General Care Discussion :: RES is scared

[CRUSHH]

My map turtle and my RES get really scared sometimes when i try to take them out of their tank to put them in another for feeding... They swim REALLY fast and even bang thier heads off the glass Also i have some rosey red minnows for them and they havent touched them and its been 3 days..My turts are about 1.5inches and the fishes r 0.7inch...Is it because of the size diff?

[cam722]

first off, it's rather normal for the turtles to try to get away from you. To them you are a predator trying to "get" them. All they want is to get away from you at any cost. Also, sometimes the fish are either too fast for the turtles to catch... or they just lose interest in them. Both behaviors are normal

[CRUSHH]

Alright thanks cam..i got another question. i got a 30G tank for my two turtles and i dont know how much water i should put in it. right now its about 15G.

[cam722]

You can fill it up as much as you want but still making sure they can't escape. They LOVE water.

Carol

[CRUSHH]

For UVB rays i have a the long tube lights that sits on top of the tank...its about 7.5inches from where they bask...i heard that it should be no further than 6 inches away...also can i turn off my filter during the night?

[marisa]

What percentage UVB rays does it give off (if it's a Reptisun 5.0, for example, it gives off 5% UVB rays).

UVB lights shouldn't be any CLOSER than 6 inches from a basking turt. They can be further away, however, most conventional UVB lights won't emit enough UVB rays if they're more than 12 inches away from a turtle. The strength of the UVB rays is significantly lessened with distance.

[Turtleboy]

why shouldn't it be closer than 6?

[CRUSHH]

it gives off 5%...can i turn off my filter during the night?

[steve]

No, why would you possibly want to?

[CRUSHH]

i have a aquaclear 500 and the waterfall makes a lot of noise and so i wanted to turn it off so i can go to sleep easier...but since i cant im going to try putting plexiglass on it like how you and marisa did...hope that helps out

[steve]

When my Aquaclear is turned off, a lot of gunk flows back into the tank and it's not a pretty sight. Plus, it will disturb any biomedia you might be using.

[CRUSHH]

oh ok thanks for the advice steve...great site btw =)

[marisa]

The beneficial bacteria need air, and when you turn off the filter, without the air they will die in about two hours.

A UVB light shouldn't be closer than 6 inches, because, even though it gives off much less UVB rays than the sun, it's still giving off UVB rays, which over time, if really close to a turtle can affect the eyesight.

[CRUSHH]

yea i moved my uva/uvb spotlight further now and i added more water to my tank...i have a 30G tank and theres about 20G now=-)

[eaw66]

Buy 2 or 3 duetto 100 submersable in tank filters. they are silent and very effective. I have 3 duetto 100's in my 40gal tank and they do an extremely effective job at filtering the water and since they are below the water level they are virtually silent.