My name is Eric, and my oldest daughter came home about 7 years ago with two silver dollar sized turtles that she was absolutely going to take care of, they were her Children Turtles, the "Churtles". Well as happens occasionally in life, the young mother soon found her attention drawn elsewhere (Freshman year of High School as I recall) and the Grandparents had to step in and take over the care and feeding of the churtles. Fun fact; of the two turtles that I now have, one is original, and one is a replacement, with the other having managed to either escape to a better place, or was eaten by his brother (who had bullied him his entire life and left him half as big), we prefer to think he's basking at the local park in a better place.
I enjoy my churtles, I like tinkering with their cage, doing little improvements, learning their personalities to tell when they are happy and displeased (cause you can't go by the look on their mug, now can you). With any luck, their actuarial chart is pretty close to my own and we shall go into the sunset together. I can only hope that my kids are as nice to me in the end.
Thanks Steve for this great resource, it's nice to have someplace to read and exchange ideas. And to everyone else, hello, and best luck with your pets.
Full Picture of tank setup:
Chilling Upstairs:
Night Falls: