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Hello All,
I'm new here, and I've found lots of good information about RES so I'm going to stick around.
I have two, I believe, boys, but I'm not absolutely sure. I've taken pictures of them and I will see where I can post them on this site so you all can look at them.
I just got them moved into a 75 gallon tank. They were in a 10G tank when I got them (from a friend) and they had no UVB lighting or heat lamp, this is why I took them.
I just couldn't leave them in that situation. I took them thinking to find them a good home, but of course I fell in love with them, so we (husband and I) are keeping them.
I call them Lucious and Narsissa (from Harry Potter), although Narsissa may be a male.

I am currently looking at options for building them a good dock. I can't find a place to buy a large piece of cork bark, that's what I really want, so if anyone knows where I can order a large piece please let me know. They have an 18" UVB light tube above the basking area, as well as a regular 60 watt incandescent light bulb for heat. I have a low wattage coil light bulb on the other side of the tank just to light it up for their day/night cycle. I also have a canister filter set up that pumps 330GPH for cleaning their water.

Unfortunately, I read the bottles of the two types of pellets I bought them and was feeding them accordingly, so they've grown quickly... too quickly I think. The larger one is 5" long (SCL) and they are supposed to be about 3 years old. Their shells are a little lumpy (pyramiding?), but I don't think it's too bad. Since I've done more research I've adjusted their diet to romaine lettuce/mustard greens daily and pellets once every other day. I have given them river shrimp and crickets as treats.

I am open to any suggestions on feeding and care, so please fire away with any info you have. I've been a saltwater fish keeper for years and I've had fresh water fish, but these are my first turtles.

Hello and welcome to the forum. It sounds like you are on the right track and thanks for taking the time to research and care for the turtles. Feel free to post your pictures on this thread or in the photos section.

Your filtration may be a bit light for a 75G tank. Here' s our thread on filtration and sizing... viewtopic.php?f=9&t=30145
Unfortunately, the filtration is probably the most expensive part of turtle keeping. Good filtration however will make your life easier. Good water = Healthy happy turtle.

Thanks for the response. I did post pics in the photo gallery. Here's one for now.




I can get them another filter on ebay, I will look at the link you provided. Can you tell if their shells are in bad shape?
As they grow, will the shells smooth out if they are fed correctly? In any casem as ling as it doesn't get worse I'm okay with how they are now.
I usually do research on any new animal I get so they get good care, had to take these spur of the moment, and I'm glad I did.

Thanks again.

The shells are look OK and both appear to be females. It should be even smoother after a few sheds.

Welcome!

steve wrote:The shells are look OK and both appear to be females. It should be even smoother after a few sheds.

I started looking up male RES and their claws are very long. I was just thinking I may have females. Well, maybe they won't fight as much as males would?
But I'm gonna need a bigger tank!

Here is a pic with the new dock installed. Of course it's probably going to bug me that the dock isn't quite level. Maybe next water change I'll take it out and shave a little off the taller supports.

You want both the heat lamp and the UVB lamp to be directly over the basking platform. UVB doesn't penetrate water or the mesh top you have very well. Many on this forum use 1/2" "egg crate" aka light diffuser from the hardware store to cover the basking area as to not block the light.

I would put one dome lamp with an incandescent bulb and the other dome lamp with a CFL (twisty) UVB 5.0 bulb right next to the other dome lamp on the left side of your aquarium. The flourescent lamp can be used to light the water on the right.

It looks really nice... good job!

Welcome to the forum!!!! I hope you find answers that alleviate any care-related concerns.
The main site is a ' life saver'....well, it was for me when I entered the mysterious RES world

Enjoy!!!!

[quote="VeipaCray"]
I would put one dome lamp with an incandescent bulb and the other dome lamp with a CFL (twisty) UVB 5.0 bulb right next to the other dome lamp on the left side of your aquarium. The flourescent lamp can be used to light the water on the right.
quote]

This is a reallly good idea. Glad I kept my uvb bulbs!

penelope wrote:Welcome to the forum!!!! I hope you find answers that alleviate any care-related concerns.
The main site is a ' life saver'....well, it was for me when I entered the mysterious RES world

Enjoy!!!!

You are so not kidding! It's a mysterious world! So many questions with so many different answers! I'm learning.

With this setup, will the coil uvb bulb penetrate better through the mesh than the fluorescent bulb would?

I had one of those double dome fixtures, where it has a place for the uvb and the heat bulb, but I returned it because it had the silver reflective feature inside. I had read that those could reflect too much light damaging the turtles eyes. Could I just replace these two lamps with that double fixure, utilizing the reflective properties to create more penetration?

Otherwise, I could just cut the mesh under the uvb lamp section to remove the barrier, and raise the bulb higher up. I am going to get a mini dome fixture in any case because the bulb being longer than the fixture irritates me because it's so bright.

Yeah that looks better. The coil bulb and the fluorescent bulb are actually BOTH fluorescent bulbs. The coil bulbs are technically called CFL - compact fluorescent lamp. I would think the CFL being more compact would have a narrower but stronger field of light penetration vs the long tube fluorescent which has a wider field.

There are a few people on this forum using that double lamp. I'm not aware they are having any issues.

VeipaCray wrote:There are a few people on this forum using that double lamp. I'm not aware they are having any issues.

This is good to know, because I ordered another of those fixtures online yesterday. I like things looking a little heater. I guess the tube bulb will provide some uvb when the turtles swim under it with their heads up, as they do. More can't hurt, right?!

Anyway, I'm happy with this setup now. Of course its all going to change when they outgrow the tank! Let's not tell the husband about that yet.

The extra UVB in the tube bulb won't hurt the turtle but if you start seeing algae in the water, I'd ditch it.

That's a good idea. Also, I like things looking a little "neater" not "heater" hahaha.