Hi! I am a new RES owner. Two adults RES (18 and 8 yo male and female mated pair) I adopted them with pretty inadequate habitat (55 gallon tank filled with water, small filter, Aquasun ultraviolet light, and a thermometer). I was told "they were always in the water." They also came with a small foam basking pad (that's stuck to the glass) but that's it. No heat lamp, no resting or dry basking area other than them being halfway submerged on this floating deck. I am getting a topper built (it's going to take weeks!) and so I take them out in a bin every other day into the daylight (half sun, half shade and when it's not super hot outside). I take them out every other day because I don't want to stress them too much with all this new change. A 55 gallon tank is not adequate but I got them a canister filter (which is going quite well - thank heaven for the canister filter) and I intend to build a pond when I can (THAT may take a while). So, I am noticing that being "outside" is stressful to them. They won't eat outside of the water (if I put their likable food in the bin, they ignore it but if the same food is in the water they gobble it up) and I wonder how long they have actually been living in total submersion. They look pretty good - don't have any visible issues from being in the water so much: their scales look healthy, their shells are hard and symmetrical, they have good energy, they do their mating dance, they are very strong and curious and now the female is really zooming around and being feisty (she's feeling strong - when she came she was weak in comparison). They are also by a window that gets sun every day.
My question is: should I continue to handle them in and out until the topper comes? They are getting sun in their aquarium from the window every day. What's worse - handling them or not drying out while I wait for the topper to arrive. They survived in that tank for 2 years (I was told), so how much worse is it to wait 4 more weeks? The male doesn't mind me picking him up (he's quite friendly) but the female hisses and tries to bite me. Then they just scramble all around that bin trying to get out, not relaxing and not eating. Even though they eventually tire out and rest for a bit.
