My problem is that 'Niu Niu' started napping in the daytime about 3 or 4 days ago - up until that point i'd never seen either of them sleep (in daylight). For the last day and a half niu niu has been sleeping most of the time. she is sleeping underwater. I feed them (pellets) daily around 3pm and yesterday niu niu was awake at that time and quite happily chased after pellets and ate just fine...and then went back to sleep. Is there something wrong? the other turtle ('Stripe') is fine and swims and basks and watches me as normal.
I did change the water and clean the tank on Monday. I also used gravel this time in addition to smooth stones (but this gravel has been used before on an earlier incarnation of the tank. The layout of the filter/heater/light/basking area is identical to before. Niu Niu was sleeping a lot before this but it has to be said, more since. I'm not sure if this is just a coincidence. I use white vinegar to clean the tank. the water is fresh tap water and i only allowed it to stand for a few hours before using.
OK - so now the specifics:
- Niu Niu and Stripe are under 1.5 inches long and we've had them for 2 months. Niu Niu is marginally bigger than Stripe. They do not fight.
- I keep them in a tank that is 18" wide, 12" deep, 8" high and about a third full of water. it has a canister filter and a water heater. See pics below.
- The tank is in the corner of a large light east-facing room, and gets direct sunlight for a few minutes every morning.
- The water heater was set to 27C/80F but i finally got a thermometer yesterday and measured the water temperature at 29C/84F). I've since turned off the water heater and today its 25C/77F. the weather has been hot the past few weeks with indoor air temp around 26 degrees, and there have been no recent changes to temperature. I've just realised that the shedding that they have been doing is probably due to the water being too hot (previously i thought it might be because I was overfeeding them - see below).
- The basking area is a largish smooth stone raised up on a brick. i don't have a heat lamp but the UV light does emit some heat and the turtles do (normally) bask there OK. I'm not sure what the basking area temp is but i would estimate over 85F - i.e. warmer than ambient air temperature.
- The UV lamp is on from about 7am to 7pm daily.
- I feed the turtles pellets, and for the last two-three weeks have been giving them 6 each daily. prior to that i was giving them a lot more - 12-15 each, but the guy in the local turtle/fish shop said that was too much and 4 each daily was sufficient, so i reduced down to 6 each
When i feed them i do it pellet by pellet and count how much each one eats so that they get the same amount +/-1 pellet, so i know for sure that Niu Niu has been eating the same as Stripe. Yesterday i fed them 10 pellets each.- Previously i had an even smaller tank, and changed the water totally every week. I got bored of that very quickly, so i got this tank about 6 weeks ago, and now change the water about every 3 weeks (its had two changes so far). I know i should probably be doing partial changes every week... however every day i'm adding about 2-3 cups of fresh water to replace that lost by evaporation (Beijing is very hot and dry in the summer).
In summary, i have cleaned the tank in the last couple of days but Niu Niu was sleeping a lot before that, so i don't /think/ that its connected. the water has been too hot, and i'm remedying that, but Stripe seems to be fine. There were no other changes recently.
So, is there anything wrong with Niu Niu, and if so, what might be causing it?
Thank you all for your help in advance.
cheers
Rod
