General Care Discussion :: Turtle rearranging rocks

[judemiller1]

I have a dozen small stones in the bottom of my turtle tank.
I put them in a cluster. Lucille (my turt) rearranges them everyday--she pushes them this way and that with her nose and front feet.
This morning while she was in her feeding tub, I put them all back in one "clump" and she rearranged and moved them again.

Is she weird or hunting for food under them or what?

Thanks.

[BullDog]

First off - all the stones are bigger than her head, right? Just checking

That's completely normal. Turtles love to redecorate their tanks. Gives them something to do. Frankie usually keeps all her stones on the far side of the tank, but a few select ones she moves back and forth.
Ralph shoves all his rocks to one side - except for his favourite rock. It's the only rock on one side of the tank. Even if I rearranged the rocks and mixed his favourite in with the others, the same rock would still up end up alone on that side of the tank.
My suggestion: You can try to put the rocks in the way you think looks good, but your turtle will come along behind you and decide they look better some other way, so it's really just a wasted effort.

[TheComputerGremlin]

So, yeah, they love rearranging. Most people have to glue down their plastic aquarium plants just to keep them in place! My turtle moves this little gremlin statue I have in there all over ... If you want to keep them in a certain position, I would recommend using aquarium silicone and gluing them together. Just make sure you don't leave any places a little foot or head can get stuck in!

[judemiller1]

Good, glad to know it is all a game--that's what I had hoped.
So...I will put all her stones back in a clump while she is in her feeding tube and let her rearrange all day and then do the same the next day. I don't know who will win this game, but I'll bet it won't be me
Thanks

[SpotsMama]

My turtle seems to have a particular tank decoration arrangement that he likes and he'll fix it that way no matter what I do. He pushes all the "hard" things - rocks, fake corals, fake sponges, plaster toy turtle - to one end of the tank, away from his basking platform. All the "soft" things go to the other end - the leafy, plastic plants - underneath the basking platform. That leaves the big center of the tank clear. Also, it means when he dives off his platform there's nothing in his path to bump in to. Most of the time (but not all the time) he'll sleep in the cluster of plastic plants where it's darkest and he's well hidden. Pretty clever turtle I think.