General Care Discussion

Hey Everyone,
In the past 3 weeks I noticed some out of character behaviour from my RES Charlotte. It all started when we moved her tank across the room. Lately she seems to always be sleeping and hanging from things. She mostly sleeps in the water, keeping her head out and tucking her limbs in her shell. I have never seen her sleep this way before but I am mostly concerned about the fact that she sleeps about 80% of the day. Nothing about the tank setup has changed - the water temperature is 78 degrees and the basking is 90 degrees F. She still has her appetite (will eat anything and everything) and her swimming is normal and when she is awake she is very alert.

Another strange thing I have noticed is that she dangles from things. She has a big tree in her tank with lots of branches and she'll hang upside down on it like a bat for hours and just looks around sometimes she falls asleep like this but she usually stays awake - I have tried to get a picture but evertime I get near her with a camera she swims away. So I don't know, what do I make of this strange behaviour? Is this an early sign of sickness or am I just being overly paranoid?

It's real hard to tell what's happening... I would bump up the water temp and basking temp and see if there's a change. Does she act like that when you take her out of the water? Maybe take away anything that she's clinging to (so she'll hang around the basking area more).

Thanks for the reply Steve!
She dosen't act this way when she's out of her tank, she'll walk around exploring and gets into everything. She is always alert when she's awake but on the other hand is also lethargic because she's been sleeping ALOT.

I'm just concerned because this is completely out of character for her. When the lights are on, she would never sleep (except sometimes when she basked) and was very destructive - she hasen't destroyed anything in her tank for weeks, which is nice for me I guess haha. What do you make of the hanging upside down?

I'll be sure to bump up the temperatures and take some plants out of her tank. Do you think I should move her into a smaller tank? She is in a 120gal now but I also have a 10gal I can transfer her to until I figure out whats going on.

The hanging just sounds like she's try to grab a hold of something while taking a rest. It's not good to be upside down, so I would probably take that out. You can certainly try to put her in the 10 gallon again and see if she changes.

This could also be due to the season change and she's just reacting to it.

As Steve mentioned, some turtles have to adjust to change of seasons. I am curious about the upside down thing though (?).

My turtle sits on her dock for hours basking/snoozing/basking/snoozing, sometimes even at night after her light shuts off (or at least keeping her eyes closed). But she's a big lazy mature RES that I have had for 21 yrs, and it is normal for her to do this regardless of season.

Here's an update:
As Steve suggested I took out all the plants in her tank and just left her basking dock and her little cave that she likes underwater so she can rest while swimming. I also bumped up temperatures (water to 83 and basking to 93) and after all that she seems to be back to normal. She's still in the 120gal because I figured i'd seen how she did before I moved her back to the 10gal, but it looks like she'll be staying in her 120gal. As for the hanging upside down, she only ever did that with her tree so maybe she just likes to do that?

Anyway, i'll give it a few more days and see how she does and then should I put her stuff back in?

If she is literally hanging upside down, I don't think I would use it.

If she's in a 120-gallon tank that's filled with water and is a smallish turtle, I would put back her plants to give added rest areas. I don't quite understand how a turtle is hanging like a bat...only by the hind feet?

i am fascinated with the upside down thing.
if you can somehow get a picture that would be great to see...

She only hangs upside down with this one tree we have in there. It's like a Willow tree with little branches hanging down. She will wrap her legs around the branches and then tuck her arms by her head or all the way inside her shell. She dosen't fall asleep like this - and this is why its so difficult to get a picture, as soon as she sees me approach she'll come over and beg for food.

I thought she was sick (because of the constant sleeping and hanging upside down) so I bumped up temperatures and took most of the plants out. Right now, there is only her basking dock and her underwater cave so she can hide and rest if she needs to. Without that tree in there everything seems to be back to normal. I will put her other tree back in because she likes to rest on that one, but I think i'll get rid of the Willow tree because it can't be healthy to hang upside down like that.

General Care Discussion :: Recent Out Of Character Behaviour - Should I Be Worried?

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