A few days ago we inherited a female RES from someone and we are working on getting it a more appropriate habitat. The RES has a shell that is about 7-8" long. The previous owner had it in a 20g breeder tank. We immediately moved it to a 75g.
I currently have it about 2/3 full with a cherry board attached to a PVC stand for her to bask on. I would like to switch to an above tank setup so she can have more space. The tank came with one of those cheap 48" fluorescent fixtures that fit on the top of the tank. I would like to continue using this to light the tank portion because we have already spent a lot on this "free" turtle. If I push the light fixture as far back as I can, that gets me about 11" for the basking dock.
So I threw together this:
It is 11" x 22" so it can sit on top of the tank held in place by the frame. The eggcrate floor is 10"x14" and I will cover it with reptile carpet (along with a ramp).
Is 10" wide going to be too narrow for the turtle to feel comfortable getting into it?
Thanks in advance!
The poor thing has been through a lot, when we moved her to the 75g we found that she didn't know how to swim. In the 20g breeder she just lifted her head up for air. It took her hours trying to get to the surface before she figured out how to swim up and float. I know they can go a long time submerged, but I still lifted her up a few times because I felt bad.