All Turtles Message Board

leticia · Guest Joined: 05 Jul 2007 Posts: 4

Hello all;
I am a complete newbie to the turlte world. I have a pond with fish and have had freshwater aquariums. For the office I opted on a "turtlequarium" it is a huge tank and it turned out great.

I have three RESs. Big Boy, is about 6 inches long and two baby RESs about two inches long, Scooter and Scardycat.

My questions: Should I be concerned that I have never seen Big Boy entirely out of the water? The tank is set up so that there is a slope of pebbles going up to where they can sun under a UV light. The other two do it all the time.

Also, Scardycat, aptly named because he hides anytime he sees any movement, was not eating at all, and now he is starting to eat, but not that much?

Final question: Should I turn off the tank lights when I leave the office? There is a window near the tank and they get some light until the sun goes down.

Any help would be welcome.

turtle_grl77 · Level 4 Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Posts: 985 Location: Florida

The lighting should be 12 on 12 off. How long have they been in this tank setup?

leticia · Guest Joined: 05 Jul 2007 Posts: 4

The tank has been set up for about 4 weeks and the turtles have been in for three. I had the little ones in a small (12 x12 inch) glass vase with some rocks, no filtration and a floating piece of driftwood. Scardycat would most always be under the dritwood, but he was eating. He stopped eating when he went into the big tank and just today was the first time I saw him eat something.