Red-eared slider turtles in Turtle Pond, NYC

In the summer, almost a whole month before me and AG got our turtles, we found ourselves in Central Park. At that time I didn’t like/love turtles and had absolutely no interest in getting any. I didn’t actually start liking turtles until after we got them. AG wanted to get them, but now I do all I can to take care of them and I watch them for hours and hours. Anyway, back to the story…

We went to Turtle Pond and saw all these Red Eared Sliders…

Someone threw an apple in the water, which is why all the turts are crowding that one spot

There was this huge female with “RUDY” painted on her carapace.

I took some video too. Enjoy!!

Click on the image to view the video

Click on the image to view the video

Can’t wait to see all those turtles again in the summer!!

RES Documentary

Found a documentary on Red Eared Sliders…there’s not too many educational videos out there – but there should be. Red Eared Sliders are the most popular and abundant pet turtles, people have to learn how to care for them properly!!!

no more gravel and a bit about the tank setup

A lot of people don’t recommend having gravel in a turtle’s habitat. I learned first-hand why today.

Gravel is very dirty and hides and keeps tons of dirt in it. When I went to change the water in the turtle tank today, the gravel was filthy. Very filthy. So me and AG cleaned it out and now the turtles have a clean tank bottom. The turtles don’t seem to mind and I’m sure they appreciate having much cleaner water to swim in.

That’s Rex climbing up on the water heater.

Rex on the steps on the right and Cinderella on the left under the small filter. An empty bottom looks a lot cleaner.

Rex trying to swim through the glass.

So far this is what the turtle set-up is:

- 5 Gallon aquarium. Space is an issue in the apartment so I got a 5 gallon aquarium. The turtles are going to outgrow it, but for the time being it works very well. Eventually, a new tank will be needed.

- Dive Clean Mini Filter. The first filter that I bought. It’s a really small submersible filter that I bought together with the aquarium. This was before I knew anything about filters. It’s a sponge filter (mechanical) which obviously isn’t enough to clean the waste of two turtles. The turtles like hiding underneath it and hanging onto and standing on it, which is why I still keep it there.

- Zoo Med 501 Turtle Filter. After doing some research I settled on getting this canister filter. It works great! I won’t be buying the Zoo Med carbon filter packs since they’re too expensive and aren’t that great from what I’ve read. Same about the sponge. I bought some activated carbon and will be getting a filter media bag soon. When the sponge needs to be replaced, I also won’t get the Zoo Med replacement – I’ve read that there are some other better and cheaper materials you can use instead of a sponge. I know the filter won’t be enough for when the turtles get bigger and we get a larger aquarium, so I’ll be getting a bigger canister filter when that time comes.

- a glass water heater with a plastic guard. Forgot the brands, but they’re good. Should the heater break for any reason in the future, I’ll get an inline heater as a replacement. This will give the turtles a little bit more room and also keeps the electric wires out of the tank. I get worried that they might bite into it and fry themselves, even though I haven’t read of this happening to anyone’s turtles yet.

- Zilla Basking Platform Small Corner Ramp. I had originally picked up some rocks from the neighborhood. After a good cleaning I stacked them up in the tank. They had some rough edges and also weren’t very stable so I got the Zilla platform instead. The turtles like it.

- Thermometer. Thermometers on a strip are a waste and are inaccurate. I know, I got one. It didn’t work too well and didn’t have much range (went up to 85 only). So I got a real aquarium thermometer instead.

- lamp and full spectrum heat/UVB light bulb. Turtles need to bask and they need heat. In the summer though it gets too hot that the water temp even reaches above 90 degrees, which means that the air temperature in there has got to reach 100 degrees or more!! I’ll be getting a ceramic heating element, a proportional thermostat to control it, and a UVB UVA fluorescent bulb. I think it’ll be the best way to make sure it doesn’t get too hot for the turtles in the warm weather and still have them get all the “sunlight” they need.

Rex and Cinderella

On September 1st, me and AG went to Philly on a day trip to eat some authentic Philly Cheesesteaks and see the sights. Walking through a market, we saw some turtles and bought a pair.

We’ve named them Rex and Cinderella, two Red Eared Sliders, who are actually more expensive and complicated than I first thought. Since the pix were taken, we’ve since purchased an aquarium, filters, basking light, food, a basking spot, aquarium heater, and such. Anyway, here are some pix:

We brought them home in a chinese food disposable tupperware. They were probably over an inch in length.

This is the plastron of Cinderella.

The Plastron of Rex.

This is the second temporary bowl we put them in. I’ll post more about that later.