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We have only had our turtle for about 2 months and we had know idea about all the care that goes into turtles when we got Toby. So we have been learning new things all the time that we have been doing wrong or not doing.

We just filled his tank up most of the way with water recently. For some reason we thought he was only supposed to have a few inches. He is about 2 1/2 inches right now. Well now, he is kinda freaking out over all the water in his tank and swimmming everywhere really fast. He also can't seem to find a place to settle down for the night. He used to sleep on or next to some stones at the bottom since we only has a few inches of water that worked out. So we have a couple tall plants and a basking dock but he won't sleep on those. He slept on the filter but that can't be comfortable with water jetting out from right under you the whole night.

Where does evryone else's turtle sleep? Is there something I'm missing?

TobyTurtleMama

Rexi just hangs out at the bottom usually up against her basking area which is a stack of rocks.

Turtles sleep wherever they are comfortable. When mine was a tiny hatchling she used to crawl under some leaves suctioned to the side of the tank. Then she grew to like sleeping on the filter. Now she just sleeps at the bottom of the tank.

almost every night he ends up in a different place in the tank, sometimes the bottom sometimes he holds onto stuff and keeps his nose above the surface or close to it(where he just stretches his head to get air.
there was one statue thing i had in there (took it out about a month ago), but that statue he started regularly going to sleep on, he started sleeping on that like 2-3 times a week the rest of the time he just sleeps on random stuff.

My turtle floats on and in/clings to my fake vine plant that I have suctioned cupped to the side of the tank.

My turts will sleep clinging to their water hyacinth, on the bottom of the tank, even on the basking area sometimes.

On his freaking out about the water level - he should settle down pretty soon, but if he's still acting spooked you could lower the water level again, then start raising it a little at a time, like an inch every few days, so that he gets used to it gradually. In the long term - believe me - he'll be a much happier turtle with some water to swim and dive in.

Thanks everyone, I just wanted to make sure I was doing things right. Since we first got him, we have been changing things around as we learn more about RES.

My two little ones sleep in their floating plants and my bigger turtle sleeps on the bottom of the tank, in her floating plants, and hanging on to the basking ramp. Hopefully your turts will settle down soon.

Nyx always sleeps on her dock and the babies always sleep on their plastic plants.