I have a few years of experience caring for reptiles (bearded dragons and ball pythons) and I've kept fish before (bettas and goldfish) but this is my first time keeping anything like a RES before. I've always been very daunted by aquaria as a hobby, never daring to keep anything more intense than a single betta in a 10 gallon -- but putting my turtle's tank together was easy, albeit a bit expensive haha!Recently I adopted a turtle from one of my friends. The turtle was her younger brother's, and the poor thing was being pretty neglected. She caught her brother going to the lake to dump the turtle. The minute she offered the RES to me I jumped on the chance. She came to me in a 15 gallon with no heater, a light i dont think was even suited for reptiles (it barely gave off any heat and im pretty sure it wasnt a uvb), and one filter. Since then, I've moved her into a 50 gal with everything she needs: a heater, a 100 watt heat lamp, UVB, two filters adding up to 75 gallons of filtration, aquatic plants, snail buddies....She *loves* to eat frogbit and water spangles !
I've only had her for a short period of time now but shes adjusting super well. She has some mild shell rot and some retained scutes, but I am treating her for it under the supervision of an exotic pet vet. I'm planning on creating a naturalistic 'blackwater' environment with natural tannins in the water from driftwood. So far everything is going great
I hope to learn as much as I can about RES in order to give her the best quality life I can give, and I figured joining a forum would be helpful! I named her Benji, and shes a compete sweetie. Very calm and loves to explore, only took her 4 days to adjust to her new tank!
