General Care Discussion :: Older Turles...New Owner - Need Advice

[gklundie]

We have recently taken in new red eared sliders...well new to us, they are actually about 5 years old...we have never owned turtles before but have done a lot of research online and have set them up in what we can at the moment..which is a 55 gallon tank, a good canister filter, a heating unit (keeping water temp at 78 degrees)..and we have purchased a turtle topper that goes on top of the tank with a ramp into the water for them to get out and bask. We also have night and daytime basking lights over the topper...

Background...they had been previously kept in a 20 gallon tank for several years...they are approx 3-4 inches and 5-6 inches in size...they have been kept with only a few inches of water in the past..with the ability to get out on rocks...never so much water as they have to swim in now...they seem to love the new swimming part of it all..

Problem..they refuse to get OUT of the water to bask...we have read that if turtles do not come out of the water to bask that they can die....we are very worried about our new little friends...any help would be appreciated.

In addition, we think this may just be exploration...but they seem to be nose diving in the tank...I heard somewhere that this is just a way for them to explore their new environment...thoughts on this??

[taijiangah]

Check the basking area temp, put a thermometer roughly were the top of the shell would be if they were basking under the light and see what the temp is. It should be about 10 degrees higher than the water temp. There could be several reason why they don't wish to bask:

It could be the temp on land is lower than the water (This can be the case even with a basking light, especially in the winter or if you live in a cold region, solution: higher wattage basking light). Another solution would be to lower the water temp so that the land temp is higher than the waters, I probably wouldn't recommend it , 78 sounds fine. If you do, don't go below 70.

It could be because the basking area is too hot (When this is the case, turtles will usually bask for a few minutes, jump back into the water to cool down and climb back up, after they do that a few times they might get tired of it and just stop basking) How hot is too hot? Hard to tell, it varies from turtle to turtle, I have one turtle that won't bask if the temp is any higher than 95 and another that can take temp up to 100. I keep my temp at around 85-90, but anything over 95 is probably not healthy...

Have they been eating? RES likes to bask after they eat, the heat helps them digest.

Is the basking area easily accessible via a ramp? If its too hard to get up, turtles will try a few times to climb up and if they can't do it they might just give up.

The final reason and probably the answer to your question, its probably because of the new tank, give them a week or two to explore and get used to the new environment.

Also, don't worry too much about them not basking at the moment, they won't die due to not basking... Its not healthy for them and may lead to heath problems in the long run but it not something that will kill them if they don't do it for a few weeks. Give them a couple weeks and see what they're up to, if they're still not basking by then and none of the suggestions above helps then something might be wrong. But I'm sure someone in this forum would be glad to help. Good luck with your turtles!

[gklundie]

Yay..we went and took a nap....and when we got up...they were not in the water...so I peeked up in the topper...and low and behold..there they were!