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Yesterday afternoon I was cleaning Veronica's ten gallon tank. After taking out all of her stuff (filter, light, basking area, river rocks, shells etc.) I just carried the the thing into the bathroom and like an IDIOT I just tilted it over to let the water drain (I KNOW! WHAT WAS I THINKING! IT'S A GLASS TANK!) and of course the side bumps against the sink and it cracks and cuts my finger.

I'm freaking out because little Veronica's home is destroyed. I make a mad run to Wal*Mart for a replacement and while I'm there I witness a wallet jacking. Some woman just jacked this other woman's wallet, ran out of the store, and got into a get-away car and sped off. [!!!]?

I was just standing there holding my tank thinking "WHAT KIND OF WORLD IS THIS THAT A WOMAN STEALS A WALLET AND MY TANK BREAKS?".

There is a point to this post. I swear.

The best way to clean a glass tank without one of those neat things that drains water? The only thing I can think is to do what I usually do when I'm not breaking the tank...which is just dipping a bowl in the tank and emptying slowly.

I've been wanting to get Veronica a 20 gallon so I was really upset that Wal*Mart didn't have one. Of course, by the time she really needs to update to a bigger tank I'll probably have to adopt her out since I'm going to college. I really don't want to give up Veronica come August. I'm really quite attached to her and she's a pet that I hope to have for many years.

And now I'm completely on another subject. There is a lot of rambling in this post. Excuse me. I'm just emotional about the thought of having to adopt her out.

I know that there is some kind of suctioning out there that you can use to drain the water out quickly but I don't use it. I use the bowl method. I find it easier when you have other little live animals in the tank and you need to find them, that way you know bowl by bowl that they aren't getting the ol heave ho out of the tank.

And as for college, check with your college about their policy I know a lot of places allow fish tanks (note it says fish tanks..but it didn't say fish had to be in the tanks....) just when you go on break, you'll have to take your turtle home with you as almost every single college makes you unplug everything and leave it all unplugged during break. And there was always a rule at my college, if it wasn't allowed keep it in the closet or near the closet so that if there was ever a surprise inspection of the room all you had to do was move the stuff into the closet fast and tahdah! Because at my college they were not allowed to look into the closets, if it had doors on it, they weren't allowed to look.

When I kept Al inside, I used an aquarium pump, a hose, and big bucket to empty his tank. The agonizing part was carrying the bucket to the sink or bathtub to dump it. Ay caramba!

Now, I just grab one end of his tank, and lift it up to pour the water out of the other end. Ah, blessed labor reduction!

Just a note about hiding pets at college: many people have lost their herps that way when the exterminators came. I would not risk it.

daredevilgirl013:

I just don't feel that my college dorm will be a proper home for Veronica. I won't have room for her to have the right tank size and the moving back and forth would just be too much stress on her since my dorm will be three hours away from home.

I'm really considering cancelling my college housing and just trying to find an apartment.

reptilegrrl:

Yeah I don't think I'm going to try and keep Veronica in college. It's not fair to her to put her in such an unstable home environment since I'll be moving back and forth between the dorms and home a lot.

Having an apartment is usualyl cheaper than the dorms, at least down here.

For the 20-gallon and 10-gallon tanks I have, I use a large plastic pitcher to scoop the water into a pail and pour it down the toilet (maybe it's me, but is doesn't seem like that much work, but it does take longer). For the 110-gallon stock tank, I use a wet/dry vac.

If you wind up not getting an apartment, since you said you're going to be going back and forth from where you're living at college to home a lot, maybe you could just keep Veronica at home. You'd have to have your parents' OK, though, and you'd probably be more likely to get it if you had a really good set-up---this means, among other things, a good-size tank with a good filter that wouldn't need frequent cleaning so that you could take care of that (and water changes) when you were at home.

Leaving Veronica at my house is absolutely out of the question. Trust me. My parents aren't really normal parents, I'm not really apart of a normal family unit. They pretty much ignore my existence and I just come and go as I please. Neither my father or stepmother would take the time to feed or work Veronica's lighting. Plus my trips home will only be for a couple of weekends and the breaks that I would get kicked out of the dorms for.

I'll most likely end up adopting her out to someone here in Tennessee who has experience with turtles and can give her all of the care and love she needs. I'm hoping that I can find someone that maybe could at least house her for my first year of school since I do plan to move into my own apartment for sure after freshmen year.

I often think about the thousands of baby red ear sliders that are mistreated by breeders and then owners and I just really want Veronica to be safe and loved all her life.

I'm sure everything will work itself out.

Do you have a friend who may be able to take care of her for a year? Hmmm I think there are a few people on the forum from Tennessee maybe one of those would be willing to help out until you get your apartment

I don't really have any friends that I feel are qualified to take care of her and plus, most of them will be going off to college as well. I'm sure there's quite a few people here in TN who have "pet" turtles so when it gets closer to August I'm going to start looking around for someone.

cam722 wrote:Do you have a friend who may be able to take care of her for a year? Hmmm I think there are a few people on the forum from Tennessee maybe one of those would be willing to help out until you get your apartment

Ummm... Thanks for volunteering us, Carol. I'd love to but I have my plate full now. But maybe you could find someone close that could watch him until you are able to have the space for him.

Buffyfan9005, where are going to college? UT?

sonyj wrote:Ummm... Thanks for volunteering us, Carol.

hahaha.. well you aren't the only person who lives in Tennessee but well yeah you did come to mind, just thought there were a bunch of people that maybe one of them might be able to help. Heck if I were looking for a temp home, I'd start here before I went to someone unknown

Haha. How many turtles do you have? I couldn't imagine taking care of more than one.

I'm going to ETSU. I'm not sure if I'll spend four years there but I do plan to start out there before possibly transfering to film school somewhere up north.

I knew it was either ETSU or UT, something like that from your description on the distance. I only have the one turtle, Koopa, and I couldn't imagine caring for more than one either, but as any one of my family would tell you I'm not an animal/pet person. lol Just taking care of Koopa is a stretch for me. People who love animals out there just wouldn't understand, it's one of those obsessive-compulsive things and I know it but just can't help it.