Turtle Tank (anyone keep them?)

[In.a.Box]

I love Snapping Turtle, Use to own 2 12inch snapper from shell to shell about 15-20+ from head to tail tip.

One of my Friend love turtle.

[Da Plant Man]

I have Mr. T. He is a softshell turtle

I love 'em. He has around a 6" carapace right now, and I hope thats where he stays. If its a female, then I have a problem. It would get like 2-3ft then....

[stevenjohn21]

Originally Posted by Da Plant Man

I have Mr. T. He is a softshell turtle

I love 'em. He has around a 6" carapace right now, and I hope thats where he stays. If its a female, then I have a problem. It would get like 2-3ft then....

Id love a softshell ! Im hoping my YBS is a male as they stay much smaller. I dont really want to upgrade the 125 gallon, but if its a female im going to have to.

Pictures of the basking area as requested...

[Dakota7777]

I love my turtle tank! I have three red eared sliders, 2 yellow bellied sliders, and a awesome little snapper! I call him Archie! They are all in the same tank (for now). Amazingly enough, my snapper is the calmest out of them all, as far as biting goes (again, for now).

[elwray]

Glad to see a herp board here!

I currently have one RES. 75G tank with a homemade above tank basking area with heat light/UVB. "Big Tony" is about 10 years old now and very friendly.

imgur looks like it's down right now, so I'll post pics later!

[elwray]

My RES tank:



It's a 75 gallon aquarium on the bottom. Marineland Magnum 350 canister filter.

The above-tank-basking-area (ATBA) I made from wood, and covered in stick-on vinyl tiles that sort of look like rocks. On the right side, there is a platform sitting approx. 3" above the water surface. Under this, I installed under-cabinet fluorescent lighting to illuminate the side of the tank that would otherwise be shadowed by the ATBA. I have a 1'x1' ceramic tile sitting on the platform.

A dome lamp (used to use this for keeping baby chicks warm out of the incubator!) heats the ceramic tile, and a UVB bulb in a clip-lamp shines on the same spot.

The ramp is a piece of plexiglass attached with hinges to the platform. I siliconed vinyl cabinet/drawer liner to the ramp for added traction. The vines are plastic and from the dollar store.

The two windows are pieces of glass glued into slots I made in the wood.

In hindsight, I should have only made the ATBA the width of the basking area and NOT the whole tank. As it is now, it's just slightly too wide for me to grab it and take it off myself for cleaning the tank. Not to mention it weighs about 40 lbs, which is difficult to carry alone at such an awkward angle!

I also need to come up with a better way of managing the ramp's support. Right now it's just a piece of nylon rope attached to the lighting brace on the top which looks pretty ugly. I'd love to just cut it in half, but I don't think I can because of how much damn glue I used in the glass/wood joints. But it would be nice to be able to clean the tank without pulling off the whole ATBA!

[Clint]

I have a southern painted turtle in a 55 gallon with some rosy(fathead) minnows. He ate one when I first added them, but has ignored the rest, they have gotten quite large (4 inches +- ).
I try to keep red ramshorn snails in there to help with algae under the spot light, but i swear he has snail radar, the larger ones might last a couple days, but once all of the small ones are gone their time is usually up. Luckily I have a large supply of them (weather i want to or not) I try to keep a good supply of duckweed in his tank as well, but it's not so easy to find around here for some reason.

I have play sand as the substrate, with a couple pieces of driftwood and random rocks for him to scrape on. I use a whisper 40i and a CFS 500 for filtration. I also transplant a lot of the Vallisneria i pull out of my planted tank into his.

I think I need to make an above tank basking area, the uv lights grow algae like mad. and the mineral deposits from keeping the water level a little lower aren't very nice looking. (i have one of those floating basking platforms)

[Acro]

Here are pictures of my Mississippi Map turtle and my Northern Red Bellied Cooter. I am currenlty working on getting them a preformed pond that I will aquascape riparium style. Once it's set up, I will get some pictures of them in their new indoor pond.

Male Mississippi Map



Female Northern Red Bellied Cooter

[SlammedDC2]

awesome, a herp area.

I have a 2 year old female Cumberland slider (native to middle TN) Found her 2 years ago smaller than a quarter walking across our parking lot at work. There is no water around here so I guess she was maybe picked up by a bird and dropped. Either way I took her home and put her in a 29g. I have since moved her into a 55g. I still have a little work to do to the tank to get it where I want it but that should be done in a week or two and will post some pics when it's all done.

[Soothing Shrimp]

Should be really neat to see in a wk or two.

[SlammedDC2]

Here are some pics of my tank from a few weeks ago, it houses a 2 y/o female cumberland slider.







She will follow you around as you take pictures








Picked up 2 baby yellow belly sliders yesterday, thanks Therese






The little one is brave, doesn't dive into the water when we walk by


Or reach in to touch her shell

[elwray]

That tank is awesome! It's like you just picked up a portion of their natural habitat and transplanted it into your home - I bet those are extremely happy turtles!

[SlammedDC2]

Originally Posted by elwray

That tank is awesome! It's like you just picked up a portion of their natural habitat and transplanted it into your home - I bet those are extremely happy turtles!

Thank you, that's what I was going for. I might set up a 55 tall soon for some hatchlings, I will do the same in that tank if it comes to be.

[elwray]

Are the sliders native to your area in TN? I know I have seen plenty of red ear sliders here in NJ, but they're considered an invasive species here.

[SlammedDC2]

Originally Posted by elwray

Are the sliders native to your area in TN? I know I have seen plenty of red ear sliders here in NJ, but they're considered an invasive species here.

I'm not 100% on the YBS but the cumberland slider is, as the Cumberland river runs through my town. There are also tons of RES in the area.