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Turtle Tank (anyone keep them?)

37K views 55 replies 27 participants last post by  jboone82590 
#1 ·
Ive had my YBS & Musk turtle for around 3 years now. Here is a shot of the old 40 gallon breeder tank and the new 125 gallon tank. I keep fish with them that are basically Culls , but id rather keep them in this tank than cull them.









 
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#3 ·
Yeah he is my favourite. Stays small and full of character...what more could you ask for ?!
 
#4 ·
I LOVE turtles! I have a motley crew of seven RES, two YBS, two African sidenecks, one red-cheek scorpion mud, one weird mud turtle with a cracked and healed shell my parents found on the road (they're not native here, so someone probably dumped her in the wetlands near their house), and my sweet Malaysian box turtle. We also have three boxies -- one Eastern and two Western. I had a sulcata, but my parents took him in because of the covenants in the idiotic neighborhood my husband and I moved to, and they also took my Russian tortoises and elongated tortoise. I LOVE your musk turtle! He's adorable! I specialized in chelonians when I worked in vet med. I miss seeing all of the wonderful (and unfortunately ill or injured) tortoises and turtles that would come through.
 
#6 ·
Wow thats a lot of Turts ! The neigbourhood wont allow
turtles ?

They don't eat or uproot plants?
Yep i feed them my plant trimmings from time to time, but the ones in the tank are all plastic ...... Hobby Lobby specials ;-)
 
#8 ·
Its nothing special, just a piece of plexi glass with a AC plastic filter grid bent 45 degrees entering the water. My old 40 gallon breeder had plants inside but guess where they ended up ?
 
#12 ·
Yep , they have a Herpetoculture lamp above the homemade basking area which produces UVA & UVB rays.

I've got 2 turtles, one male Mississippi Map and one female Northern Red Belly Cooter. Their setup is simple now (I just moved) but I am upgrading their tank and I am going to set it up "pond style" with riparium planters, maybe some floaters (if I can find a floating plant they wont eat!) and maybe some plants in other baskets.

I have pictures of my turtles (and other stuff I've been wanting to post) but I don't know how to put up pictures here. I've asked in this link: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=192164 so if you know, please explain.
:D
Good luck finding a plant they wont eat ! Mine even try to eat plastic plants :)
To upload pictures, try using photobucket. Upload pictures to there and copy and paste the picture to the forum.

Several years ago I found a large red ear on the road and stopped my car to get him so he wouldn't get squashed. Kept him for about a year, and then released him into a stocked pond on the college property. He was around 16"
That was a big girl by the sounds of it ! Good for you, i wonder if she is still living the dream in that pond ?
 
#10 ·
I've got 2 turtles, one male Mississippi Map and one female Northern Red Belly Cooter. Their setup is simple now (I just moved) but I am upgrading their tank and I am going to set it up "pond style" with riparium planters, maybe some floaters (if I can find a floating plant they wont eat!) and maybe some plants in other baskets.

I have pictures of my turtles (and other stuff I've been wanting to post) but I don't know how to put up pictures here. I've asked in this link: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=192164 so if you know, please explain.
:D
 
#14 ·
I am so happy they made a reptile/amphibian section!!! so excited to see everyone's set ups!! I used to have two turtles. a RES and a mississippi map. I loved them dearly. Some day I will get another one. Your basking area idea is awesome!! And i agree w/ the person who asked to see pics of the basking area, I'd like to see them too :)

I tried to keep plants with mine but since you have to use such large rocks and the turtles aren't very gentle, I couldn't get them to root. They just floated. I wasn't very experienced then, I only knew about turtles. I think it could be done if you planted the plant in a tub and then surrounded it with the rocks. You would just have to make sure the plant isn't toxic to the turtle and you'd have to be ok with the fact that it was going to eat it. I'd love to see it done! It will be years and years before i'll be able to do anything like that.
 
#17 ·
I have Mr. T. He is a softshell turtle :D

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....
 
#18 ·
I have Mr. T. He is a softshell turtle :D

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...



 
#21 ·
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!
 
#22 ·
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)
 
#23 · (Edited)
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. :D

Male Mississippi Map



Female Northern Red Bellied Cooter

 
#24 ·
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.
 
#26 ·
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
 
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