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Turtles, Tank, First Time Sharing

PostPosted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 1:02 am
by g29w
Here are two pics of my tank, I just spent 2 hours today cleaning and putting in the plants.

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Here are my 2 turtles: broken tail and smartie
Are they prymaiding?

Smartie
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Broken Tail - he had a broken tail when I got him, will that okay later when he gets bigger? Also he has a crack there in his shell.

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Anyway know how to fix this webcam pic? I can't adjust the settings to turn the light down enough to let me see the dock clearly. I tried all the camera settings, but I wasn't able to get rid of the brightness to see the turtles better. (i.e. min exposure/min gain)

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Thanks for all the info on here, I can give my turtles a happier life.
:D

PostPosted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 2:08 am
by pumpkinsherbet
wow that's so lovely, i bet they love having all those plants to hide under!

PostPosted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 2:35 am
by SpotsMama
They're awfully sweet little green turtles. They look like a lot of fun.

The one with the broken tail - is it healed? What about the broken shell - is there an open wound?

PostPosted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 2:53 am
by VelvetAlley
it's great to see the results from the information that this site provides, a true blessing!

PostPosted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 3:13 am
by g29w
For broken tail, I got him like that and he acts perfectly normal, so I guess that it how he will be (?) I don't know and I've only had them for ~3 weeks.

But I think his tail and shell is healed, maybe as he gets bigger a new shell will replace the slightly cracked area. His tail on the other hand probably will remained crooked like that.

PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:33 pm
by industrial_girl_2000
That's a great example of how a rubbermaid container can make a nice home for a turtle! Good job!

In terms of the camera webcam pic being too exposed, you may be able to turn down the "exposure" level on your camera (you will have to set it onto one of the "manual" settings rather than the "point-n-shoot"automatic settings) Check your photo manual on where the "exposure level is located on your camera....it will allow you to manually "darken" the picture. Also, I found out that close ups of baby turts sometimes come out clearer with the portrait setting (may look like a person's head symbol on your camera).

Also, some other folks on the board have said that sometimes the UVB light can wreak havoc with colors in pictures, so maybe for the photo, you could turn off the UVB light & see how that turns out.

I'm not an expert on cameras or taking pics, but I have had to play around with different settings on my camera too. :)

PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 6:53 pm
by rocketright
Hi, I think you should see a herp vet, because when it getts bigger and it's a female... It may die.

PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:58 pm
by Pizza
rocketright wrote:Hi, I think you should see a herp vet, because when it getts bigger and it's a female... It may die.


Can you elaborate on that? I don't see a connection between a broken tail/shell to a female turtle. If you're talking about a female adult turtle being egg bound, then his/her hatchlings still have a long way to go before that happens, and as long as the tail is healed, a slightly disfigured tail won't affect the release of eggs. Not to mention that his/her turtles can't be distinguished this soon from genders.

PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:38 pm
by pumpkinsherbet
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to fix this picture i made it a little smaller (that's a huge pallet to work with!) and lowered the brightness/contrast. i added a small bit of film grain, sharpened the image, then copied it. with the copied image i made a black and white half toned pattern, pasted it to the original at full opacity using the ''darken" blending option. i then increased the saturation on the coloured layer and voila. i did this using photoshop.

to fix the picture when you actually take it, you're going to have to play with the settings. even with perfect lighting there are still things you have to adjust. i play with my camera all the time and sometimes it still doesn't come out right. the uv light, like industrial_girl_2000 said, does wreak havoc on the camera and sometimes there's just no fixing it.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:20 pm
by industrial_girl_2000
rocketright wrote:Hi, I think you should see a herp vet, because when it getts bigger and it's a female... It may die.


Ummmm, I'm not seeing the connection between the pictures of the turtle and it dying when it grows up?! :? Can you please explain? :?

A broken tail does not mean the turtle is going to die. Now if the wound got INFECTED, then there could be problems.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:37 pm
by fishandcandy
Pyramiding is something that effects individual scutes, not the entire shell. It looks like each scute has a pyramid.
Your turts look nice and smooth.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:50 pm
by pumpkinsherbet
this is the only pic i could find of a turtle pyramiding. this should ease your worries :) they really are lovely turtles.

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PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:11 am
by rocketright
Land turtles are soppost to shed... If thos ekind of turtles shed, then that would not be good... So land turtles should have shells like that!

PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:56 am
by Pizza
rocketright wrote:Land turtles are soppost to shed... If thos ekind of turtles shed, then that would not be good... So land turtles should have shells like that!


Umm, sorry to put it, but no.

Land turtles, or tortoises don't shed scutes on their shells (from what I recall from someone else's post 1-2 days ago), and either way, no turtle should have a rigid uneven shell with bumps and spikes coming out of them (correct me if I'm wrong) to that degree. That picture's tortoise (is it a Sulcata or Hermann's?) has undergone some severe pyramiding. Most, if not all turtles, tortoises, and terrapins should have smooth rounded shells (some more domed, some less), only on some species should the scutes be slightly raised at the peak or center of the scute, no more than a cm.

PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:46 am
by pumpkinsherbet
i do not know what kind of turtle it is. i did an image search for ''turtle pyramiding" and that was the only one that popped up. it doesn't specify the species, the picture itself is called ''sick turtle"