Habitat - Indoor :: the new setup w/ pics...finally!!

[Rubicon]

nice, but may I ask

why are you only filling up the tank half way?

67 gallons is a lot to waste

It looks like her basking area is permanently fixed in place.

[mackadocious]

rubicon is right...have an xp3 and yes, the basking area is permanently fixed into place...i had originally intended to make the water level a little higher but the seal isn't good on the sand platform portion, which i didn't discover till after adding dirt...it was messy....i've actually since removed the dirt because it was just funking up the tank water and patsy was so not interested in using it for nesting....i haven't seen any eggs since the first and only clutch almost 2 years ago now anyway though, so not really worried about it anymore....

rubicon--no other pics at the moment but been thinking about taking some new pics (these are over a year old)

steveak--tank has between 70 - 80g right now....if i reseal the sand pit i could add another 10-15g though with just one turt, i'm not really worried bout it...she generally stays underneath the pit or basks anyway.....

raph--no the rocks aren't glued, but i put that together 1 1/2 years ago now and took about an hour b/c of repeated testing for rock slides....patsy's actually climbed on it a few times too causing greenery to fall but rocks didn't budge--they're patio stones so mostly flat and wide and therefore easy to stack (really cheap too)...so yes could possibly fall, but i'm not really worried about it at this point..

bascomb--don't really use my a/c but 2 weeks a year....it might affect heating slightly, though i keep my therm pretty low (around 64') and the uvb bulb is the one closer to the wall...

france--it was custom built glass with glass shelving around 3 sides....the dirt was about 3" deep which wasn't the specs i gave the guy when i had it made (i wanted 6") but patsy wasn't interested in nesting in it (tho she may have been done with it, i never found any more eggs in the tank) and it was terrible keeping the water clean....if i were to redesign i would have a 3 level system with the dirt separated by water area and make the nesting area much larger....still skeptical that the turt would bite tho

[francinemarie]

oh cool! thank you for the info! may I have your advice? do you think 4-5" of sand is deep enough for a female RES to lay unfertile eggs?

[mackadocious]

i think probably.....like i said, i had wanted 6", but you do what you can...i did catch patsy digging with her back legs in the dirt i had once last year before i got rid of it and got really excited and watched for like 20 minutes thinking i was gonna see her lay an egg...well, she didn't but there was still like 1/2" of dirt on the glass when she stopped digging....i personally think the surface area might be the more important one anyway though...patsy usually just tries to escape when she's up in that part...

[mackadocious]

oh, and if you're trying to encourage laying, multiple sites recommend a 50/50 dirt sand mix...for dirt, i initially used the compressed dirt for terrariums from the pet store--it was cheap and i knew there wasn't any grossness in it...good luck tho

[francinemarie]

what exactly do you mean by the surface area is more important? i would like her to lay in the nesting area that ill make for her. i have a lot of sand, but no dirt. what was the name of the dirt you bought?

[mackadocious]

like the square footage....mine is like 18x18" and i tried making several other nesting areas prior to the one built into the tank but all were pretty small like that...and from what i've seen on here, others that tried to make nesting areas like that found that they just tried to escape, which i think is agreed thought to be because the turt feels enclosed/not enough room to roam an select the appropriate spot for her nest....i'm sure someone's been successful tho cause i know people do breed them indoors (that would actually be an interesting poll to see how many folks have successfully got a turtle to nest in the area they provided for them, followed by what they did)...as for the dirt, don't remember the brand, something at petsmart/petco...it comes in a brick that you have to soak in water to decompress and turns into almost 2 gallons of dirt..something cheesy about the jungle on it but it's meant as a substrate for terrariums, i know that...and it wasn't more than 10 bucks for sure....

[francinemarie]

oh i see. my plan for my nesting/basking was to be more than 12" long & exactly 12" wide. my tank's width would fit exactly at 12" so i can't make it any wider than that :\, i can only make the nesting/basking area longer. i have a 50 gallon tank so i can't make the nesting area too long, but i also don't want it too short. do you think 14"x12" is large enough?

i haven't seen or heard from anyone that has had successful indoor egg laying yet, but it would be interesting to see if anyone did.

thank you for the description of the dirt you used, hopefully i'll find something like it . does the nesting area have to be a mixture of dirt & sand? because i have a lot of leftover sand & i was hoping to just use that.

[mackadocious]

don't really know that it needs to be a mix....when i was doing it, i was just trying to get as much stuff right as possible to encourage laying where i wanted it....tho, now that i'm thinking about it when i did see patsy the one time digging it was when i'd changed the substrate to this chunky coconut shell stuff i found on sale (the intention was that less would get in the water and it would float for easier cleaning--it worked...kind of....ended up getting rid of it anyway) which that coconut stuff is definitely not a recommended thing for nesting, i had given up on nesting when i got the stuff at that point...i now have green terrarium carpeting stuff....

as for size, don't know if it will work or not, they just can't feel trapped i think and attached to the tank def seems better....i would add lots of foliage around the perimeter of it tho or something like that so that she feels protected..

[francinemarie]

hmm i see. i think i'll try using just sand & see where things go from there. i'm not even sure if she's ready to lay eggs, but she is an adult female RES (5 yrs old by the middle of april & huge ).

what exactly do you mean when you say "attached to the tank?" as in it should be an ATBA that is supported & on the edge of tank? or like yours?

i'll be sure to add some plants around the perimeter so that she thinks she's not being watched

[mackadocious]

i just mean that she can get to from the tank, whichever is easier for you to construct.....and who knows, you may get lucky and she may never have to lay eggs...i just had the two clutches in one year and nothing since (1 1/2 years)...i know the same happened with another person on here--she had one clutch and nothing ever again...hope all goes well tho

[francinemarie]

i had an idea of how to make a nesting/basking area for her, but it's hard to find the right materials with the correct measurements. but yea i'm hoping she'll never have to. she has never shown any forms of being gravid or nothing more than her usual self.

thank you again for all your advice & support! And again, i love your nesting/basking area!