need help with my new red-eared slider turtle

[buckysaccord93]

What kind of enviroment should i set up for him? all i have is a rock thing for him to climb up on to bask in the light. Other than that its a huge empty 20 gallon tank lol

[Jkid]

Add water they are semi-aquatic turtles so they need water to eat and swallow their food. Fill the tank up half way get a FLOATING Basking Rock and some rocks for the bottom of the tank. My soucre comes from me and my gf have a red ear and she is a vet.

[fatboy1185]

Yeah. Half water, half land, with the UV lamp on the dry side. Get a heated rock for him to chill on.

[JoshM]

http://www.redearslider.com/index.html

[HondaB18]

What kind of enviroment should i set up for him? all i have is a rock thing for him to climb up on to bask in the light. Other than that its a huge empty 20 gallon tank lol

What size is the tank and what is the size of the turtle? I hope its not a regular aquatic tank but a reptile one.

[buckysaccord93]

Here i will list everything i have for him so far.

20 gallon tank. filled 80% full of water
heater
heat lamp
basking rock that floats above the water
and the same filter that the pet store had running through there turtle tank
thermostat

It's pretty basic. i hope its everything i need

Basically what i wanted to know should i stick some aquatic plants and some rocks in the bottom for him?

[stewie]

i had 3 RES turtles just 2 years ago, i finally had to give em away to a pet store because they were getting way to big to keep in my tank (width wise, they were wider then a CD).

but yeah, nice big dry rock for him to chill on. i found that the floating rocks wernt that great, as they get bigger, when he tries to climb up on it...it would just flip over on him and he'd have to be physically placed on top of it. so i finally just put a few bricks in the tank vertical and a big slab of slate rock on top and filled the water to the rock line..worked perfect.

my bud works in a fish store where they sell reptiles and fish, he had told me that where theres a dry rock for them, have 2 small bowls (kinda like a feeding bowl) one for fresh water and one for his food (most food is floating food so that bowl dosnt really help much)

as for the filter...it wont be good enough :P turltes STINK and they're messy as fuck...you can clean that tank out every day and it'll still stink!

[HondaB18]

Here i will list everything i have for him so far.

20 gallon tank. filled 80% full of water
heater
heat lamp
basking rock that floats above the water
and the same filter that the pet store had running through there turtle tank
thermostat

It's pretty basic. i hope its everything i need

Basically what i wanted to know should i stick some aquatic plants and some rocks in the bottom for him?

If it is anything like my red sliders, they will nibble on any aquatic plants. Real or plastic. I had some drift wood in mine, just makes changing water more frequent. Turtles are hardy so what you have should be enough. Turtle likes to hide but depending on size of the tank and turtle you probably won't be able to provide sufficient hiding place. And learn from my experience, get a very efficient basking lamp. They tend to bask a lot.

[buckysaccord93]

yeh I got a decent one. But I have had him home and in the tank for probably about 5 hours now and it seems like he want nothing to do withj the floating rock thing. he sticks his head up on it and floats there but will not crawl up on it.

[GeoffM]

Go buy a fishing pole?

[HondaB18]

yeh I got a decent one. But I have had him home and in the tank for probably about 5 hours now and it seems like he want nothing to do withj the floating rock thing. he sticks his head up on it and floats there but will not crawl up on it.

Give it time, the turtle will eventually learn what it is. Mine was like that in the beginning. Do you have just 1 turtle or is there more?

[buckysaccord93]

Give it time, the turtle will eventually learn what it is. Mine was like that in the beginning. Do you have just 1 turtle or is there more?

Just one, My girlfriend and I wanted something and she has been begging for a turtle. And I want it to work so I didnt want to jump into it and get more than one.

[Jkid]

is there water in it now? if so give him time and he will get up there. turn on the heat lamp so he feels the heat and he will move. When you feed him feed him by the size of his head...that is how big his stomach is. always wash your hands after feeding him cause they HAVE Salmonella. don't put plastic plant in clogs up the bowels and River rocks should be put in the tank......they tend to eat smaller rocks and shit them out later.....and eat them again....????? last but not least if you go out of town on a trip put live fish (gold fish and etc...) in the tank with him and he will dine on them for the time being...i think they eat about two a day. And that's all she wrote!!!!.....really.


Brought to you by Vet Dr. at Banfield in Macon GA.

[scudweiser]

Get him some red-eared biddies to mack on.

[tru2037]

I didn't see you say how big he is, I had bought my son 2 that were about 2-3" and a few years later they were in a 75 gallon tank because they got so big (10 inchers)! I had put some large river rocks in the tank to create a deep water area and a "shore" area - in the big tank I had used paver stones too. Get a good filter as these guys will really put it to use.... Mine had hung out above the water on top of the rocks, under the heat lamp a lot so I figured they liked that.

They were getting too big for the 75 and the filter so I had to give them up. Pretty cool guys but stinky. It's been a couple but I remember putting a calcium additive in to help their shells, without it they were soft. Also they loved the frozen varity meat packs. I had a male and female combo although not common mine had eggs (twice), which was a pretty ehhh situation - they only survive if you've got a sandy area well above the water, so all of the eggs in mine were dead.