General Care Discussion :: Feeding and Water Temp question.

[CrossKnight]

I've had my turtles for about a month now and I have always thought they were hatchlings because they're so small. I have always feed them everyday and kept the water temperature at 78-80 F.

I recently read how to measure the both of them correctly and they are about 1 1/4 inch. I was wondering if I should feed them once every two days now and keep the water a 70-75 F instead? I don't know how old they were when I got them either.

So when do I know to feed them every other day and when do I change the water temp? When are they not hatchlngs anymore??

Thanks for the help!! ^_^

[megcornell]

In my opinion, I plan on keeping my turtle Leo's water warmer and feeding him everyday until he's 3-4 inches. At 1 and 1/4 inches the turtles are still small and probably more susceptible to illness so I'd keep their water temps in the upper 70's.

[missibsu]

I made the switch at about 9 months. This was an estimate of course because we aren't sure exactly when they were born.

[industrial_girl_2000]

I wouldn't let the water go below 75 degrees, no matter how big they get.

Also, at 1 1/4 inches, they are still babies & very vulnerable. Feed them daily & keep the water at 78 degrees. I agree with Meg's post about feeding them every other day once they hit 3-4 inches long. Although, if you are only feeding them small amounts anyway, you can still continue to feed daily until they are even bigger. I do this with my aquatic frog. He is 6 yrs old, I feed him daily, but he only gets one or two reptomin foodsticks per day (his body is 2 inches long). I know a frog isn't the same as a turtle, but the feeding rules are very similar & frogs are more sensitive to overfeeding than turtles. Turtles just get very fat. Frogs die quickly when they are overfed.

On the other hand, my Sheba gets fed every 2nd or 3rd day. I have been feeding her every other day since she was about 7 inches long (she is 11 inches now).

[CrossKnight]

ok, I understand now. Thanks guys!! ^_^

[CrossKnight]

Oh, I have another question. I have a 30 gallon tank for my two turtles and I am currently using a Aqua Clear 50. Since my mom wants to care for some fish in another tank, she wanted my Aqua Clear 50 and she would buy me another filter. I was wondering if I got a Aqua Clear 110, would that be too powerful for my turtles? Would it suck up or cause any harm to my turtles? Should I not get the 110 and instead get the Aqua Clear 70?

[steve]

I think it should be OK. There are ways to reduce the strength of a filter and a prefilter, which is a sponge that goes outside the tube, is what I would recommend for small turtles. How much water is in your tank?

[CrossKnight]

ummm, I have a 30 gallon tank and it is nearly full, so I think about 25 gallons of water.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Filters like that have an adjustment so you can adjust it to be less powerful. It should be fine.

[CrossKnight]

ok, thanks!!

[marisa]

I've used an Aquaclear 110 on a 40-gallon stock tank with about 30 gallons of water, and without using aquarium silicone to glue plexiglass to the lip of the filter so the water doesn't just drop into the tank), it created a fair amount of turbulence. Reducing the water flow with the lever doesn't do all that much on mine. I did make a sort of prefilter, but that was used more to prevent larger pieces of vegetation from getting clogged in the intake tube than reducing the flow.

Someone in the past used this filter on a smaller tank and found that the pressure created by the water spilling into the tank caused the media to rise.

[CrossKnight]

So I got the 110 and I put plexi glass so it is silent now and because of the plexi glass there isn't any bubbles. I was wondering if the water needs to be Oxygenated?

[steve]

Oxygen is good for your biomedia (like ceramic rings). How did you attach the plexiglass?

[Muirner]

steve - So should we try to introduce any air to the biorings at all? When i was reading about air pumps my XP3 specifically states to keep air bubles away from the intake. Will the once a month cleaning suffice as enough oxygen?

[CrossKnight]

I attatched the plexi glass to the filter like this



This Filter is a Aqua Clear 50 on a 20 gallon Rubbermaid tub I use as a feeding area pellets, vegis and where I keep the rosies too. I HATE the smell the fishes give off so I use the tub for fishes instead of the tank.

The black round things are double sided sticky things.
I used it on my Aqua Clear 100 but the Plexi Glass is much bigger and it is heavier so the sticky things did not work, it fell off in the middle of the night.
I'm thinking about just glue gunning it on to the filter.