Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: New Board Member...Updated with Pictures

[michaelg]

Hello all, my name is Michael. I owned turtles when I was a child, mostly common snappers and eastern painted turtles. Now that I have kids of my own, we are raising turtles we've rescued. Currently we have 2 RES hatchlings ( Sweeney & Pascal) and an almost 2 year old Yellow Bellied Slider (Martha).

Martha has two ponds. The indoor pond is a 50 gallon preformed pond. The outdoor pond is a man made 250 gallon EPDM lined pond. Sweeney and Pascal currently live in a 10 Gallon Aquarium. Once they get a little larger, they'll join Martha after evaluating how they interact. Martha's been alone for almost a year and I have no idea if she'll accept Sweeny & Pascal.

Although we understood the basics, its been quite a learning experience for us and we learn new things all the time. All three of our turtles have distinct personalities and we've learned what works for one doesn't always work for the others. Martha is definitely a rare breed, completely different than any other turtle I've ever owned.

I'm looking forward to sharing experiences with others and learning more. You can follow our journey on the turtles' blog, linked in my signature.

-Michael

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Welcome to forum!

[steve]

Welcome! We'd love to see some pics

[michaelg]

Here are a few photos of the babies. You can visit their blog, Four Green Feet by visiting the link in my Signature.

This is Pascal & Sweeney (Pascal is the darker of the two) just 2 days after we rescued them from a street vendor in Philadelphia (at Christmas time).


This is Pascal & Sweeney a few days after moving into their 10 gallon aquarium. Sweeney is on top.


Here's a video of what happened after adding some minnows to Pascal's & Sweeney's tank. The minnows were too big for them, but it was fun to watch. They chased them for about a week before I removed them. Gotta find smaller feeder fish.

This is Martha in her indoor pond. The lighting is really messed up in this pic. There was sunlight coming in the window and her basking light was on. Her shell looks really washed out.


This is Martha in her outdoor pond. You can see her shell is much more brilliant in this photo.


This is the indoor pond. Until the RES get bigger, this is Martha's domain. She's been in it since Mid-October and will stay in it until the overnight temps stay in the 60s. This was taken before we completely filled the 50 gallon pond and added the basking lights. The two plants are pineapples we planted last spring. Should have fruit this summer.


This is the outdoor pond before I found out that turtles could climb a brick wall. The overflow channel behind the log is now covered . I plan to redo it once I pull the cover off in the Spring. I'm going to make it a little wider to bring it up to 300 gallons.


The indoor pond was a rush job. We didn't expect a cold spell in October, so we were caught off guard and didn't get to experiment with water level and filtration like we planned. Right now we are using the outdoor pond's pump and filter housing in the indoor pond which takes up too much room, but Martha likes to hide under it (it's sitting on two bricks laying flat). In the outdoor pond, it sits on two bricks laying flat and it is her favorite hiding spot in the outdoor pond. Next fall I will have an external filtration system and hopefully build an enclosure around the pond to hide the filtration system and allow for more water in the pond.

You can find more pictures and read about our adventures with turtles at their blog, link in my Signature below.

-Michael

[Diamondbacks4Life]

All i can say is those will be two happy res once they are able to join Martha

[steve]

The minnows are not too big, your guys will easily rip them apart when they get the chance.

[michaelg]

The RES are very happy in their aquarium and I know they'll be just as happy with Martha, but I'm worried that Martha won't be happy with them.

The RES tried for 5 days to catch the minnows, but did not succeed. None of the pet stores around here sell guppies, so I'm stuck with the minnows. I reintroduce a few minnows from time to time. The minnows are about the same size as the RES' shell.

-Michael

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Id actually think res might not like martha. You got a female so they tend to be less aggressive.