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Hello. I recently adopted a 7.5 year old male RES who has been kept in a 20 gallon tank (no basking and no swimming). His new home is a 120 gallon tank (4x2x2), basking platform on top of the tank, UVB and heat (90 degrees) lamps in place, water at 78 degrees. Yesterday, he had his first physical ever (1.5 hours) with a nearby vet that specializes in reptiles, and passed with flying colors. We named him Red because we are unimaginative, but he seems to be okay with it. I plan to introduce him to his new home sometime between tomorrow and Sunday, and am wondering which would be best...

Place him in the water and let him find his way to the basking area?
Place him on the basking area and let him find his way down to the water?
Place him on the ramp and let him decide whether to climb up or swim?

Thank you for any insight,

Where ever you put him, he'll likely go straight into the water.... they feel much safer in there so I would do the ramp or basking area.

Congrats on the upgrade, I'm sure he'll be very happy!

That's great ! Once he , what's his name ? , gets comfortable let us know when the swim party is. Piggley will come over and say Hi !

litefoot wrote:That's great ! Once he , what's his name ?

TurtleHeaven wrote:We named him Red

Congrats! I'm sure the turtle will LOVE his new home. So much to explore and so much more ROOM! My turtles were the same when I moved them from a 20 gallon aquarium to a 50 gallon stock tank.

Thank you Steve, litefoot, and rambologic for responding. I placed Red on the ramp this morning and he quickly took to the water. He has spent the morning tirelessly swimming, surely not knowing what to make of all the space and all that his little body is capable of. His personal 'swim party' has officially started. I have watched Piggley's videos and if not for my two cats, I would have replicated Piggley's home... it's wonderful.

That's great! You're going to love it when Red starts using the basking platform, finds his favorite hiding spots, gets to know your habits and routine. My turtles bask a lot, so long as I'm either asleep or not home. I'm even tempted to set up a web cam to view them from work, see what they're up to when I'm away.

I use a camcorder at times just for the hell of it. Found something I did not want to see , Piggley eating his own poop.