Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: New from Vegas!

[TheSegundos]

Hi there, my wife and I just bought two 4'' RES! This was totally unexpected, we went to petco and after looking at all the pets we decided on the sliders! So far we're happy but since this is our first time having turtles we're unsure on a couple of things! Maybe some one can give us some advise! We bought a 20 gallon terrarium Kit! It came with most of the stuff needed! We are just not sure how much water to put in it! The instructions said about 4-5in of water but not sure if that's appropriate for our 4in res! It seems like they want to be sticking there heads out the water but are struggling! One managed to find a spot to climb on but the other seems to struggle! Should we lower the water level or just but a rock so they can get on that to be able to peek outside?

[VeipaCray]

Hello and welcome to the forum. The main part of the website has much detail on required habitat. The rule of thumb we follow is 10 gallons of water per inch of shell. So for 2x 4" RES, you're looking at 80 gallons today. Unfortunately most pet stores don't have a clue when it comes to necessary turtle habitat. Sliders are aquatic turtles and need the swim space and the large volume of water to dissipate the large amount of waste they produce to safer levels until your filter can deal with it.

Be careful about adding water to a terrarium. Most terrariums are made from very thin glass for non-aquatic animals. While they may look like aquariums, they are not.

RES are solitary creatures in nature and don't often get along in an aquarium. You may need to seperate them into individual habitats if you see any signs of aggression.

Males can get 7-9" (70-90 gallon tank) and females can go 9"-12" (90-120 gallons)

Your turtles will need a basking platform (can be as simple as a rock or log) where they can climb completely out of the water. Shining on the basking platform you will need a heat lamp and a UVB bulb. From the pic, your basking platform looks a wee bit small for two mid-sized turtles.

You'll need an aquarium heater sized appropriately for your tank(s) and a very very large aquarium filter. You can pretty much ignore the advertised tank sizes listed on the aquarium filter box. Those don't apply when it comes to turtle filtration. See the filter media thread in the equipment section of this forum for appropriate filter sizings.

Giant tank
Giant filter
Basking platform
Heat and UVB lighting
Aquarium heater
Food
That about covers the list of basics.

Welcome to being turtle parents. We hope you enjoy our forum and look forward to hearing more about your turtles and any questions that may come up.

[steve]

VeipaCray covered everything, so I'll just say welcome to the site!

[happycamper]

Welcome!

[devilduck]

Welcome to the site!

[TheSegundos]

Thanks everyone, especially VeipaCray! I've been doing research on here and other sources! Im really disappointed with the Kit that we bought! I wish we would've known before! Im already looking in getting a bigger tank! Im still unsure on a couple of things, I know that it's approximately 10gal/in, but what does that mean? Ok I have 2 4''in res so I need a 80 gallon tank! But does that 80 gallon include both the water/swimming area plus the basking area! Or does that mean 80 gallons of actual swimming space?

[steve]

You can sex them now and know what their genders are. Knowing that will allow to upgrade your tank accordingly. At this stage they are still growing, so don't be surprised that an 80 gallon would be too small. If one or both is a male, aggression might start soon, so having an even larger tank can make things easier, especially if you have to separate them.

[TheSegundos]

Yeah after looking.g at them carefully it looks like we have a male and a female! The one that shows a bit of aggression is the female! Is it normal for her to be biting stuff like the rocks or even the male? She's just about 2cm bigger than our male!

[steve]

RES in general can be very aggressive.

[sweety10189110]

Welcome The Segundos!! It's nice to see a fellow Vegas slider owner

[TheSegundos]

Yeah I noticed when she gets hungry she gets a bit moody and starts bitting everything! So far e everything is going good with the turtles! After work Imma but a bigger filter and a heater! Also today I first witnessed one of them bask for the very first time! Im still a little unsure on the lighting, I've been leaving both the basking light and day light on for about 12 hours! Then around 8pm when gets dark out I turn them off! Is that ok or should I leave the basking light on?

[TheSegundos]

Welcome The Segundos!! It's nice to see a fellow Vegas slider owner

Thank you, it's nice to see some one local on here! What size are your RES and how long have you had them for?

[sweety10189110]

I actually have a Yellow Belly Slider about 2-3" and adopted him/her almost 2 months ago from a friend.

[TheSegundos]

I actually have a Yellow Belly Slider about 2-3" and adopted him/her almost 2 months ago from a friend.

Oh ok, yeah we're new to turtles as we'll! We're doing our research and trying our best to keep them happy! They're our babies!

[TheSegundos]

I put them in a bigger tank today! This tank is rated for just one of those turtles but it's a big improvement to what they we're in! This is going to be their home till we come up on a bigger tank! All they need is a filter now! They seen more happy now!