullhead Catfish
Fathead Minnows
Goldfish
Carp
Gizzard Shad
Spottail Shiners
Buckeye Shiners
Swordtails
Angelfish
Bichirs
Cockatoo Cichlid
Wild-caught Fish

Not dangerous but your turtle will have a hard time catching them:

Neon Tetras
Zebrafish
Tiger Barb

So right from the start, we are excluding a lot of the most common fish that you might find in a pet shop. But don’t worry there are still quite a few fish that your turtle can safely eat, and they are found in most pet shops.

The Best Feeder Fish For Your Turtle

Here are the characteristics of an ideal feeder fish:

Low in fat
No thiaminase
Not too many bones, or sharp bones
Not too fast
Free of bacteria

And here are some of the fish that will fit those criteria:

Bluegills
Bass
Crappies
Guppies
Killifish
Platies
Mosquitofish

Those fish fit the criteria perfectly, so they will be a healthy meal for your turtle and they won’t harm it in any way.

Now that we covered what fish are good for your turtle, I think we should also go over how to properly feed them to your turtle. While you could simply throw them in the tank, that is not the best way to do things.

How to Feed Your Turtle Feeder Fish

The biggest problem with simply throwing the fish in the tank is that this will make a complete mess in the tank. Turtles don’t have the most delicate way of eating, and when they take bites out of their food, small particles will break and fill the whole tank, and over time those particles will cloudy the water, making it look dirty and giving it a horrible smell.

This happens with all food, but when you are giving your turtle fish things are 10 times worse, because fish are basically raw meat, and will start producing a horrible smell in just a day or two.

The best way to solve this problem completely si to feed your turtle in a different container.

Take a small container, big enough to house your turtle and the fish, and fill it with water, until it will be enough to cover your turtle, but don’t add more than that. Put some water in the container and then place the fish in there. Then move your turtle from the tank to the container and let it have its meal. After your turtle is done eating, let it sit for another 5 minutes in that container so it will calm down, then move it back to the tank.

This way you will avoid making a mess in the tank, and your turtle won’t have to chase the fish too much.

But if you want your turtle to chase the fish, so it can exercise a little, I have a tip for this as well. And that tip would be to remove your turtle from the tank when you ad the fish.

When you put the fish in the tank, they will be completely confused, they will be in a place tha they’ve never seen before and won’t know how far they can swim, where they can hide, and so on. Giving them 10 minutes to explore the tank will make them last for more than the two minutes they would have otherwise.

Unfortunately, there is no way to get your turtle to exercise, and keep the tank clean at the same time. So if you want your turtle to chase the fish, it would be better to put them in the tank, one or two days before you were going to change the water.

How Often Should I Give My Turtle Fish?

There are two things that can happen if you give your turtle fish too often.

The first one is that if you feed your turtle fish too often it will eventually stop eating other types of food, like pellets. So you have to be careful about how much and how often you feed your turtle fish.

The second is that too much fish can be harmful, while it has a lot of good nutrients, any excess is bad.

I like to give each one of my turtles 3 fish per month. I usually give them all the fish at once, so that they don’t get the idea that they will receive one each week. I’ve been doing this for more than 10 years, and none of my turtles stopped eating pellets.

You can try to give your turtle up to 4 fish per month, but more than that, and you risk getting them used to eating only fish and refusing to eat anything else.

What to Do if Your Turtle Doesn’t Eat the Fish

This happens very rarely, but if this is your case you shouldn’t worry. Turtles, just like people can have preferences, and some turtles might simply not like fish.

As long as your turtle eats other types of food, like pellets, dried insects, or vegetables, there is no problem that your turtle doesn’t eat fish.

There is also the possibility that the turtle species that you have doesn’t eat meat, so check out what kind of diet your turtle has.

Final Thoughts

And that’s about it when it comes to feeder fish. The main takeaway is that you should only feed your turtle fish that are low in fat, have no thiaminase, don’t have too many bones, or sharp bones, are not too fast, so your turtle can catch them, and are bought from a pet shop, not caught in the wild. Some of the best fish that fit those criteria are:

Bluegills
Bass
Crappies
Guppies
Killifish
Platies
Mosquitofish

And if you want to keep your tank clean, the best thing that you can do is to place the fish and your turtle in a different, smaller container. This way your turtle will have its meal and the tank will stay clean.

I hope this article answered all of your questions, but in case you want to know something that I didn’t mention in the article, you can always leave a comment in the comment section below and I will answer it as soon as possible.

Common Questions

Can turtles live with fish? Some fish are able to peacefully coexist with a turtle in the same tank, but that’s not the case for most fish species. If you want to know which fish species can live with a turtle in the same tank you can check out this article: Can Turtles Live With Fish? Will My Turtle Eat the Fish?

Can baby turtles eat feeder fish? Baby turtles can eat fish, it is actually very healthy for them, more so than for adults. This is because younger turtles that are still growing need more proteins than adults, and fish have a lot of proteins.

Will a turtle eat the fish in a pound? It depends on the size and species of the fish. Some fish grow too big to be eaten by a turtle, but some of them don’t grow that big and will end up eating.

Do turtles eat jellyfish? Yes, sea turtles usually eat jellyfish as often as they have the chance. They do this because jellyfish are good for their health and because they are usually easy to catch.

Are turtles OK in a koi pond? Koi fish usually grow big enough that they won’t be in danger of getting eaten by a turtle, but younger and smaller koi fish are still in danger of getting eaten.

Do turtles eat worms? Yes, most turtles will eat worms. Because some turtle species tend to spend time in burrows they usually encounter a lot of worms that they will eat.