Photo Gallery :: The way my Billy sleeps...

[overtheedge]

My RES Billy has a sleeping position that's really amusing to me. He has a zoomed dock and I turned the bars around and removed the bottom suction cups. Every night he "assumes his position" and sleeps behind the bars, with one foot on each bar with his head poking out of the water. It scared me at first, thinking he would get stuck, but he never has (and like I said, there are no bottom suction cups). He won't go to sleep any other way, lol. Anybody else have a RES that does this?

[DavidY]

That looks really funny, but I wonder why he does that? A turtle should be able to sleep just fine fully submerged. They are able to rise to the surface for air as needed without having to fully wake up. Maybe he has drowning anxiety?

You might want to make some kind of submerged platform for him to sleep on more restfully where he is submerged but still close enough to the surface where he can just lift his head a little to get air.

[overtheedge]

Drowning anxiety...lol. I just got the dock recently. Like a month ago. Before that, he had one of those floating islands with a suction cup. It had no bars and he slept comfortable at the bottom of the tank then. So who know.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

My two turtles sleep like that as well. They hang on to something and poke their noses out of the water and fall asleep like that. Pretty cute huh?

[DavidY]

Yea, I have major drowning anxiety. I sink like a rock! I still go in the water to swim and snorkel, but if I was a RES that's how I'd be sleeping every night. lol!

[overtheedge]

That's so cool, xsavingsaturdayx!

And I so agree with you there, DavidY. I know that it's natural for RESs to be under water all the time, but it would freak me out! Hope I'm never one in a future life.

[SpotsMama]

Yes! Spot slept just like that for a long time! Like the dock was made just for this purpose. I thought it was hilarious! He's pretty big now and I have a different type of dock but he still likes to sleep resting in his plant with his nose at the surface of the water sometimes.

[DavidY]

Ya, have you ever been scuba diving? That is the most unnatural thing I have ever experienced. Breathing underwater...30ft underwater...you literally have to think about each breath you take. It was very freaky, but I managed to stay calm, and then the beauty of the corals and the creatures in the reef made me forget about my fear. But concentrating on breathing when you're scuba diving is one of the critical things you have to learn. Especially when you start going back up to surface. You have to constantly be make sure you are exhaling as you ascend or else your lungs will literally explode because of the reduced pressure near the surface.

[DavidY]

Yes! Spot slept just like that for a long time! Like the dock was made just for this purpose. I thought it was hilarious! He's pretty big now and I have a different type of dock but he still likes to sleep resting in his plant with his nose at the surface of the water sometimes.

Yea, I don't blame them. Who wants to have to get up every 20 minutes to take a breath? It's bad enough having to get up in the middle of the night to go pee!

[overtheedge]

That's so cute that Spot slept like that too! I won't be concerned about it anymore.

I would be too scared to every try scuba diving. I sometimes hyperventilate when the room is too stuffy (seriously) so how would I cope underwater?

[SpotsMama]

Ha! David you're a funny guy!

[Hoooneylynn]

awwwe cute!

[BullDog]

Aww! Too cute!

[ice]

yea mine sleeps like that kinda. he puts one foot on the thermometer suctioned to the side and another foot on the vege clip. sometimes he naps on the dock but not often.

[stubborncuss]

That is cute, and i dont want to sound like im crashing the party here, but ive heard of a case where a turtle loved the same zoomed dock you have, and loved being underneath, especially to poke her head out for air between the edges. What ended up happening was the turtle, over time, rubbed her shell against the dock enough that it wore down really really thin.

The Vet did fix everything (took some apoxy and filled in the void while the shell underneath was still able to grow back), and over the corse of a couple years, you cant tell by looking unless someone showed you.

just food for thought.

I think ive actually fallen asleap like this once, except it was at a dorm in college.