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I'm hibernating my turtles for the first time this year. I've been letting nature do most of the work while gradually slowing the amount of food I feed to them. Everything seemed normal until today.

Today, one of my turtle (2 inches shell) just floated/swam on top of the water all day. At first I thought it could be dead but then I noticed it is constantly (but slowly) swimming all across the surface of the aquarium water. Funny thing tho, is that its eyes are closed and it stayed closed all day. This has never happened before, however, the temperature around here finally dropped to -3 degrees Celsius recently so I'm worried that this may be the sign of soon to be death. Has anyone ever had any similar experiences? Is below 0 degrees Celsius too cold for turtles to hibernate in?

Turtle in an aquarium should NEVER be allowed to hibernate. It's unnecessary
and can lead to death. Just get a heater and set your water temperature to a
constant 25°C. With constant temperature, the turtle will behave normally for the
whole year.

Besides, I'm not sure water in an aquarium can drop below 0°C without freezing...

It sounds like you are just killing your poor turtles

whoa thats not healthy. that water temp should be raised completely

i dont think its reccommended to let them hibernate at home. mine dont hibernate at all

its not best to do that so please raise the temperature much much higher

If a turtle is going to hibernate, food should not be given immediately before. It will remain in the intestine undigested, which is not healthy.

You don't sound like you've read up on what to do. It would be better not to hibernate, at least for this year.

i sure hope the water is not anywhere near freezing, let alone below 20 degrees celcius. these are cold-blooded, endothermic, animals.

you seem indifferent towards your turtles' well-being...

Ok so i'm not hibernating my baby RES but the behaviour (floating around tank with eyes closed) that Renu1111 was describing has been occuring with Charlotte. I've only had her for about 3 days and shes very little (1.5inches). I did have a water heater which kept the water at 27 degrees C. However, it broke late last night and I will not be able to get a new one for another few hours. I've moved her to a warmer room and keep putting her on her basking dock but she seems to just go back into that water and into that state!!

Turtle Mummy 101: Some turtles just naturally slow down with the season, even if their water is kept at a constant temp. No worries.

My female RES has slowed down but she still loves to bask. The much younger male RES is still active but his appetite has decreased.