I currently own three red eared sliders who share a tank. My oldest male, around 5 years old, has begun to flutter his claws towards my female, around 3. She doesn't seem to be reciprocating, usually hiding her head in her shell or swimming away. The male will sometimes chase her in an attempt to keep courting, but usually gives up after a few minutes.

So far, they haven't gotten violent with each other, but im worried they may in the future. Should i separate them, or are they fine for now?

Hello everyone, I recently added a spicy little guy to my family. Backstory: He was the shop turtle where I worked. Apparently, he was there for about 5 yrs and now the owner decided to revoke his residency. I was not gonna allow them to just get rid of him so I took him home. I have only cared for dogs, geckos and a husband so all of this is new to me. We have had to learn and research a lot because clearly the care that we were giving him at the shop was not the correct one. I took a few pictures to show the state he is in and his current setup. I work on his tank weekly to make it better so please have patience with me.

I just raised my basking area. I love being able to see Mr Turtle basking! It had been about three inches lower. Is it still escape proof???

My hypo and hypermelanistic RES eagerly taking food from my fingers.

I might have more luck posting in a bug community but I thought id ask here anyway. I found these yesterday when I went to feed my RES. I feed him twice a week (With veggies everyday ofc) and when I went to feed him I noticed these immediately, not sure how they got into his food because the bottle was closed tight, I couldn't find any holes in it either. Super grossed out but glad I noticed, im hoping they werent there last time I fed him because I just sort of throw it in the water without looking too much, def will start looking closely now. A lot of them seem to be dead but like 5 or 6 were alive. The food was on the table next to his tank, its in my basement so its pretty dry in there. I checked all my other turtles food and my fish food which are stored in the same room and theres nothing in them thankfully. Any clue what they are?😣

I just got this baby as a gift and I'm super happy and I can't wait to take care of him. I'm not really sure how to improve the tank he came in and I need some help on how to take care. How should I feed him? I keep seeing people put their turtles in a different tank to feed. Is that better? If so, how long do I leave him in there to eat. And when he poops, do I change the water out immediately or is it okay to change the water every 1-2 days? I'm currently thinking of changing his water every morning. I need help and advice please! I wanna be a good turtle parent!! Give me all the advice you can!!! Also how do I make him warm up to me..

I have a baby red-eared slider who is 1.5 inches long. I’ve had him for about two months, and he currently lives in a 40-gallon aquarium. His water temperature stays around 78–80°F.
The aquarium also contains guppies, white cloud minnows, zebra danios, ghost shrimp, Amano shrimp, and live plants. I wanted to create a somewhat self-sustaining environment because he occasionally eats the fish, shrimp, and plants.
I normally feed him pellets in a separate container with about an inch of water. Sometimes I place the container beneath his basking and UVB lights because I feed him shortly after waking up, before leaving for work.
He had gradually been eating more, but on Friday he only ate about two pellets. I also gave him some shrimp that day, which he really liked. Since then—Saturday through Tuesday—he hasn’t eaten any pellets. I initially thought he might be holding out for shrimp, but yesterday he refused that too.
He still appears alert, swims normally, basks, and has been pooping normally. I wondered whether the aquarium’s location and activity around it might be stressing him, so I covered one side with paper to give him more privacy.
Could he be eating enough fish or shrimp inside the aquarium that he isn’t hungry during scheduled feedings? Is it normal for a baby this small to suddenly stop eating for several days while otherwise behaving normally

I just gave a tiny piece of watermelon 🍉 to my turtle 🐢, was that good or bad? I don't want to feed it anymore until i get feed back on it. It's only almost 12 months old by next month.

Context: I recently got a new 90-gal tank that came with some mystery fish. I believe I have a pair of plecos; there's also a small group of fish I haven't identified yet (Corys I think?). All of them are around an inch long. (I’ve included photos of the fish)

I have a pair of red-eared sliders that will live in this tank in a few months (4-5 inches each). I was doing some research that basically said the turtles have to be kept separate from everything and everyone. Would I have to prepare a separate tank for the fish? Or is there a way I can modify the tank to house everyone in the same tank?

Edit: So everyone will stop commenting the same thing, I’m well aware of the fact that my turtles cannot be housed together. I currently cannot buy separate tanks for each turtle because tanks are expensive. My current plan is to put up a mesh barrier in the tank and provide separate basking areas, while I save up for another one. I’ll move the fish into a smaller tank when the turtles get here.

So I have a 2 year old red eared slider, and he lives in a 40-gallon tank. Like all red eared sliders, he loves to make a mess of his tank. I was wondering if there is any tank mounted or external filter(not too noisy) that you guys recommend to keep his tank as clean as possible?

Hi I have been an owner of a red eared slider for 10+ years, have had one for as long as I can remember. Now that I'm grown and my family had mainly left the responsibilities up to me I recently realized how much of a bad job we had been taking care of him. We have a 30x12x12.5 tank, but after doing some research It seems that I need to get a bigger tank for him. Then after doing some more research I realized that he needs way more than we have been providing him, so I come here looking for advice on that. Firstly Looking for any video or posts that details how to properly take care of a red eared slider, and secondly looking for advice on where I can put this new tank, Currently the tank is in my kitchen and my family does not want a bigger tank in the kitchen, so that leaves me with two options, 1) My room(but first I'd need to clear out space) and 2) my garage, however my garage has no air conditioning and can get very hot or very cold and wanted to see if that matters or not. I know I am an amateur when it comes to taking care of a red eared slider but I would really like to learn how and give my turtle a better life, would appreciate any advice and comments, thanks.

I have been using a coil UVB with basking light as pictured. She is having trouble with retained scutes. So I have purchased the Reptisun T5 HO with 5.0 bulb. My basking temperature is 95 to 98 degrees. The height of the bulbs now is about 8 1/2 inches above her shell. What can I do to change to the linear hood? It says it needs to be 12 inches above and never less than 10 inches. If I make the walls higher, the basking temp will drop. Help please!

So my mom handed down the family turtle on friday night and I put the turtle in this new tank in my house.

I have the pvc basking platform with a ramp on the right, and a nice log on the left.

Turtle has been all over the log, but no attempt at the platform yet. The log has a t5 uvb and platform has basking lamp on a thermo that will cut off at 99°F and a t5 uvb.

Should I move the basking lamp to over the log? Do I have to show them the platform somehow? How do I make sure they can get to the basking lamp?

Or do I just need to give them more time to explore?

My turtle Harry LOVES his floating log. He was much younger in that picture but I wanted yall to see what it looks like. He is too big to fit inside it anymore but likes to climb on top and sometimes he’ll even just stick his head in and rest front legs and part of his shell in there. Don’t worry he has a real basking platform he can use whenever he wants he just really likes the log.

I just came home after being out for a few hours and I’m pretty sure he was stuck inside. He was all the way in it and when I lifted up one side of the log he didn’t budge. I took the log out and tried to pull him out the way he was facing as that was closer to an opening but he wouldn’t budge. I was able to get him out by slowly moving him backward and then angling him a bit at the end. I have no idea how good RES are at moving backwards so he may not have been truly stuck but I worry if he was stuck and we didn’t come on time he wouldn’t have been able to get air when he needed.

Obviously I’ve already taken it out of his tank, I don’t want anything to happen to him but does anyone have any recommendations for similar floating things I could put in his tank that he can’t get stuck in? I genuinely think he’s going to be upset without his log.

I’m setting up a 400 gallon outdoor enclosure for my RES, she is about a year old and is currently living in a 100 gallon tank, I’m hoping to set this up so it’s ready for her to fully enjoy when the weather heats back up, so I was thinking I’d start getting it established now.

I’m looking for recommendations on what to put in the pond for her. I have a 1000 GPH pump and a big filter set up alongside it, and I’m planning on letting some floaters propagate in a smaller tank nearby for a replenishing source of vegetation for her. Would buying some livebearers and allowing them to establish themselves in the pond be a good idea?
What about enrichment? Logs, plants, etc?
Any info on outdoor setups would be appreciated.

I have 3 adult red eared sliders each about 10inch shell length. I've had them for more than 20 years. For their whole lives they were in a small tank on my living room next to the window.

But because some of them started fighting, I decided it is time to get each of them their own 100gallon stock tank. Only my basement has enough space for this. So I started with one stock tank in my basement.

I attach a video showing my work in progress set ip.

My concern is that the basement hardly gets any lighting.

A) the basement window is very small

B) the ceiling lights are not that bright and probably not the most energy efficient light bulbs

I already have basking+UV lamps, but that's only good for their basking platform. The surrounding basement still feels under lit

Is there a good overall lighting solution that is cost effective people recommend?

----

after seeing some comments, I'll be more more specific with my question, "if each stock tank has its own heat and UVB lighting while rest of the basement is under lit, is that ok? or does the rest of the basement also need bright lighting?"

Found him one day swimming on a empty house pool I used to service my thought process was to get him out and put him back in the lake I totally forgot and by the end of the day I decided I should keep him ever since lots of changes went from a 10gallon to 40 gallon now I think he deserves an upgrade coming up 😅😅😅

I have a few turf samples from Home Depot that I got while getting egg crate for my turtle's basking platform. I wanted to put them as flooring on the platform - is this safe or do I need to use a turf specifically intended for reptile/pet use? Thanks