General Care Discussion :: Just started to notice this...

[emma]

My turtle Brownie...the false map turtle seems to be basking a lot lately. I have been trying to give him food but...he only eats one then quits eating. He is such a tiny turtle, and I really dont want anything bad to happen to him. Could this be the beggining of RI or what?

[mikee]

Emmanel 96 -- By your post, I have to assume that he has been eating more and is now eating less? If he is basking more it may be due to the water temperature. If it is too cool for him he will bask more. The water temperature should be around 78 degrees and the basking should be about 90 degrees. There are other considerations such as the correct lighting, filtration, size of tank, etc, as they must have the proper conditions to digest their food. If you post your entire set up I am sure there is plenty of help here.

[SpotsMama]

Emma, you've probably been around the forum enough to know the most common symptoms of illness. One is lethargy - lacking energy or wanting to bask all the time. Another is a poor appetite.

On temperature - what is your water temperature? If the temperature is too low it will make a turtle lethargic and slow his appetite.

On the eating, my recollection is your map is very tiny. What kind of pellets are you offering? How does the size of the pellet compare to the size of his hollow head (remember the hollow head rule? If you're not sure how it goes, let me know.)

[emma]

The temp. is now 78 degrees. Before I got the thermometer 2 days ago it was around 81 degrees. For Brownie, I take him out of his tank and feed him 4 pellets. (ReptoMin hatchling pellets). I will try giving him pellets tonight and see how it goes.

[emma]

Ok, just got done feeding the pellets and Brownie seems a lot better! He ate 4 pellets, and right now he is eating some lettuce that I just put in with them. I don't think he is realy sick anymore. I still dont understand why he is basking so much. Maybe he is is just trying to get some sun!

[emma]

Emmanel 96 -- By your post, I have to assume that he has been eating more and is now eating less? If he is basking more it may be due to the water temperature. If it is too cool for him he will bask more. The water temperature should be around 78 degrees and the basking should be about 90 degrees. There are other considerations such as the correct lighting, filtration, size of tank, etc, as they must have the proper conditions to digest their food. If you post your entire set up I am sure there is plenty of help here.

I have both UVB and UVA lights for my turtles. Water temp. is at 78. They have a ReptoFilter right now, in a 20 gallon tank.
I have an xp3, 200 WATT heater, basking log, and bubble disk wating in my closet for when I get a bigger tank.
Here is a pic. (this was taken a while back, the tank set-up has changed a bit. I moved some things around).


There isn't any fish in the tank anymore, or anarchis (they ate it all)

[mikee]

How large is your turtle? I sounds like you are in good shap with your set up. I am not familiar with the Repto filter. What is the gph or your filter? Generally speaking you should have 10 gallons per inch of turtle.

[hknutson_19]

emma i was just at your house yesterday and you have fish in there. and you just bought a sucker fish yesterday also and have it in the tank with them.