Richard Rendos, Turtle?

[spyderreef]

I saw your pic with a turtle tank. My daughter has a red earred slider that a friend gave her for her birthday. Turned out to be expensive for me. I put it in a 29 gal tank with a 350 magnum to help clean the water. (Tank also has a hood with UV light, night light and warming light.) How soon before I need to move it to a larger tank? What kind of substrate do you use. Any information would be appreciated. The turtle is about five to six inches across.

 

[entice59]

i used to keep a RES. Funny thing, how can such a small little turtle grow up to be a monster and eat anything in its path... kids sure do grow.
I personally think you only need the UV light(its also a basking light) and skip the night light.
I kept my 5 inch RES in a 29 gallon tank, cant say it did as well in a huge tank but as long as it can swim a little and has a decent basking area for it, it should do fine.
You do not need to keep any substrate if you do not want to, i used river rock, the larger rocks the size of sliver dollars so its crap wont be stuck inbetween rocks and it wouldnt so hard to clean either. I used a Fuval plus 2, i wish i had a magnum at that time.
I used to use 2 bricks to hold the drift wood so the turtle could bask in the light like this | |, it was simple and easy to clean.
i dont know if you do this to clean your filters and water. But i used Rubber gloves to handle anything in the turtle tank because its filthy, smelly and it carries a lot of bacteria and it can also carry samonella(mispell), i dont want to tell you how to run things but i would not let your daughter touch the turtle
hope this helps

 

[richard rendos]

My RES are in a 50 gallon tub. They have pea gravel in the bottom, a water fountain for water movement, and a few big rocks for basking in the "sun". They have a 150 watt UVA bulb and a flourescent 15 watt UVB bulb. Light is essential for proper health and growth in turtles. I do not have a filter in the tank at all. I do a complete water change every two weeks, and to reduce waste, I feed outside of the tank. I put the turtles in a 10 gallon tank with water in it to feed, and about an hour or two after they eat, they purge their waste.
Here is a link to a pretty good website about RES turtles.
http://www.redearslider.com/
Hope this helps.

 

[spyderreef]

Thank you both for the info. I was like a lot of people and did not research before saying it was ok for her to have one. (She is 13). She wants to keep it in her room so I want it to stay as clean as possible. I think that I will look into using river rock. Right now I have a lot of gravel.
What is the best thing to feed them? Right now we use pellets, no live food.

 

[richard rendos]

I feed wardley's and zoomed pellets. I also give lettuce, and grapes for treats. I don't feed live goldfish now, but probably will as they get older. Turtles diets change during their lives. As they get older, they require different foods than when they are young.