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Hello I stumbled upon your forum while googling my pets. I have three RES (Fred, Charlie and Rambo) all purchased as hatchlings 24 years a go when I was a mere teenager. All are male, fight often and have very different personalities. Charlie is completley melanistic now and is the largest with a carapce of 185mm the other two are 170mm (Rambo) and 175mm (Fred). I'm particularly interested in varying their diet. Mine will not touch any sort of vegitation.

Welcome! Do you keep your turtles in the same tank together? What is the size tank if you do?

Welcome!

Thanks for the welcome. My turtles (I call them terrapins; I am English ) are kept in a fairly boring 36" x 24" x 18" tank. It is heated by a 300w heater, is around 2/3 full of water with a basking area under a regular 75w bulb approx 6" from the basking area. a UVA/UVB broad spectrum bulb runs across the length of the tank. Filtration is provided by a Fluval 4+ filter. Thats it, there are no plants, gravel or anything else. They are taken out and fed once every other day. I feed them Reptomin, live crickets, fish, minced lean beef, Koi food sticks and chopped lambs hearts.

Charlie is mean, hisses and snaps when handled and is a bully. Fred is placid, subject to much of Charlie's bullying, retreats totally into his shell when handled and is often protected by Rambo. Rambo spends around 2/3 of his time basking, he even sleeps on the basking area. He is actually the boss. He takes no nonsense from Charlie, defends Fred and begs every time any one he knows approaches the tank. All three have been injured by each other in the past, Fred requiring a specialist reptile vet for a nasty neck wound inflicted by Charlie. However they seemed to have calmed down a bit with age.

You got quite a trio!!

wow 24 years.

Hello and welcome. I'd love to see a picture of your trio.