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Hello,

Just joined the forum. My first post was actually about some basic care.

I have kept a variety of animals as pets, from the more typical cats and dogs, as well as rats, anoles, snakes, turtles, and fish.

I just recently adopted a pair of RES from the son of an ex-coworker. He had decided that they were too much work for him.

Currently they are in a 40L aquarium, and come spring I may build either an outdoor environment for them or a larger indoor setup so they have more room.

Welcome to the forum! Looking forward to what you do with their setup. Have you sexed them yet?

The previous owners had said one male and one female, but judging from the position of their cloacas and relative claw lengths, I am going with two females. They are both 6-7 inches in shell length, one being maybe an half inch longer than the other. The biggest is missing the tip of her tail.

The previous owner had named them Bonnie & Clyde, but as I already have a brother/sister pair of cats of the same names, thought I may call them A'Tuin and Morla, after the Giant Star Turtle of Discworld and the giant turtle from The Neverending Story.

Nice names. Do you have any pics of them?

Not yet, I will get some up in the next few days.

Was a bit concerned for a few days, as one (now known as A'Tuin) was eating food readily, the other (Morla) was not. There was no fighting over it, just seemed A'Tuin took notice of the food quickly and gulped it down. Morla did eat a pellet or two, but nothing much more. Even when food was dropped close to her, she didn't seem to notice.

I fed them today and both were eating readily. Probably was an adjustment period for Morla, and maybe A'Tuin didn't care.
I have their water at about 75F, and a basking area that is around 90F. I am using a 75W Exo-Terra Sun Glo bulb, but thinking of getting a larger wattage as the bulb is a bit close to get that temperature.

For heat don't waste your money on fancy bulbs. Just use a regular soft white light bulb. If you want it further away you could try 100 watt.

I did catch Morla in the act of basking today. I cracked the door to the room a bit a peeked in, she seemingly spotted me though and went back in the water.

Yup, they do that. I try not to make eye contact and ignore them completely. After awhile they go back and usually stay up.

I only have one that Basks. Every time I open the door real slow he goes right in the water. Havent seen my res bask in over a year ?

Wow, really? At least he's doing some basking.

I haven't seen A'Tuin bask yet. The platform is about 10x13 inches, and while there may not be enough for them side by side, I think they could easily stack up and bask.

yea, my map does bask but not my res ?

Here is a picture of the turtles.

A'Tuin is the one in the lower left, and Morla is in the upper right. I took them out of the tank while I did a complete water change today.

Why did you do a complete water change?