Morning, turtle lovers!
My name is Jae, and my RES's name is Eleanor Rigby, but we call her Ellie.
We found her at a small private school auction/sale about a year and a half ago. She was about 6" long, and was being kept in a 10 gallon tank - with a giant rock and a light. The sticker asked $25.
I didn't know anything about RES (or turtles in general!) at the time, but I was pretty certain she needed a MUCH larger habitat. I inquired about her history, hoping to hear that she lived in a palatial estate and had just been transported to the sale in the tiny tank. Alas, this was not to be - she had lived her whole life (they told me she was 2 years old) in that little tank.
Well, I'm a HUGE sucker for animals in need, and Ellie was DEFINITELY "in need." After a couple of tearful phone calls, the hubby was convinced and $25 later, Eleanor and her tiny aquarium were mine.
I had a 40 gallon long aquarium at home that wasn't being used (since my Albino Tiger Oscar "Ozzie" RIP had gone to fishie heaven) so she immediately was in a much larger environment. My saddest (and happiest?) memory of those first days is seeing her struggle to swim - she'd never had enough room.
She's been in a couple of incrementally larger tanks since then, but this past week moved into what I hope will be her permanent home - a 125 gallon aquarium.
The current set-up consists of 2 double-sided filters, two submersible heaters, a couple of bubbler stones (to replace the bubbler bars that she apparently thought looked tasty), some aquatic plants and our trusty "TurtleTopper."
I can't say enough how handy that TurtleTopper was/is! In the smaller tanks, it actually sat down over the edges/end of the tank to be perfectly stable. Here's a link to one on Amazon.com - we got ours used from a Craigslist user. http://www.amazon.com/Reptology%C2%AE-T ... B002O09MYE Although it is now too narrow to fit the 125 gallon tank, we were able to find large suction cup "wreath hooks" at Michaels, and, with a little bending modification, the TurtleTopper hangs nicely inside the tank. If need be, we can adjust the height by moving the suction cups.
Here's a link to a YouTube video that shows her in her new tank - thanks for letting me be a part of your community here; I've already learned so much and look forward to participating in the forum.
http://youtu.be/NY85XWvXCC0
