General Care Discussion

The weather has been so weird. It gets so hot during day and the house temp rises to like 88 degrees.
Penelope's tank water has not dropped below 80 degrees in very long time. I've had the heaters unplugged since she went back in her tank months ago yet the average temp these days is 81- 82 degrees (checked with multiple thermometers). She hangs out on her basking area a lot - even late at night and I find her on her dock every morning. I'm not sure if she is waiting for her light, or what. I am not really concerned because she spends an equal amount of time swimming around from mid-afternoon until late evening and is otherwise healthy. It seems like she hangs out on her dock when the air temp is higher than the water temp (day and night).
I know I can't do anything about it.
My only concern is that she has been in an 80+ environment since last December. I am just wondering that after nearly a year in 80+ temps, should I just declare that the norm and keep it that way when the temp drops and I plug in the heaters. She isn't shedding or showing typical signs of water that is too warm, so I am not sure which route to take. Fall/Winter is around the corner and the temps are starting to drop late night/early morning. Soon, I will need to plug in the heaters so that is why I am wondering.

Sounds like the same temps I've been dealing with. I would try to keep it a steady 80F and then slowly drop it over a couple of weeks. Lots of keepers have their temps in the low 70's, though I usually don't let it go past 74-75 range.

She is beginning to spend more and more time on her dock. Not under the MVB, but in the back forty. She has taken to sleeping there all night too (as far as I know). In fact, she hardly basks and sleeps a lot day and night. Yet she still knows when it's feeding time and has quite an appetite. She also becomes alert and comes to visit when I stop by and say "Hi." She swims from time to time, though not much. All total I'd say she spends 70% of her time out of the water and only 10-15% basking under the light.
It's odd behavior, though I am not freaking out or anything.
Purely for educational purposes, I am wondering if this is just the "lazy" season since I don't allow her to brumate.

Have the water temps been the same?

Nope. Water temps are the same. I tested the nitates and they went fom zero to crazy in a short period. I broke down and bought an Aqueon water changer. I did a rapid nitrate reduction (the water company will love me) and she has been playing in the water for the past two days. I guess she was smart enough to stay out of the toxic wasteland.

well here in NH USA, it just went from 80's in the day 60 at night, toooo 60's in the day, 40's at night, and the house temps went from around 90 all the time, toooo ... 64 Strange thing is that they seem to have basked MORE today then all summer, probably was more comfortable!

i hate when people hijack, but what is a good thermometer for an ATBA?

I like to use an infrared temp gun. If you want something for quick reference, what about those round terrarium thermometers?

CactusJohn5 wrote:well here in NH USA, it just went from 80's in the day 60 at night, toooo 60's in the day, 40's at night, and the house temps went from around 90 all the time, toooo ... 64 Strange thing is that they seem to have basked MORE today then all summer, probably was more comfortable!

...

Makes sense, turtles bask to regulate their temperature. When the water is warm, there is no need to bask to warm themselves up. If your house temps were around 90, so was your water. When the water cools down to the recommended range of 72-76, they will bask much more to warm up. If it cools much below that range, they will start getting lethargic and will start entering their brumation state.

penelope wrote:Nope. Water temps are the same. I tested the nitates and they went fom zero to crazy in a short period. I broke down and bought an Aqueon water changer. I did a rapid nitrate reduction (the water company will love me) and she has been playing in the water for the past two days. I guess she was smart enough to stay out of the toxic wasteland.

Actually, Nitrates aren't really toxic to turtles, nitrites and ammonia are. Nitrates are undesirable mostly because they provide food for algae (and plants, but that is a good thing).

Uhggh! Then she is just being persnickety or...something

I got the nitrates down to almost nothing; she was a happy camper for a couple of days, but not basking much.
The water FINALLY lowered to 78 and she was swimming like fiend (but not basking).
Then the water temp slowly rose to 82 and "swimmer girl" went back to hiding on her dock, but not basking (I even replaced the MVB with her good ol' basking lamp and UVB fluorescent light).
This morning the water was 79 degrees. She was 'up and waiting' on the dock at the crack of dawn; I turned on the lights and she hid in the back forty all day.
Now her water temp is...well I don't know; she seems to have ripped off the thermometer since dinner time.
OK - found the thermometer.
The water is back to 81 degrees and she is swimming happy as can be...
If it's not the nitrates, then all I can think of is that she is going through a little photo-phobic phase.
She has shed a few skutes along the side of her shell, and is about to shed a few on her carapace...still....
All I know is that when lights are on, she hides.
Then she swims a few hours and seems to sleep in the water a few hours; however, when my son gets home from work around midnight, she is sleeping on her dock in the dark.
Hmmmm

She's the most moody turtle on the forum.

Yeah - I'll never get her married-off at this rate...

Having her mansion and whirlpool helps... 24/7 food dispenser is also pretty good.

Last edited by penelope on Sat Sep 22, 2012 2:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

I wake up and she is on her dock under her unlit lights. Turn on the lights and she heads to the back forty.
Removed the MVB and used what she was used to; same thing. She will sit like a statue for hours and hours.
She spends maybe an hour every couple days under the lights. She spends several hours with her hind end under the lights (only because she is facing the rear of the tank and hits the lights by default) and the rest of the time hiding under the unlit hood.
She does hit the water around 6pm (presumably for dinner) I feed her, she swims a bit and by 10pm she is back on the dark dock.
Here she is now (10:15 pm). The lights are only on for the sake of pictures, which by the way did not cause her to budge.
It looks like she is playing ‘freeze frame’ mid climb. She has been that way for 30 minutes or so. Whoa! As I write she moved her leg up.

: 027.JPG (43.52 KiB) Viewed 2842 times

Since it took me so long to write the last post (between shrinking photo size, etc.) Here she is 11 pm...Still in the same spot, but with her leg up (nothing else seems to have moved)
Her appetite seems to be waning over the past 3-4 days. She doesn’t go psycho and remind me when its dinner time, so have fed her every other day this week. Today, I was surprised to find that she still had about ¼ of last night’s dinner still in her tank mid-day.

I got her water to a steady 78 degrees (+/- a few 10th). Her basking are is 94 degrees.

No signs of an RI, nothing odd on her shell or skin. Since I see her every day, I can’t tell if her eyes are getting buggy or not. What do you think?
This is just weird…or am I being paranoid?
The first pic was during "phase I" of statue mode
Second pic is the "Phase II"

General Care Discussion :: Water Temps - Transition from Hot Weather to Cold

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