Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: The Blitz situation

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Post Posted: Mon May 25, 2015 8:28 pm   The Blitz situation

Hello, My name is Nick. I have been reading everything I can on this site for the past week. I have gathered so much information and first of all I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has contributed to this forum. I still have lot to learn.

With that out of the way I'll get to the Blitz situation. Last weekend my wife and my seven year old son went to a street fair. I had a lot of work to do around the house so I stayed home. When they got home the boy was so excited to show me what they got. A turtle! A very little turtle that my son named Blitz. Blitz is a little smaller than a fifty cent piece. They came home with a little plastic container that had a tiny raised spot in the center and some food. I have never owned a turtle and really knew nothing about them. I asked what kind it was and my son said he was a male doctor turtle :shock: my wife couldn't remember what the guy said. After some help from Google I determined he was an RES, and that is how I found you guy's.

At this point I'm just trying to keep the little guy alive until I can get an adequate habitat for him. Unfortunately, spare money is very tight right now so I had to make do with what I have. I knew he wasn't going to last long in that little plastic thing. I don't really have the money for an actual aquarium at the moment so I had to improvise.

I needed to find a way to control the temps of the water and the basking area and this is what I came up with. I had an extra storage container that was just taking up space and holds about ten gallons of water. I had a piece of granite to use for a basking platform and I made a stand for it out of 1/2" pvc. I bought a UVB lamp and a cheap clamp on light for heat. I bought the cheapest water heater I could find. I got a whisper 20-40i internal filter and made a bubble filter with a bottle an air pump a sponge and some ceramic rings. I know it's certainly not ideal but I hope it's enough to keep him healthy and happy and most importantly alive long enough to buy me some time to get something more permanent together. If I would have known we were going to have a turtle I could have done the research prior and not had to scramble. But such is life I guess.

Here are some pictures.

This is the basic setup, I use the little plastic thing that came with him to feed him in.
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Here is Blitz eying a piece of pellet.
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I think my temps are right.
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As I was writing this I actually caught him basking for the first time. I'm so excited :D
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I don't know what the growth rates of turtles are but if this set up buys me a couple months to get my ducks in a row I would be happy.

I still haven't figured out a way to reliably heat his feeding bowl, I'm a little worried about pulling him from his nice warn home and plopping him down in much colder water. What I have been doing is filling a plastic cup with very hot tap water and setting that down in his feeding water to warm it up a little.

I'm still gathering ideas about what the habitat is eventually going to be but thanks to you all I know it will be appropriate for the turtle.
nicksta43
 
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Joined: May 25, 2015
Gender: Male

Post Posted: Mon May 25, 2015 10:30 pm   Re: The Blitz situation

Hi Nick! What are the water temperature ranges? Your tank setup looks good, it's much better than what I started with. If you want the most bang for your buck, you're better off buying online... pet stores tend to overcharge.
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steve
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Location: New York, NY
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Post Posted: Mon May 25, 2015 10:54 pm   Re: The Blitz situation

It only fluctuates a couple of degrees, since it's been up and running I've seen a low of about 76 and a high of about 78. The water in the feeder container is probably 68-70, I need to figure out what to do about that.

Now that Blitz should be relatively healthy and happy I can take the time to bargain shop. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to shop online and wait on shipping. He was very lethargic in his unheated container, not eating and I was afraid he wouldn't last a week. Now he is eating well, and is very active. I was so stoked to see him basking earlier, I was getting concerned that he was going to develop health issues.

I realize I have no idea if it's a he or she, we've just been calling it a him since they brought him home so that's how I describe him.
nicksta43
 
Posts: 11
Joined: May 25, 2015
Gender: Male

Post Posted: Mon May 25, 2015 11:10 pm   Re: The Blitz situation

I'd think a heater and a good pellet should be bought in store when time is a factor, most other things can wait. Anyway, thats not important now... it looks like you're doing a good job helping him adjust.

You don't need to use a feeding bowl, but I would use some water from his tank if you have to and add some fresh water into while he's out. The temperature drop shouldn't be significant.
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steve
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Post Posted: Tue May 26, 2015 6:49 am   Re: The Blitz situation

Looks like the little guy is off to a good start.
1 Male Mississippi Map/Mississippi
1 Female RES/Slidy.
1 DBT White Concentric Female/ Lucky
1 DBT Male/ Spots
(Housed in the same tank)

300 gallon indoor stock tank, FX6 & FX5 filters. Mega-Ray 100w UVB bulb.
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Kansasslider
 
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