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?