Equipment Review and Discussion :: "Basking" (dead) RES in Petco tank

[ataraxiamb]

I went to Petco this morning to get thermometers and took a look at their RES tank. They had a large open RES tank with about 7 males and females swimming in it and a basking rock with no lamp or source of basking light (besides the lights in the store). There was one RES on the rock (the others were swimming around). I took a look at him, and his eyes were closed and his skin and shell had white stuff on them (looked like fungus). I then took a closer look and observed that he was not breathing. I asked the guy in the fish/reptile area if the turtle was OK, and he said, "Oh, he's just basking. He'll get up once he gets enough energy from that."

I was also alarmed, and maybe this is normal, at the size of the RES considering their age. Their shells were about 6 inches long, with a little bit of deviation (there were males and females), and they were clearly sexually mature. I asked the guy how old they were and he said 6-12 months. He said, "They just grow to the size of their environment." Is that how stores get around the 4" rule? By overfeeding their RES so they are that big at 6 months?

[nariangel]

By any chance is that the Petco in los angeles near La Brea? I was there 2 weeks ago and there was a floating dead RES. I told the employees but was told it wasnt dead. But it clearly was. The eyes were all white n strange.

[ataraxiamb]

No, but I used to go to that one regularly when I lived in Hollywood (before I had a RES). This was the one in Van Nuys on Sepulveda. This guy had puffy closed eyes and white all over.

I wonder if they're ever able to scam people into buying the dead ones in the tank? Awful. I doubt anyone would be gullible enough to pick the one completely inactive turtle in the tank, though.

And wouldn't they want to remove the dead turtle once someone points it out so it isn't out there for more customers to see? I think I'll go back to Petco later today and see if the "basking" turtle is still in the tank.

[steve]

Ugh, I wish there were more reptile-specific stores around.

[Into_the_Mystic]

If I ever have enough $$, I am going to open one and call it "The Basking Dock". I think it would be awesome to have a place like that for people to go to and get educated the right way as well as see all kinds of neat things for the set up, etc.

[ataraxiamb]

Mystic, that does sound awesome!! In retrospect, the guy at Petsmart (where I bought Bill's set-up), was fairly competent in helping me create an appropriate home for Bill. And that store didn't even have any RES!

The guy at this Petco seem to not really give a... I will give them that their tortoises looked very healthy, although there were 4 cramped into a tiny enclosure.

I like the idea of being able to see set-ups up close so you have an idea what will work and how everything you buy should work and be positioned.

[apondfortimmy]

I would love to have a setup-display store like that, Mystic - with a huge area just for RES. What a neat idea.

The Petsmart by my house that I go to is actually very good with reptiles and RES; my favorite employee just went to work for a nearby vet and even though nobody seems quite as knowledgeable about RES as she is, everybody at least has a good idea of the right thing to tell people. After hearing horror stories, it was nice to find someplace that wasn't as awful as those other places.

Poor dead RES. I wonder what kind of life he had prior to that. How unfair.

[jwinters]

That's terrible! I would be horrified to see a dead turtle in a pet store. :/

[emilybean]

Awww man that's terrible about the dead turtle I'm not sure which is worse- the employees not knowing the turtle was dead or pretending it wasn't dead. I can understand not wanting to make a big deal about it in front of a customer, but ignorance isn't a good thing in customer service. I went to Petco a couple weeks ago and was surprised by their lack of turtle products. The one by me had barely anything for turtles or reptiles, aside from a bunch of different foods.

I went to a new aquarium a few months ago and there was a large turtle there in one of the tanks, and I watched it for a little while and couldn't tell if it was dead or not. There was something about it that made me think it wasn't asleep. I hope it wasn't dead