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this is carla, i’m not sure how old she is, but this pet store had had her for 3 months… i’ve been going here for years and hadn’t been there for a while when i went to get some stuff and saw her there.

she has no lamp or basking platform. i’ve had a red eared slider turtle for 13 years but i want to know how it should be different for her. she is a Chinese strip necked turtle from what i can tell.

me and my partner have volunteered to help build her a permanent tank for her there; after expressing how worried i was for her because the water was cold, and she was lethargic. her shell has quite a bit of pyramiding suggesting she needs better lighting.

i’m also worried if her getting egg bound is a concern, i’ve never cared for a female turtle. any advise is appreciated!

I saw a baby turtle crossing the street in front of my house and picked it up with a tissue to bring over to the pond in my backyard. On the way, I found 2 other babies on their way so I left it with those guys. Then I realized there were 3 smooshed turtles in the road 😢. Maybe I’ll try to get my town to put up a turtle xing sign.

I need to ask if this is normal. My Australian shor necked turtle is around 4 to 5 months old, and I need to ask if this is normal as he keeps biting his basking area. It's not like he's trying to get up because he can climb up there. I just wonder if he might be autistic or something? P.S I love regardless

The first turtle was stuck in a wood box frame we had setup for a concrete pour I set him right outside it and he scurried towards the lake, the second was just chillin and I couldn’t resist picking it up for some reason.

Okay, so I'm not in the most comfortable financial situation, and I do tend to do stupid stuff with my money, but I was out with my friend and a kid was shaking these two turtles container. It was a really crappy, carnival prize like container. It was very small for them. Lo and behold, I have obtained the turtles. It was a spur of the moment thing because the parents were watching and laughing and I offered to buy them. I really don't think they cared because they only wanted fifteen bucks. I took an emergency stop to Petco as it was the nearest place I could get supplies. I bought a smallish tank, about 5.5 gallons I believe, a basking lamp specifically for turtles, water conditioner, and a basking rock type thing. I'm pretty sure they are red-eared sliders, and I know they are going to be too big for what I got. As I said, I'm not rolling in money and it seemed to be the easiest cheapest option in a pinch. One of the turtles seems to have brownish/gray withering around some of their scutes, and I've never owned a turtle so I'm not sure what's normal or not. I'm going back to the store tomorrow to get a uvb lamp, which I just realized was completely different from a basking lamp and they need both. Any advice is appreciated, as I'm unsure exactly how to make them an adequate setup with limited funds. I'm aware they need a better space, but this was the best I could do in the short amount of time I had. Please help

My boy Atlas; loving his clean home. It's a 55 gallon tank

Hey. I wanna know why my turtle is dead after only one day with me. I just bought him yesterday.

I let him live in an 18 litres aquarium (because he's still a little baby) , with the same kind of driftwood that's from my aquascape . There's plenty of water for him to swim since I read that they're the kind that loves to be in water, not on land.

I wanna know what I did wrong. I mean, it's only one day!

Hello! I found this turtle in my backyard in MD. It is not Native in MD. My parents are willing to call people to remove it but it is likely they will kill the turtle. I do NOT want that. I need any and all help. I don't know what to do. I fed it, and gave it some water. I don't have money to go out and pay for any supplies, my parents don't support me but I honestly don't care. I'm willing to adopt this turtle, but I need support!

i’m unable to care and would like to rehome to a good home.

The first two pictures with my yellow belly under water and the others outside under UVA and UVB light while his shell is starting to dry out starts to look better when fully dry.

Hi :)

He is a 5 year old pond turtle and he is fat. His shell didn’t grow properly because he gained weight so quickly from eating a lot.

He basks under the sun every day, eats very well and walks and swims normally. His shell doesn’t smell or feel soft anywhere. But as you can see the scutes on his shell don’t line up properly and underneath his shell (around his belly) there is a pink line in the center.

Unfortunately there are no veterinarians in my area who specialize in turtles so I’m hoping someone here can help me figure out what might be going on. Any advice would be appreciated!

I’m fixing to upgrade my turtles tank to a 55 gallon and I’ve been doing a lot of research on what’s best and I just want to know other options! 🙂

Spotted turtle maybe? Much smaller than painter hatchlings I’ve seen.

Hello! I have a 40g tank for a southern painted turtle. He’s been to the vet and is healthy, eating and enjoying the enrichment options like multiple rocks, a cave and some live plants. Recently, I had introduced black river rocks as a substrate but it made it really hard to clean. I used one of those vacuums but it didn’t help. A week later, my water quality shows 0.25ppm ammonia and 5ppm nitrite. I have tried two 50% water changes, removed the rocks and cleaned every bit of debris I can with the aquarium net. But the readings remain the same and the water is an odd light green. It is clear and I can see perfectly but it has a green tinge.
What are some steps I should take to improve the nitrite content and ammonia content?

Using API freshwater liquid test kit that was bought last week.

Please help - I want him to have a good life and worried that this water quality may stress him if I don’t fix it soon.

Okay so I have a RES, about 3 years old. Seems like she’s a girl but hard to tell. We have a vet appointment this week because she might have an infection, but there’s also been a lot of changes recently as we got her from a family friend about a month ago and are trying to switch her into a bigger tank. She was found as a baby after being physically traumatized so her shell is a bit off and I’m not sure how that affects her other areas of health or ability to handle stress, hopefully the vet has more answers for us.

But anyway, we got her and moved her in. She had been living in a very small tank with a small basking area and barely able to swim in water. I started doing a lot of research, we were given a 29 gallon tank, but an awful tank stand and no filter so after a lot of research I got a sturdy tank stand and a fluval FX4 (to hopefully last a longgggg time) and am planning to upgrade to a large (to last to her full size eventually) tank in a couple months, just not possible financially at the moment. We set up the bigger tank finally but then she started getting sick and so we’ve been dry docking her with water breaks in a shallow container multiple times a day. It feels like there is infinite factors to consider with her so I’m sorry if its like I’m rambling. But I was turning off her basking light at night because I read about circadian rhythms but then I worried she was getting cold. I did some research and got a zoomed ceramic infrared heat emitter 100w, and a zoomed water heater 100w. ive read some more things now and not sure if these are the best products? i just want her to be in her best conditions especially while shes getting used to a change (literally shes never had this much water to swim in anymore she seemed terrified when we had her try it) and so i want everything to be great for her we just weren’t given enough supplies because her former owner wasn’t doing a lot of these things.

basically to sum up, here’s what she came with from her former owner: a small tank with basking area, no swim room way too small of a filter built in to it, a uva & uvb combined basking bulb and clamp style lamp, some plastic aquatic plants and rocks (only used big rocks, got rid of pebbles), water conditioner (which we’ve used everytime we add tap water as directed by the bottle), pellets and treats like shrimp, a 29 gallon tank (that we’ve just set up, shes never been in)

since getting her, i’ve gotten: a sturdy tank stand, fluval fx4 filter, we built our own basking area, a zoomed ceramic infrared heat emitter 100w, a zoomed turtletherm 100w water heater, and we’ve started feeding her veggies (starting with dandelion greens, she’s getting used to them but boy she loves her shrimp).

i still need to buy another lamp stand for the ceramic heat emitter but im worried thats not even the right product anymore. i would really appreciate some guidance on what i can do for the heat stuff specifically right now because ive read some contradicting things in my research, but open to any guidance on any other part of her care that ive described. i never thought i’d be a turtle owner and i love her! its quite an undertaking though and i want to do the best job!

hello all! im so sorry im not a fellow turtle enthusiast and lack a lot of knowledge. my question is: can this species of tortoise live without being fed for like 3/4 days?? im going to travel and theres nobody around to feed him. i already asked gpt about this situation and apparently he will be fine. but of couse i dont trust ai 100% and is still very worried. please let me know about the feeding situation and preferably not any other advice

context: so he is more than 15 years old and rely solely eating tortoise food pellet. i tried giving various veggies before and he never ate it. but he sometimes chew on fallen leaves.

I have a striped mud turtle who gets a lot of algae on his shell due to not having a filter currently.

One day I decided to scrub his shell with a clean unused toothbrush because he had so much algae on it when I recognized this. Is this something to be concerned about and what is it?

Also advice on cleaning shell + tank would be appreciated.

First, sorry for no pics. The tank in question is in the pitch black shed, and it's spooky going out there alone at night lol

So, I recently acquired a baby snapping turtle. He's about two inches long, and currently living in a plastic shoe box type thing with a heater, filter, and a few random aquatic plants pilfered from my other tanks. Not ideal, but it'll work while he's still tiny.

I have a 30 gallon tank that's got a chip on the edge in the top third. It passed a 48 hour leak test this summer before I saw the chip, but I don't want to risk it busting open. That said, do you all think I'd be safe to have like 4-6 inches of water in the bottom for my little turtle buddy? I want to be able to give him more room than he's got, and also otherwise use a tank that I'd now consider "dry critter only".

Hello everyone! This is Lilo, my 11yo RES. For a few years now, I’ve had her in a 100g tank that was tall but really narrow (picture 1). She would bump into the sides often and I never liked her basking platform either for how small it felt for her. Her shell is 10in in length but she’s 12in long with all her extremities out. So this past month, I made it my mission to upgrade everything!

I went on OfferUp and purchased a 120g tank and stand for $200, which as you all know, is a steal. I then spent a week and almost $200 on supplies to build a whole new basking platform for her to fit the tank. I’m no pro builder, but after much planning and a few mistakes, it is complete! And I’m genuinely happy with how everything came out.

After placing her in, I could tell she loves it already. She swims to the top and dives down quick, making fast turns and digging at the rocks. I made sure to use river rocks bigger than her head so that she doesn’t eat them. It took her a while to confidently go up the basking platform but once she did, she immediately splayed her body out which I’ve never seen her do before. Once she dries out under the lamp, she moves to the cooler side and chills there for a bit before going back to the water.

I’m not done with the design yet. I plan on adding live plants, driftwood, and a T5HO light in the future after I save up some more money for all that. Even my boyfriend (who has owned dogs his whole life up until we moved in together) now sees what it’s like to own reptiles (I have Lilo and a snake). He’s in awe seeing how much care, maintenance, and money goes into providing them a good enclosure and admires the passion I have for them. Hope y’all love this setup and I’ll post an update when the rest of the decor is put in!