General Care Discussion :: Meet tuck

[ex0r]

I would like everybody to meet Tuck, he is a 2 year old red eared slider. 2 years ago, me and my wife decided that it would be a pretty cool idea to have a turtle as a pet for my son, so on his birthday we bought Tuck from a local pet store, and he was just at the minimum size requirement. We at first had him in a little 5.5 gallon tank, but he soon grew rapidly and we had to go to a larger tank. He is now stationed in a 30 gallon tank, which we plan on bumping up to a 50 or 100 gallon in the very near future. Here are a couple of pictures of him:





I was watching him swim around a couple of nights ago, and noticed that he had quite a large build up of algae on the back of his shell, and also down in the rocks at the bottom of his tank. Using a soft bristle tooth brush and some warm tap water, I gently scrubbed most of the algae off of him, but was wondering if it was a cause for concern ? I clean his tank regularly (Usually every couple of weeks, and add water and chemicals about once a week), but this last time I cleaned it I noticed that this algae formed after. It cleaned right off, and it appears the filter cleaned the rest of it out of the tank, but I was wondering if it was something I needed to worry about. From the books I do have, and the pet stores that I have talked to, it appears that he is in normal health with everything else, as far as his color, his shell, and his diet, was just a little shocked when I seen after 2 years one day he had algae on his shell.

Also, I am pretty sure that the 30 gallon has stunted his growth any more, as since he's moved to the 30 gallon a little over a year ago, he doesn't appear to be growing very much anymore, aside from his skin shedding. I thought it was kind of weird since in the 30 gallon he looks small compared to the amount of space in the tank, but from what I read I guess you need 10 gallons for every inch of turtle? He's definately more than 3 inches long, as you can see from the pictures. He's almost the size of my hand from tail to head fully extended, both length and width. What would you guys suggest for a turtle his size ? I was going to start out with a 50 gallon and see how far that went, but I don't want to go over board and get one that's too big for him, and risk him growing TOO fast and having shell/health problems. I'm not sure what the average fully grown size of these things are, but i've seen and heard some of them getting to be quite big.

[steve]

With a healthy turtle, the algae on the shell is not a concern. However, it's good to clean and inspect the shell once in awhile. It's also not normal to have a lot of algae problems with indoor habitats. I would recommend to use no substrate or sand... gravel and small rocks are harder to clean and trap waste in there. They are also a potential impaction problem.

For tanks, there is a Petco sale that goes up to 55 gallons for $55. You can also check used tanks, the ones around 100 gallons and smaller should be reasonably priced. Activated carbon is better for your turtle/water than water conditioner chemicals.

I would suggest to first determine if you have a male or female. Males do not grow as large and thus will not require the same size tank as a female. They also don't grow acceding to tank size... thats another myth.

[ex0r]

Thanks for the reply. I looked at the claws and from what I seen males have longer fronts than females and tucks look to be this way. Also he male has its genitalia on the bottom of the tail while the females are on the top ? I couldn't see What I was looking for either way.

I read that males are territorial towards other males, and about a year ago we picked up another turtle which was confirmed a male, and well, lets just say tuck bit its head off within about a week :/

[steve]

From the pic alone, it looks like you have a female.

[Into_the_Mystic]

I agree.. Tuck looks like a she