Photo Gallery :: Skipper, 12 years in

[Skippah]

It's going pretty good. The main downside is that she's strong enough to actually cause some bleeding when she scratches you lol

Skipper hanging out in some baby water lettuce. It's transplanted from another tank; she eats it way faster than it can grow.

She likes to eat all kinds of things now, she's not a picky baby anymore. From time to time I throw in some Malaysian Trumpet Snails from another tank because they're becoming a Problem over there, and with her big strong jaw she can crunch their very hard shells. This information makes me fear for my the safety of my flesh whenever I do maintenance.

She has never laid eggs, even though I was convinced that she would. I had several different sand bins for her over the years when I thought she was gravid but she just never was I guess :P

Skipper in her 75g, feat. my DIY basking platform.

She lives in a 75 gallon aquarium, which feels right on the verge of being too small. I'm lucky that she seems to have stopped growing at around 9".

She really likes this random drawer organizer shelf thing I put in the tank!! She likes to rest on the rocks I put on top of it and poke her head out of the water, as well as hang out in the lower sections. As a bonus, it forces her to slow down when coming off of her ramp instead of slamming into the glass, which has become very nerve-wracking as she's gotten heavier!

Also she loves to scratch her shell on the filter intake (the same fluval 406 from 2015 lmao - JUST replaced the O ring for the first time today, as well as the aquastop valve) and it's very cute but I can never get a photo of it smh

Last spring I set up a 150g stock tank in the yard for a few goldfish, and it went very well. My dad suggested that I should get a second one and do the same for Skipper in the summer. I think it's a good idea but also it seems scary to leave my child outside unsupervised.

My 150g stock tank goldfish pond. By September, the plants had grown a lot, but the water lily never bloomed. It sent up exactly one bud in late fall, but then got too cold and went dormant before it ever opened. The NERVE!!!

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Mainly I'm just posting here because I appreciate that I was able to be a part of this community as a kid. I was never super active, but the experiences I've had on here are important to me, even though 75% of the time it was just me embarrassing myself. It makes me happy that this forum is still around.

[steve]

Thank you for the update! Glad to see Skipper doing well. And I'm jealous of that stock tank! As for eggs... it can surprise you. I was gifted 2 eggs over the summer after around of 20 years of nothing since she has been separated.

[Skippah]

Thank you for the update! Glad to see Skipper doing well. And I'm jealous of that stock tank! As for eggs... it can surprise you. I was gifted 2 eggs over the summer after around of 20 years of nothing since she has been separated.

Yeah, she's doing great! There have been no more real health scares since the pneumonia thing in 2017. Sometimes her plastron does look a little pink, which sends me into a panic each time because all the search results are like BLOOD POISONING THAT'S BLOOD POISONING SHES GONNA DIE VERY SOON, but then it always just fades back to the normal yellow after a while, and there are no other symptoms.

The goldfish pond was surprisingly cheap and easy. I regularly tested the water all summer, and it literally never needed a water change - the plants ate all the nitrate right up. The only bad part was that I had decided to situate it under 2 pine trees, so there was a lot of needles in the water, which made cleaning the filter media a little treacherous and painful ;o;

And damn, I'll keep that egg thing in mind. That gives me hope for my weird dream of preserving eggs from her and proudly displaying them in a jar on the mantle lol.

[steve]

If it looks a little pink on the shell or skin, see if you can wipe it off. Often it's harmless bacteria, I think it's the same kind you might see in the sink or toilet.

The main issue for me with the pond is that I need 2 of everything. I have a lawn area for them instead, so I can at least ensure they get their UV.

I like the idea of preserving eggs... my RES usually gets to it first necessitating a water change.

[Skippah]

Life update: I saw her using a plastic plant to try and scratch her shell, as she does on the filter intake,

Skipper using a blue plastic plant to scratch her shell.

so I got her a suction cup brush,

Skipper cautiously approaching the brush.

and she likes it,

Skipper scratching her shell on the brush.

but she's big enough to shove it around, so she moves it too high ;-;

Skipper trying to scratch her shell on the water below the brush.

I tried moving it into her little shelf-house, so that the top of it is weighted down by the rocks on top, but she has yet to use it in this position.

[Skippah]

If it looks a little pink on the shell or skin, see if you can wipe it off. Often it's harmless bacteria, I think it's the same kind you might see in the sink or toilet.

Yeah I don't think this is the case here, it doesn't wipe off. If I look closely at the plastron when this is happening, I can see a faint pink outline of what I believe might be the underlying bones? Like, it's shapes similar to the scutes, but not actually lining up with where the scutes are.

[steve]

Hmm, interesting but probably not something to worry about. There is usually some variations of color around the shell. Glad you're very observant though!

[Skippah]

Huh, she's got a few pits on her shell, and her plastron never sheds scutes as readily as her carapace does. I wonder if it might be because of the material of her basking platform?

I made it from fluted polypropylene. It's the same stuff that they make those garage sale signs from. 10 bucks per 36" x 24" sheet, very easy to work with, waterproof, stable enough for a turtle. But not textured as much as other basking platforms.

So maybe her plastron is not being completely dried when she basks? Sometimes she stays on the textured foam of the repurposed turtle dock, but not every time. Maybe I should try some textured foam background tiles.

Or maybe I just have a bad light? On a friend's advice, I switched to a linear UVA/UVB light a while ago. I got a 34" hygger T5 10.0 UVB light. Should probably replace the bulb soon.
I do have PAR meter, and it can measure UVA... but not UVB. Under the middle of the UVB it reads ~100µW/cm², over the turtle dock it reads ~40µW/cm². At least this gives me an idea of what the gradient looks like.

[steve]

If it's only a few pits, I would consider that normal. If she likes to bask on top, I would consider using some cork bark for her. As for not having something to measure UVB, scheduled replacements should be fine.

[Skippah]

ohhhh cork bark! good idea!

[Skippah]

I've been daydreaming of the best indoor enclosure I could do, and have ended up with the idea of knocking down one of my walls and putting the enclosure through it.

Sorry about my handwriting lol, I was just doodling.

I was inspired by looking through my animal planet RES care book again, and being reminded of this:

If she had a land area with soil, she could always have a nesting area just in case!

As it is, there is a 5-gallon-bucket-sized gap between the back of the tank and the wall, maybe I could expand the existing basking platform back and make a support for a dirt area. Also no, I don't remember why I put an ikea dog butt clothes hook there.

[steve]

There were some very inventive enclosures in the past. I'm sure most of those pics are still on the forum somewhere. I have also previously imagined a stock tank with a window! There was also a plywood tank trend, it's hard to beat that for customizable size.

[Skippah]

ooohhh i found str1p's thread from 2022...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39238&hilit=plywood

i've had to do a lot of research about aquarium-safe sealants lately, because i'm repainting deco for another tank, and i came across people talking about wood tanks and was so confused lol
but now i get it!!!! i want one!! :D

[Skippah]

If it looks a little pink on the shell or skin, see if you can wipe it off. Often it's harmless bacteria, I think it's the same kind you might see in the sink or toilet.

Yeah I don't think this is the case here, it doesn't wipe off. If I look closely at the plastron when this is happening, I can see a faint pink outline of what I believe might be the underlying bones? Like, it's shapes similar to the scutes, but not actually lining up with where the scutes are.

plastron.jpg

oh, also i have a little bit more information about this! apparently, it may just be a response to being cold. this makes a lot of sense, as it largely happens when i take her out of the tank and then fades away after putting her back in. i forgot where i learned this though, so take it with a grain of salt.

[steve]

It's possible. Diet can play a role too. And str1p's thread... what a blast from the past. I'm surprised photobucket is still around.