Habitat - Indoor :: what can i do?

[pumpkinsherbet]

my turts need to be separated asap. aeryn's showing aggression towards john... mostly just during feeding time now. but she's about to go through a growth spurt and i hate to think what's going to happen when she becomes the big turtle to little john. i had to pull her out of the tank yesterday because she went and tried to take john's food away from him.

i don't have the money for another setup. i have the lighting, i'll just need to buy a new basking rock, new plants, new filter, new uvb bulb and a new water heater. right now with my funds i have enough money for a new basking spot, a new water heater and a few plants... and i don't even know how i'd get that uvb fixture onto the habitat. weather's not warm enough yet to take them outside. any suggestions to make sure my little ones both get their uvb until i can get the funds for another (or at least a bigger) setup?

...anyone wanna buy a dollhouse?

[jenaero]

Do you have another tank already? If you've got them separated, you can just swap the bulb every few days. I had to do that once but only for a month or so. I'd give one the uvb for a week then switch.

[pumpkinsherbet]

i was going to put john in habitat 2.0 (a 60L rubbermaid container) since he's the smaller one right now.

[industrial_girl_2000]

my turts need to be separated asap. aeryn's showing aggression towards john... mostly just during feeding time now. but she's about to go through a growth spurt and i hate to think what's going to happen when she becomes the big turtle to little john. i had to pull her out of the tank yesterday because she went and tried to take john's food away from him.

i don't have the money for another setup. i have the lighting, i'll just need to buy a new basking rock, new plants, new filter, new uvb bulb and a new water heater. right now with my funds i have enough money for a new basking spot, a new water heater and a few plants... and i don't even know how i'd get that uvb fixture onto the habitat. weather's not warm enough yet to take them outside. any suggestions to make sure my little ones both get their uvb until i can get the funds for another (or at least a bigger) setup?

...anyone wanna buy a dollhouse?

How about buying one of those clear partitions where you can divide the tank in half? The ones I have seen have holes in them so the water does travel thru it, it just doesn't allow the animals to go back and forth.

It's not an ideal solution, but it may provide some temporary relief for John until you can get the money together for a 2nd setup.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Put one of them in a rubbermaid container,they are cheap and very affordable,and what jenaero said is a good idea.Having john and areyn share the UVB,sorry about having to buy another setup.It must suck.

[scripta_elegans]

if it's only during feeding time that aggression shows, I would recommend seperating them to feed them, but leaving them in the same tank. That worked for me. one flutters the other occasionally, but no snapping since the seperate feeding.

[pumpkinsherbet]

okay i'll try the separate feeding first. i didn't want to do that b/c i usually feed them right before i go to work and thus don't have time to wait 'til john comes out of hiding. lastnight they got fed late because i was sick and couldn't summon the strength to do it sooner. not fun.

i do have a rubbermaid container, that's what i'll have to use i guess. industrial_girl_2000 my tank unfortunately isn't big enough for any kind of divider, it's just a 20 galloner but my tax return is going towards a bigger tank as well as materials to build dollhouses so i can get some extra income (hence the question at the end of the post), so i'll try the divider idea then

[steve]

...but she's about to go through a growth spurt...

How do you know that?

How big is their tank/tub now? If the tank is large enough, you can use something called a light diffuser (aka egg crate) to make your own divider. But to be honest, they will be growing fast so you really need to plan out what to do now.

[pumpkinsherbet]

haha i have been planning! this just shot my plans a bit too far forward, none of this was supposed to happen until my tax return (which is 3 wks away)!

growth spurt... that is the impression i got from this thread...
http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7680

[steve]

There is no doubt that they will be doing a lot of growing at this stage... but I wouldn't classify it as a "spurt".

Some RES simple do not do well with others. Some people have no choice but to re-home one of theirs if they cannot find a solution. A dual tank setup is not ideal for most people and few can afford a huge pond. You can try to get the largest tank you can and divide that tank...

[pumpkinsherbet]

i've made preparations to do so, thing is i didn't expect it to be a problem so soon, so i planned out the bigger tank and/or separation to come next month...

growth spurt is just what i call anything that means they're going to be bigger soon. any sign of growth.

[marisa]

How did you get "growth spurt" from that thread? A "spurt" is growth that's sudden and often a bit too much.