Your mata will bask if it gets comfortable. My brother has a mata mata and his has been basking. The stigma that they don’t bask is mostly because they are super shy turtles. They like to hide. It’s the entire design behind their genetics but if it gets comfortable it’ll still bask.

So how my brother did it was to snack train him. The tank mates got snacks ON their basking area and after a while the mata mata started learning this is an awesome safe place. Now it’s not uncommon to walk into his living room and see Oak just basking.

Now, he will jump in pretty quickly if things get too hectic like shouting kids and lots of noises or vibrations. But he definitely basks I’ll see if I can get you a pic of it sometime.

If you get one… it’s a pain in the ass but go 100% natural. Live plants, wood, rocks and mud. They LOVE to hide.

This post was edited by MadMan87 on Oct 25 2022 02:56pm

They definitely love to hide,plus the way they eat underwater is just baddass 🤣
I really do want a mata,but I want alot of pet's 🤣
Probably just settle on my cat and ferrets(lots of maintenance to keep them from being stinky)
And a blue tongue skink
Lol. Should be back in my own place next summer and go from there

This thread is very interesting. It makes me want to have an aquarium.

I like my terrarium more than my aquarium.

I'd love to have a complete ecosystem fully autonomous where there would be food, shelter, reproduction, predators, cleaners etc.

My turtle tank has;
Turtle, Anacharis, river rocks,mopani wood,snails and minnows.

Four things are unnatural the croc head, minnow cave, barrels and basking rock.

I had a natural basking rock that was limestone but it altered the PH some so I took it out.

I'd like a shark turtle crabs fishes clams cool stuff

Ok.

That’s a lot. Would take a lot of work.

I know I would like to see a video of it though.