Habitat - Indoor :: Water Depth

[captn_tyler]

I have a little hatchling RES, maybe 2in dia. My question is the water depth, I see the pictures of peoples tanks with maybe 4 or 5 inches of water. I had mine at maybe 12 inchs or so. The turtle would hope on his rock for a bit than slide off swim to the bottom than back to the rock. I lowered the level and he didnt seem happy at all, just laid around and not as active.

So is the foot deep water safe for such a young turtle? He has areas to dry and a shallow area to rest also.

[n00bEmpty]

The more water the better. RES are excellent swimmers and you shouldn't worry about having too much water. I have 10 inches of water in mine because my tank isn't that high but that's the highest I can put it but my turtles used to be in a tank with 13 inches of water and they were around 1.5 inches.
It's safe, as long as you have a place for them to bask. You read the basic care section right?
You'll need a UVA/UVB light and a heat lamp. You'll also need a good filter.

[captn_tyler]

Yeah I did. Tank is pretty well set up, just not super pretty. Just wanted to check, seems alot of people kept the babies in shallow water, mine seems to love the deep end

[SINI5T3R]

Yeah alot of people think that there baby turtles cant swim in deep water, but they can...

just fill it up as much as you can without possibility of escape and you will be set!