Pictures of my 2 turtle tanks!

ricardo222222

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jun 25, 2006
Messages
62
Purraise
0
Here's my 60 gallon tank, it has no UV lamps or anything, just a large turtle dock and a Fluval 404, there are 4 turtles in there, 2 RES and 2 cooters, it's under a dome, no heaters for now as it's summer.



Here's a closeup of the 4 turtles.



And here's the base of the tank and the Fluval 404 that cleans it.




Finally here's my 65 gallon tank, it has a basking bulb (50W), no heater, one large turtle dock and an AquaClear 110, it's home for 5 turtles; 3 RES and 2 Mississippi Maps.



They all eat Reptomin what fits in their heads every 2 days.
So what do you think of my 2 setups?
Suggestions greatly appreciated!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3

ricardo222222

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jun 25, 2006
Messages
62
Purraise
0
Yeah, I plan on adding sand and decor.
 

bab-ush-niik

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jan 17, 2006
Messages
574
Purraise
2
Those turtles are way in way to small of a tank. Rule of thumb for turtles is 10 gallons for every inch of turtle. RES will be 12 inches, Painteds a little smaller, Cooters get up to 15 inches. They should be that size at only a few years of age. They aren't slow growers by any means.

They need that much space for two reasons. One, they are extremely dirty, much dirtier than fish. Two, they are territorital. RES in particular. RES will kill each other, even if they've been brought up together and have a past history of being friendly. And once it starts, it only gets worse. The painteds are in an especially bad position because they won't get as big, and they're much sweeter.

BTW, to answer the question about the hiding place, it depends on the turtle's personality. Mine hates caves and never uses them. So I remove it to give more swimming room. Other turtles love them. It's best to offer one for a month and see what happens.

Be careful when you add decor. Sand is fine, but turtles will eat gravel and it will lodge in their intestines. If they can't pass it, it's fatal. I've heard sand is hard to maintain though, but it does look nice. Bare bottom tanks are fine though. I just have about 10 large, pretty rocks scattered across the bottom. Turtles like to play with things like that. Driftwood and corkbark are good too.
 

bab-ush-niik

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jan 17, 2006
Messages
574
Purraise
2
Ok, two last pointers:
1) Your feeding amount is right, but pellets should only be 25% of the diet. The rest is 50% veggies and 25% live foods (guppies and snails, yum yum!).

2) Fluvals will sorta work, but they're not very good quality and the pet stores always overprice them. You'll eventually need more filters when you get a bigger tank. Better to go with the Filstar XP3. Online prices are up to 4 times cheaper. I don't know why the pet stores only sell Fluvals, they really are the bottom of the barrel for canister filters. They must have a contract with them or something.

If you want more info or want to meet other turtle owners, go to the Happy Turtles Pub! http://invisionfree.com/forums/Happy_Turtles_Pub/
 
Top