All Turtles Message Board

paquita · Guest Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 2

Hello Turtle lovers:

We have a turtle for over a year, we caller her "Paquita" because where we bought it they told us was a female. Anyway she was very small when we got her and bought a complete set up for turtles that is the tank, filter on the side, etc. She has grown a lot and we do not know too much about turtles what I have read in books or at the petshops but sometimes it is very confusing.

I read that the water level should be higher than the length of the turtle, at the beginning it was but now she stands in her back legs and sticks the face out of the water. Is it true about this on the water level?? Should we get a bigger tank. I have been thinking of getting a 35 to 50 gallon tank. What can you suggest??

Second she does not want to eat the pellets, she only wants the dried shrimp. What can I do about this????? At the beginning we gave her small live fishes, she eat a couple of them but the rest has grown with her by just eating turtle food.. Should we take the fish out????

I clean the tank every 7-15 days according of how she gets the tank, we have not had any bad smell but something the water gets cloudy

For how long do I have to put the lite for basking, I have twice a day for about 30 minutes, I noticed if I live it longer algae starts growing, like now I notice algae on her top shell, I have brushed off but is there anything that can be put on the shell, my wife tells me some type of moisterizer.

I hope someone can come back to me with the answers or at least with a few of the answers because I do not something to happen to Paquita

My email is: arturocabr@gmail.com in any case someone wants to write me directly

Thank you for your help

Arturo

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

First of all she will need much bigger than a 50 gal tank. Fill it about 3/4 full of water. Tough love will help in her eating anything other than shrimp. Dont feed it to her but offer other things such as pellets, shaved carrots, strawberries and stuff. Lighting should be 12 on 12 off. With uva/uvb bulb.

paquita · Guest Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 2

Thank you Turtle_grl77 for your answer.

I am afraid if I leave the light for 12 hours the algae will grow a lot, is there anyway to control the algae??

Also what about the algae on her shell, should I just brush it off is there anything for the shell???

You tell me pellets,shave carrots,strawberries and stuff what the other stuff, I want to really give her a big variation of food and how ofter am I to feed her so that I do not overfeed her??? Should I stop the shrimp???

Sorry for so many questions but as you see I am a novice even thou I have had her for a while.

Thank you
Arturo

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

Stop the shrimp for now. You could try tuna in water, boiled chicken (no seasoning), amazon sword plant, lettuce. As far as the algea goes, it could just be the light bulb itself. I have a light on one of my tanks that turns the water green. To clean it off your turtle just brush gently with a tooth brush. There is really nothing you can do to control the algea. Do you have your tank near a window?

Turtlelover75 · Level 2 Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 34

1. Bigger tank.

2. Stop giving shrimp and give pellets. Over time she will eat the pellets. My turtles did the same thing. I gave shrimp and pellets at the same time and they ignored the pellets. So I stopped with the shrimp and eventually they got hungry and ate the pellets.

3. Fill the tank half or three quaters.

4. Is the tank near a window? that could be reason why algae is growing.

5. Better filter also.