I'm the er, proud?, new father of 8 RES. Little overwhelmed with the eating, defecating, cleaning of tank and other maintenance that comes with them but am overall very happy with the little greenies. Have had'em for about 2 weeks now and have finally gotten to a point with the tank and water quality to where I can relax a little and start to finally save a little bit of my hard-earned money to be able to upgrade to better conditions for them.
For a little background, I have had several turtles although that was when I was younger, 8 - 10, and living in Kentucky. I used to just walk out in the backyard and grab box turtles for a couple of hours worth of entertainment and then let them go after I got bored playing with them that day. Was always nice, cause I had a steady supply of turtles to play with without having to worry too much about their care with them being in the wild.
I haven't had any dealings with turtles since then until I got mine about 2 weeks ago. A guy I know had 10 RES and wanted to get rid of them and a friend of mine took two of them but I was undecided. Anyway, ended up that the guy just wanted them gone. Well, I had no equipment, not even a tank, so the guy gave me his whole setup for free. He didn't have everything, but it was enough to get me started where I didn't have to spend a lot initially, which is a good thing cause I didn't have a lot.
*****DaSauce - go easy on me here*****
Well I took them cause I was afraid that he was just going to trash them or give them to someone who wouldn't care for the properly. Of course I had no idea as to what the proper care was, I thought I would be better able to adapt to their needs since I'm single and live alone.
The fellas range in size from 3in up to maybe 5in or so. (Da Suace I already know what you're gonna say!!!
) The tank I have is maybe 75 gallons, but remember that I paid nothing for this setup and I am actively looking for adopting families for 4 of the greenies. I have 3 that I like for sure and feel that with another tank, I can accomodate 4 of them with minimal problems. I refuse to just give the guys away to someone that may be unfamiliar with their care so I may have a compliment of 8 for a while, but in the meantime, while the conditions may not be ideal, the greenies are well feed and tank maintained and they are definitely adored.
A long post but I wanted to relate the history before I got yelled at or seriously spoken to about not having the proper size tank for the guys. For someone with no money and making do the best they can, I think the fellas are pretty well taken care of despite the apparent lack of adequate tank space. Please note though that I have utilized the full volume of my tank by building a basking area that resides above the tank (the pics will explain it better). Just trying to make do with what I've been given.
My next post will have pics of my setup and greenies. I'm still loading them up now.
And if you made it to the end of this I owe you at least $2.00 for your time.
I have 2 RES and thats enough work for me. But you have a good heart to save those turts.
Cool basking area! Do you have the plexiglass just taped or is it glued as well?