Hello!
I thought i would introduce myself. This forum has helped me a lot. I got two baby red eared sliders in Dec, around the week before Christmas and I was so worried. They didn't eat for 10 days and I thought they would die. After a lot of research, I upgraded their environment and they are doing well.
Current Set Up:
20G Long glass aquarium
Whisper Filter rated for 30G
UVB light
Heating lamp & heater (unused now because of summer)
thermometer sticky on tank
automatic food dispenser (so they get their food at the exact same time every day + when I go out of town)
floating basking dock
Aside from the tank being cloudy when it first cycled, it's been crystal clean.
I've fed them:
reptomin pellets
crickets
cuttlebone
rosy eyed minnows (one of whom ended up being a tank mate for FOUR months)
chinese algae eaters (they lasted one month)
tomato tops
strawberry tops
cucumber
carrots
romaine lettuce
fish flakes
tuna (at the very beginning to coax them to eat)
dried shrimp
Today:
I added in a shipwreck deco (to provide hiding spots for the fish)
I added 3 goldfish ( i know they're fatty but am hoping they can be tankmates vs. food)
2 pleco (their spiny bodies hopefully will be less appealing to the turts than the chinese algae eaters. may they RIP)
one cluster of hornwort
Basically I want to have an ecosystem that eats algae, keeps the tank clean and have a combo of fish and turts and I hope while they're young (one is just over 2in and the other is almost 3 in), they can coexist.
The bigger turt is very aggressive with food (I feed them by hand sometimes) and as a result has grown faster. He(?) will splash vigorously with his mouth open and swim around to wherever my hand is with the food. A little worried about pyramiding / the other one not getting enough. and sometimes the aggressive one will rest over the timid one but the timid one doesn't seem to mind.
I know soon i need to upgrade my setup, but I know that will be costly. of course the tank and also i need to get a better table/piece of furniture to support a heavier tank. and then a better filtration system..etc.
anyways, thought i would introduce myself as I've read a lot of the questions here extensively and wanted to say I appreciate this community.