Habitat - Indoor

There are plenty of places to adopt turtles or even people on this forum looking to give them to a good home.

I agree, plenty of RES looking for homes. Check the California Turtle and Tortoise Club, CTTC - http://www.tortoise.org/

No worries, there really isnt anything in my area except if i want to buy a whole setup which is out of the question. I was looking at turtleshack [not reputable].com but i have never bought live animals from a website anyone have good reviews of that place? or would recommend any sites online?

The best time to get a live herp will be at a reptile show. There are also lots of listings on Kingsnake. Some rescues will also ship them out.

SO heres an update as the tank is still in my hands, but the project had been pushed on the back burner between moves etc. It survived thankfully but i have some ideas/concerns and wondering if i could get some help

Well here's an update on the progress, got the black sand and a few small in tank filters. I found a nice little aquarium shop in downtown Sacramento that sells baby turts so no worries about having em shipped! I am hoping with a 165gal i wont need to be buying another tank for a while for 3 turts. But right now my wife and I are heavily debating to put some live plants in the tank that will help give the live fish a fighting chance also to give the babies some privacy.Any recommendations on plants that won't harm the turts but will be able to survive?

Also because they are going to be so small i figure that a tank that big we really don't need to fill it up all the way?

Right now its filtration is minimal but have no problem upgrading as they grow and get bigger.

For now wifey and I are gong to make an island towards the center of the tank to accomplish a few things, yet again because they will be babies might need an easier gradual slope to get to the basking area, as well as a large basking area that will allow them to not only adjust the temp by getting closer to the center of the island and by the water.

We're also having some nice flat rocks defuse the water flow from outlets of the filters as not to overwhelm the turts and to prevent them from gettting stuck to the filter, we also have the inlets covered with a pair of black pantie-hose to further prevent that from happening.

Pretty much any plant might be grabbed, maybe you can put an in-tank container to separate them.

RES, even hatchlings, are great swimmers. You might want to keep water levels low at first to see how they do. Once you do raise it, make sure there are resting spots in addition to the basking area.

Awsome! And Did i hear correctly that baby RES are carnivores only for the first year or so?

robert98374 wrote:Awsome! And Did i hear correctly that baby RES are carnivores only for the first year or so?

Correct. In the wild a newborn RES is primarily carnivorous. Over time that diet transitions to primarily vegetarian, but even older wild RES are opportunistic carnivores--they won't spend time hunting, but presented the chance to grab a crawdad, they will.

Make sure any plants aren't poisonous. Your turtle may not touch them, but then again, your turtle may be a pig like mine. Even before she was a year old--and before I knew she was a she--there is no way I could have kept unprotected live plants in with my turtle.

Any recommendation on where I can buy some plants online?

Also would like to pick someones brain that has an ecosystem in their tank along with their turtle?

Ebay is usually the best bet. There are some plants that are considered invasive, so you might be restricted in your choices. Also check craigslist... some people like to swap some their extra plants.

What do you mean by ecosystem tank?

Basically, I am trying to mimic a pond setting with plants and fish within my tank.

I am eventually planning on buying 2 sets of these plants
http://shop.plantedaquariumscentral.com ... _p_62.html

There are a couple threads about planted tanks, I would check those. Extra plants are good for the turts

So here's a nice update to how everything is coming along. We were debating about getting more sand to help build a small island in the middle but I am concerned about the baby turts getting stuck in the sand so instead We're thinking about doing a cave with the rocks. They wont be able to move them and it would give cover for fish in the tank. I am in the middle of doing a fish-less cycle in the tank right now not so much for the turts benefit but for the fish that are going to be in the tank with em. We also are going to buy a most of the plants listed in the two packs listed below and I wanted to make sure that none of them would be poisonous to the turtles if they decided to go on a destructive spree. For now i think the filtration will be good for a while with with the plants and the two filters right now until we buy a Fluval F5/F6 or a API FilStar XP-XL Canister Filter. Outside of the plants were planning on getting another LED light like there is on the right hand side, and then just a UVA/UVB light for the light sticking out of the top. The tank is finnally coming together and hopefully by this time next month we will be picking up our baby turts. :mrgreen:

Any suggestions? Any other warnings I should keep in mind? Besides that floating wood and the platform should we get more resting places? I know in the pictures the rocks aren't really built up to form a small cave but will be doing that soonish
Plant Pack 1
Plant Pack 2

Le sigh, imageshack went downhill since last time i used them so heres the thumbnails and ill be updating them to link to the originals here soon

Your thumbnails aren't showing.

I can't comment on all of the plants, but my pig has left a Marimo ball alone for over a year until I pulled it out because of the junk it collected on its surface. I've fed anacharis and amazon sword to Tobi.

I have read mixed reports about cutting anubias releasing some toxin that affects shrimp. According to

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Articl ... etanks.htm

Neither anubias nor the crypts will be eaten by the turtles. Let me know if that's true. I'd love to try some plants in the main tank.

I hear ya, its kinda a big experiment. Last night after posting this i started moving the rocks and got started a bit when one slipped outta my hand and lightly touched the side of the tank. I then realized this was not a one person job so later tonight a friend is going to come over and help me set it up and donate some reptile stuff I need. I also realized that with a light bulb (low wattage florescent bulb) plugged into the "Heat Lamp" that I wouldn't immediately need a second hood light. So that's a nice plus, one less thing i HAVE to buy to get the tank fully running XD. As for the plants, since they are going to be bought locally I will start out slow and learn as I go.

Wife is concerned about the natural rock formation so to get her OK she needs to see that they are going to be secure. I am Leary about gluing the rocks together because I think it will be difficult to clean the rocks if need be? So i suggested instead using more sand to lock the rocks down kinda like when your putting down stepping stones in gravel. Anyone have experience with that or setting a natural structure in the tank?

Habitat - Indoor :: Heya guys and gals! New to me 165 needs ideas!

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