My first experience with red eared sliders started 25 years ago when I bought my brother one for his birthday. He got bored with it in about two weeks, so I ended up taking care of the little guy... for 20 years! When I got married I left him with my mother and after she sold her house she gave him to a co-worker whose son was a huge fan of turtles. And he's still alive and thriving today!
Two weeks ago one of MY co-workers showed up to work with two 1.5" red eared sliders that her son had been given by a friend. She knew that I'm always taking care of my fish and I know a fair amount about reptiles, so she pawned them off on me. I'm still not sure how she got ahold of turtles under the size requirement, but that's another story.
I set them up with a 55 gallon tank here at work with a filter, UVB and UVA basking lamps and a nice piece of driftwood as a basking area. So far they have been chowing down on crickets, tetra reptomin and some frozen mysis shrimp that I had on hand for my fish. Eventually I'm toying with the idea of turning my 180 gallon home tank into a turtle tank... For now, however, they are the office mascots and are in a back office where they can get some early morning sun in addition to their lamps.
Anyway, if anyone has any additional tips or info for me, I'd appreciate it. It's nice to have turtles again!
