Urgent Care :: Piggy sleeping on the dock

[diyabolo]

Hi all,

A month ago we moved our two 4 year old RES into their new home, a 150 gallon rubbermaid tank. A few days ago, their heater stopped working properly and we discovered their water temp at 59 degrees! Both turts began exhibiting early signs of RI (breathing open mouthed and whistling when emerging from the water). We believe it was a very mild case of RI because they only breathed open mouthed a couple of times when they first got up to bask and that was it. Of course I immediately called the vet. If you remember us from previous posts then you know we live in Jordan where there are no herp vets at all. I talked to my cat vet and he promised to read up on the matter and told me he can administer injections if necessary. We bumped the water temp to 80 and they seem to be doing fine, a lot less whistling when emerging now and no open mouth breathing as far as I can detect; of course I can't watch them all the time so can't be sure They are very active, eating fine generally, and basking regularly. But, one of the RES has just taken to sleeping on the dock at night, something he has never done before. I am worried because it must be cold up there, maybe even in the low 60s. Is this new habit a sign of RI or is he just unhappy with the warm water temps, which we keep at 79-80 until we can be sure they are RI free?

Thanks

[grey goose]

If in doubt, leave the basking (heat) light on at night. It's better to keep him warm at night if he's going to be on the basking ramp than to let him be cold....leave the UVB light off at night. If they continue to be active and eating they will probably be OK.......

[marisa]

Can you get a heat lamp that doesn't emit any light?

[diyabolo]

We have 2 turtles of another species that always sleep on land, so we keep a ceramic heater on in their tank all night. But it turned out it was 72 deg on the RES's basking rock at night, so not too cold. Anyway, we took their water temp down by 2 degrees, and now he sleeps in the water as normal. I guess once he got over the cold spell, he decided he didn't want the warmer water anymore. No one's opening their mouth now. And we set a backup heater to a few degrees lower so it will kick in if the main one goes. I think it's a good practice considering that most of these submersible heaters were designed for fish, not big RES who can knock them around. Thanks!

[Muirner]

Can you get a heat lamp that doesn't emit any light?

ceramic heat emitors. They sell them at pestores. This will replace your UVA light, and allow you to run it all the time. Air temps will be higher as a result.

[marisa]

They live in Jordan. I don't know what the petstore situation is like there; a heat bulb might be easier to find.

[diyabolo]

No one noticed that the first line of our post above actually mentioned that we use a ceramic heater. Anyway, everyone's fine, thank you.

[Sparkydoodle]

My turtle Sparky does the same thing sometimes. Sparky even sleeps under water, your turtle should be fine as far as I'm concerned.

[marisa]

Sorry, the second line of your initial post only specifies a heater ("their heater stopped working properly..."), which, I think to most people (me included) would mean a submersible water heater...

[diyabolo]

We have 2 turtles of another species that always sleep on land, so we keep a ceramic heater on in their tank all night.

Yes, the one that failed was the submersible water heater, and as explained we've now installed two so that one is a backup.

A funny side note on that - we spent $100 on ceramics, but one of our RES's refuses to bask AT ALL without a plain halogen bulb from the hardware store.

[diyabolo]

My turtle Sparky does the same thing sometimes. Sparky even sleeps under water, your turtle should be fine as far as I'm concerned.

Good to know. It was the first time we'd ever seen a land sleep (aside from our non-RES). I love it when they sleep flat on the bottom under 30 inches of water... or wedged in behind the filter hose.