# sufficent tank for 5 red ear slider turtles



## water_boy173 (Nov 20, 2005)

At my highschool,in the biology lab, we have 5 red ear sliders. they all live in a tank that is approx. 5 feet long, 1.5 feet high and 2 feet wide. there is about 2 inches of water in the tank and the substrate is crush rock like the stuff that you would find in someone's drive way! they do have 2 0r 3 big rocks for them the sit on out of the water and the whole thing is filtered by 1 aquaclear 70 they dont have a heat lamp or anything! Is this a proper setup or am i just crazy( because i dont know anything about keeping turtle,i am a fish man!)


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## pamonster (Jun 26, 2003)

they need UVA/UVB light I'm thinking

Plenty of people around here have turts, so someone should give you some good help


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## water_boy173 (Nov 20, 2005)

thanx any help would be appricated!


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## DiscusMel (Jul 21, 2004)

Sliders are great swimmers and should be in as deep water as you can give them.Keeping
them in 2in water is fine while they are very tiny but i've had mine in 12-15in of water from
an inch in size.They need a basking lamp with temp in the low 90's to bask in, they also
need to be able to get right out the water onto a dry spot to make sure they dry out, a
UV light will also be needed for good shell growth.How big are the turtles? Sliders also
love veg and should be provided with lettuce like romaine daily, its a good filler
for them and helps keep down the begging.As for size of tank the rule of thumb is
10 galls per inch of turtle, a good external filter is usually the way to go if not then more
wc's are needed.Temp of the tank water should be 75/78 with 80 for babys.

I made a wee info sheet for yellow bellys which are just the same as sliders.
The turtle in the pic is my hybrid, shes a red ear/yellow belly

http://www.aqua-petsuk.com/forum/Yellow-Be...ider-t6876.html

Anything else you need to know just ask


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## water_boy173 (Nov 20, 2005)

the turtles range in size from 3-5or6 inches(just eyeballing it), there is no heater in the tank that i could see so the water is at room temperature,but do know that the there is tons of ventilation in that room (for disections) so its probably only 58-60 degrees in that room, i;am going to ask theprincipal if there is any money to update the tank.

i believr thst they are only fed reptile sticks, but i'll check that one out


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## DiscusMel (Jul 21, 2004)

Let us know how you get on


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## water_boy173 (Nov 20, 2005)

my biology teacher got back today and i asked him what he thinks abotu this project. he was so impressed that he said i could fix it and he would give me extra marks!

i will give you guys a look a the plans that i drew up and the plans that are of the tank right now.


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## water_boy173 (Nov 20, 2005)

View attachment 93134
View attachment 93135


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## water_boy173 (Nov 20, 2005)

any reply on the plans i have never done this before and want to know if it is good discus mel? anybody?


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## DiscusMel (Jul 21, 2004)

Looks okay to me, its all about maximising the swimming space
for the turtles, floating type docks are great for this.I presume
you'll be increasing the water depth from 2in so this alone will
be great for them.

As for food all it needs is for someone to buy a lettuce once a
week and chuck it in, they will eat it at their leisure and it won't 
go off in the water.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Foods like collard greens and spinach would be better, nutritionally, then the lettuce I would think. My turtles also seem to like peas and zuccini. In addition to reptile sticks I also feed my turtles shrimp, krill, bits of tilapia fillet (that I have on hand for my sanchezi) and live crickets (which I have on hand for my beardie). I also give squid when I pick it up. (I can buy it at my lfs.) And I fed bloodworms when they were smaller but have since stopped.

For a place to come out of the water look into cork bark. You can buy this from most pet stores. Wedge a piece in between the front and back of the tank and it allows you to maximize swimming space while creating a dock for the turtles to come out on.

Here's a general shot of my tank. It's a 55 gallon (48x13x21). The little specs you see are feeder guppies. The plant on top is duckweed. At either side are pieces of corkbark. I have a large piece of mopani driftwood in there that dyes the water a brownish colour. The bottom has mixed gravel and a few larger river stones. I have some random sword plants tossed in there as well that are always getting uprooted by the turtle digging. I have a single painted turtle in here who is about 3" in size at the moment.

View attachment 93512


Here's a more precise shot of the corkbark to give you a better idea.

View attachment 93513


Sorry about the poor pic quality. Just snapped them for the purpose of this post.

Also, as a last note, I have a Fluval 404 for filtration. I have it running with the sponges, three layers of floss and one layer of biomax media.

Good luck with your project!


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## DiscusMel (Jul 21, 2004)

Thats the whole point in feeding lettuce, no nutrititional value
means it can be fed to the turtles at anytime.

Heres a great read

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Articles/...uchhowoften.htm

Quote from above site

_Some, like spinach, contain oxalic acid (that binds calcium) & despite having considerable calcium may actually deplete a turtle of calcium if fed often in large amounts._


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

DiscusMel said:


> Thats the whole point in feeding lettuce, no nutrititional value
> means it can be fed to the turtles at anytime.
> 
> Heres a great read
> ...


That's why you feed it as a supplement and not a staple food. Anything fed in high amounts is never good.

But on the lettuce note - why bother if it's not doing anything?


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## DiscusMel (Jul 21, 2004)

3 reasons really

1 Its natural for sliders to eat alot of vegatation
2 My turtles beg alot for food, so lettuce fools them 
3 Lettuce is very cheap

I'm no expert on turtles and only passing on what i've learned on
some of the big turtle forums, they reccommend pellets as the staple
and as much lettuce (not iceberg)as your turtle wants.Mine love it and 
are very healthy,are growing at the correct standard so who am i to argue.


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