General Care Discussion :: Newbie here, need alittle help

[fiendishly.risque]

Hi,
I know you probably get newbies in here all the time, and I, well am i newbie when it comes to turtles. Ive kept goldfish for the past 7 years, but when it comes to turtles, im clueless.

We bought my son a turtle today. yesturday we spent the day researching and making sure we got everything the turtle needed. We spent nearly $400. Im not sure if its a male or female, but my son says its a he, so HE (still havent named him) is currently in a 20 gallon long tank. We plan on getting him a bigger tank in the future. Has a canister filter that filters over 55 gallons an hour (didnt seem like alot to me, because my goldfish tank has a canister filter that does ALOT more then that) but everyone I talked to said it was a good filter. I also have a basket light, along with a UVA flourecent light (was told it was good for digestion and vitamin absorption). Water is heated and monitored, has a floating rock thing for when he's basking in the light.

Does this seem right?
Also, I was told you should give them a 2:1 calcium and phosp. vitamin. I bought some, but its powder and you put it on their food? Well, after some reading, it said everything they eat, they will drag in the water... so wont it just end up in the water and him not eating it? Is this necessary or is there another supplement I should buy?
And for food. I bought some turtle food, but realize he needs other things. What types of fruits/veggies should I give him? How often? And everyone says feed them live goldfish. How often? Should I buy a few each week and just release them in his tank or what? Ive also heard buying a seperate tank for feeding is a good idea. Would a 10 gallon be good for feeding? Also, should it have a filter and should the water be cycled? I was alittle confused, because I know with fish how everything needs to be cycled, but I havent heard once about turtle tanks being cycled.
How often should I change water? 25% a week and then all once a month? Or all once a week?

Ive tried looking stuff up, but im just not finding the answers im looking for.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I hope no one is too made for me asking all these newbie questions.

[megcornell]

Hello, the best and easiest way to find information is to look at the "sticky notes" at the top of each section. As far as what to feed your turtle, there's a whole sticky note on good and bad snacks, in general rosy red minnows in moderation (you can just dump them in the tank) and most veggies (lettuces, carrots etc) are good and fruits are ok but can only be given about once a month. As for calcium, I just give my turtle cuttlebone which can be bought in the bird section at pet stores, you just peel the herd backing off and give the turtle a chunk ,he'll either eat it or it will be absorbed into the water... good either way, a lot of people on the site use it.

Some people feed in separate tanks, others don't. I find my turtle eats everything the second it touches the water so I don't worry about him adding to the mess by eating in the tank, it seems to be a matter of personal preference so if you think it would be easier go for it.

I'm not sure how big your turtle is, but a good rule is 10 gallons per inch of shell, so when you do upgrade you'll want to buy as big a tank as you can, to prevent having to buy more tanks so soon.

As far as your current set up, it sounds pretty good, you will want to get a UVB light in addition to your heat light and put that over the basking area to imitate the suns rays. Cleaning wise, I tend to add a little water every day because a lot of it evaporates in my apartment, and once a week I change 25-30% and scrub everything down once a month. The basking dock is an exception in my case because it gets algae on it if I let it go as long as a month, so some things may have to be cleaned more ofter.

Hope this is helpful, there are a lot of knowledgable people on this site so ask all the questions you can and take a look at the sticky notes, they're both very helpful... good luck with the new turtle!!

[fiendishly.risque]

Thanks for the advice.
Along with the basking light, I did buy a seperate light to put a UVB light in, but the fixture was alittle smaller then the bulb I bought, so I have to go back today and replace the light bulb. Im glad to hear everything i got is working out.
As for the tank, I plan on upgrading my 75 gallon goldfish tank here in the next few months, so I planned on moving the turtle to the 75 gallon, and getting the goldfish their 120 gallon.

Again thanks for the advice. It helps alot! This all reminds me of when I started with goldfish Clueless, but so exciting!

[CountryGirl68]

Hello and welcome, fiendishly. Feel free to ask your questions - no one will be mad. We care about our turtles and everyone else's turtles and just want what's best for the little tykes.

If your goldfish can do well in the 75 gallon tank, I'd use the larger one for the turtle. If it's a female, she will need at least 120g (long) once she's fully grown.

I believe it's the UVB that helps the turtle absorb vitamins and calcium. They do need both UVA and UVB as well as a heat lamp, though. The sooner you can get the UVB light up, the better.

If you are using the powder vitamins/calcium, you can moisten the food, roll it in the powder and wait until it dries before putting it in the tank. Just be careful not to overdo it with vitamin A as that can cause an overdose = not good.

Don't feed the turtle goldfish - they are very fatty. Stick with rosies if you want to feed fish but only a bit; I feed mealworms instead of fish that way I can monitor how much my turtle is getting since this shouldn't be fed every day. Like Meg said, certain foods should only be offered once in a while. Veggies like romaine lettuce, pumpkin, dandelions are a great vitamin source. Since you keep fish already, you can get keep the feeder fish in the fish tank and only take out 1 or 2 at a time for the turtle.

Feeding in a separate tank is only beneficial if your turtle poops shortly after eating. That is the reason most people like feeding in a separate tank - it helps keep the main tank cleaner. My turtle doesn't poop right after eating so I just leave him in his tank to feed and scoop up the poop and any leftover food with a fish net.

Turtle tanks do need to be cycled just like fish tanks to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels down. Water changes need to be done about partially once a week and a full cleaning every month or month and a half, depending on how well your filter works. The filter for the turtle tank should be at least 3x more powerful than the size tank the turtle will be kept in (for example: a 75g tank should have a filter for at least 125g).

Hope this helps.

[Boogerbutt02]

Everyone is giving great adivce...

You stated: "... everything they eat, they will drag in the water..."

this is b/c RES can not eat on land... they can only eat in the water....

Welcome and Good luck will your new turtle

[fiendishly.risque]

ok, one more questions...

now, with cycling the tank. Through all my goldfish keeping, cleaning the tank out once a month will kill alot of the beneficial bacteria. I know alot of it is in the filter, but by cleaning the entire tank, it will mess with the bio load some. I wasnt sure if maybe it was alittle different with the turtle tank, especially since its a bare bottom (ive never had a barebottom tank, so im not sure how much the bioload for a barebottom would be a affected), but I know with my goldfish tank, if I were to do a total cleaning once a month, i would constantly be cycling the tank.

[grey goose]

Correct! Total water changes WILL affect bio-load. You will see alot of threads here that talk about keeping the tank clean....full water changes, peroxide, vineger, bleach, etc, but once you establish the habitat, there is no need for all that, unless something gets sidewayes, like an infection, or some such...The thing about turts is their "output" is much greater than fish could ever dream of, so that is the thing you have to stay on top of (ammonia). If you have a big honkin' canister filter that can handle 3x the water that it you got in your tank, than you're in business....

[SpotsMama]

It helps to test the water quality from time to time, especially when the tank is new. There are lots of test kits available in the fish section - you may be familiar with them already because of your goldfish. I test for ph, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. It's truly amazing how fast a turtle can fill a tank with ammonia! The kit I use has all the different types of tests in it. It's the Freshwater Master Test Kit by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. You can get it at Petco or Petsmart and I think it costs around $30. It lasts for months and months.

[fiendishly.risque]

Hi,
I am very familiar with the same exact test kit you have spotsmama. Its a wonderful kit to have!

I thought that totally cleaning the tank would mess with the bio-load. I'll just keep track of the water params as I do with the goldie tank, and I should be fine. And doing routine cleanings. All the water changes and water params seem about the same with my fish, so it should be too difficult to keep track of. Its kinda a relief acctually. Its kinda nice knowing I already know all the how to with the water chemistry.

Thanks again! Its been a great help!

[CountryGirl68]

With turtle tanks, since you usually have a bare bottom, your bacteria grows mainly in the filter media. It is recommended to have media in the filter that is meant specifically to grow this bacteria (for example, ceramic rings for the XP3 or the non-disposable foam insert in other filters). Before draining the tank, lightly rinse the foam/ceramic rings in the tank water. This way you are not getting rid of too much of your bacteria. (This was recommended by my vet and the manager at the pet store I go to.)

Since you have fish already, you can also do what I've done. I "scrape" a bit of the bacteria from my fish tank filter and put it on the turtle's filter, just to give it a boost. But I've only had my turtle for a month so I only did this once.

[fiendishly.risque]

the filter I have going on the turtle tank has the ceramic rings and the foam pads, just like my fish tank filters have. I was thinking about scraping some bacteria from my goldie tank and putting it in with my turtle tank, but we'll see how things go.

Still no name, but the little guy is still pretty scared. My husband went in there this morning to check on him, and he was basking (first ive heard or seen of him doing since we got him) and once he saw my husband walk in the room, he darted in the water!

Are there any ways to get him used to us? Its a pretty nice day, I thought of taking him out in the grass with me today, but wasnt sure if that might scare him even more since he's still not used to us.

[grey goose]

Until he gets used to you, I don't recommend handling him unless you have to.....give him some time, he'll come around.

[CountryGirl68]

Give your little guy a chance to feel more comfortable in his new environment before taking him out. It can take a few weeks or even months but they eventually will start basking with you in the room.

I've had my turtle for a month now and he still won't bask when we're home. The minute he sees us, he jumps into the water. But since I know he's basking, I don't worry about it.

[SpotsMama]

I've had Spot for three years now and he climbs right up on his basking rock with us there almost close enough to touch him. He got that comfortable gradually over time.

[fiendishly.risque]

I figured it would take time. I did take him out to change some of his water and scoop out some poop and pellet junk, but he seemed to do ok, but other then that, he went right back in the tank.

I figured it would take time. My goldfish took about a year before they were comfortable enough to give me fishie kisses (they kiss my hands when I clean their tank) and feed from my hand.