San Diego Turtle and Tortoise Society

AWESOME!  That’s the word to describe this fantastic organization.    As you guys know I have had the priveledge of rescuing and rehoming a couple of amazing tortoises and know how hard it is to take care of these guys, heal them and then find them some loving and secure homes.  Consequently I can’t help but to be in awe of the scope of this delightful organizations dedication and hard work at rescuing and then rehoming these awesome animals!  I have made a new friend in the director of the organazation, who seems to always be busy doing good for the little guys!  Anyway there website is www.sdturtle.org and I encourage you to check it out and if its in the cards provide a loving home for some of these deserving pets!

Beating “Green Water” caused by Algae

Ok… “GREEN WATER” SUCKS

Turtles are nasty animals that we are constantly trying to keep clean!  We finally get their tank super clean only to have the entire tank turn into a vat of green pea soup.  I mean this stuff gets so thick you cannot see the turtles or any of their tank ornaments.   The first time this happened to me was about a WEEK ago.  I have dealt with yellow water, dirty water, smelly water but I had never had to deal with GREEN WATER.  It was the hardest.  The tank it showed up in water my 33 gallon outdoor tank that has an AWESOME cascade filter designed for tanks of 65 gallons AND a Canister ReptiFilter rated for 30 gallons and yet I had all green!  After hours and hours of looking up the reason and asking turtle “professionals” I found that it is harmless for the turtles and fish but annoying for us humans.  Ok… breath the little dudes are ok!

LET’S BEAT IT

Ok to beat it you need to eliminate what it needs to survive; nutrients, sunlight.  If you have an indoor tank all you have to do is just not expose the tank to sun light or any UVA, UVB lights fr a couple days and the algae will DIE.  If its outdoor (like mine) I made a huge sunshade and just keep the sun away for 2 hours and now my tank is crystal clear.  Also always feed your turtle in another tank if possible as it will save you a lot of grief and gross food scraps .  Good luck guys…. Over and Out

Bio-Balancing a Turtle Aquarium

BALANCE IS KEY

Ok I have a question…. What does 99.9% of turtle and fish owners agree upon?  The answer is that it is impossible to make a freshwater aquarium biologically balanced with a turtle.  What do I mean by biologically balanced?  If I succeed I should only have to clean my tank maybe once a month and change the water very very rarely.  Sounds good but how do we do it?  Well before I try to tackle any problem I look at all of the obstacles.  In this case there are so many I’m going to make a list.

The Reasons it is “IMPOSSIBLE”

• Turtles Eat Everything that moves and tries to eat everything that doesn’t
• Turtles when startled rampage around cage destroying everything and re-landscaping your aquarium
• Turtles are extreamly nasty and poop A LOT
• Aquarium Stuff is Craaaazy Expensive and I am totally BROKE
• Filters Suck Unless You want to spend BIG dollars
• Turtles will be turtles….

Alright here are my successes and failures so you dont have to make them!  Also I would like all the help I can get so share your stories as well!!

YEY’S and NAY’S

• Do not buy $15 stalks of bamboo unless you have a way to literally cement them to the bottom of the tank!  My turtles alternately attacked, ate, dragged and subsequently killed the damn thing within 72 hours!
• Ghost shrimp = food.  I put ghost shrimp in the tank but they just kept getting eaten by either the turtles, goldfish, feeder fish and most recently by my Tiger Oscar.  They help clean but die quickly.
• Live plants = Bad Idea.  They decay causing yellow water….. damn the yellow water!
• Feeder Fish = Awesome if eaten immediately.  Other wise you end up with a tankful of feeder fish that are friends with the turtles.
• Tiger Oscar = Feeder Fish Solution.  Get one of these big guys and they wont get eaten by the turtles (or at least hasn’t yet) and they clean up the ‘herd’ of feeder fish.
• Bottom Feeding Fish = Algae Solution.  If you get them big enough they wont get eaten
  (once again not yet) and they clean up the tank!
• DO NOT GET SHITTY REPTILE CANISTER WATER FILTER
• NO GRAVE
• Evaporation does not clean tank for you.  It makes it worse because just clean natural H2O is evaporating not the nasty stuff!

Thats it for now!  Give me your feedback!

Red Eared Sliders Need Love Too

Hey Guys!

I have been getting emails about putting up some “legitimate” info on turtles up… Here we GO!

Turtles used to be kept in unfiltered, confined basically gross fish bowls and consequently they ended up getting Salmonella and causing health scares…… Ok so basically make sure you house your turtle correctly. Aquariums and the equipment needed to run them are very expensive. However don’t worry… be happy! I have mastered perfect turtle care on starving student funding.

1) Tank- For anything above 4″-5″ you need 20+ gallons for them to swim in! Don’t worry Emma that won’t be for a while! Ok guys if you don’t want to step up to the $200 a nice aquarium is going to cost you buy an IRIS or Rubbermaid tank. You know what I’m talking about! Go to The Container Store and for $30 you can get a 33 Gallon Tub! Thats Huge! I have 2 Adult and One Juvenile Turtles chilling in one of those and they love it! I would strongly suggest against gravel as all it serves as is a turtle turd sponge! Also it may look pretty but once the turtles get to it they will re-landscape for you!

2)Water Heat- These guys live outside in ponds so they are pretty darn hardy. Just make sure the tank does not dip below 50 degrees for extended periods of time as that will result in hypothermia.

3)Basking Platform- They will need a basking platform above water that they can warm up on and absorb some essential UVB and UVA rays from either your lite or the sun! DO NOT BUY THE STUPID FLOATING LOG! I got one and every time my adult turtles get on it, it sinks!

4)Heat/UVB Lamp- You will need one of these if your turtle does not have access to unfiltered sunlight. For instance being next to a closed window will heat him up but wont let UV rays in. The basking spot should be about 85 degrees. 5 degrees either way won’t hurt.

5)Water-  This is the most important part!  They live, eat, pee, poop, drink and reproduce in the water they swim in.  Consequently its quality is very important to you!  Whenever you put water into a tank for an aquatic animal you need to de-chlorinate it as well as getting out the ammonia, hard metals and other harmful chemicals.  To do this you must have water treatment ’stuff’.  Also I would suggest a bottle of good bacteria that dissolves solid waste in your tank.  It can be found down the reptile and/or aquatic aisle in most pet stores.  Ok last but not least make sure you have a good filter that you maintain rigorously.

6)FOOD- Finally the most interesting part!  Ok first of all if you don’t have a cuttlebone or “Turtle Log” you need to get one.  This is a block of calcium (the most important part of a turtles diet) that floats on the water and the turtles chew on as needed.  Then…. well variety rules.  Feed you turtle the most varied diet you can find/afford.  These guys are omnivorous so they eat anything!  I would suggest trout chow and/or turtle sticks as the main part of their diet.  Then let them have some fun and feed them fish, mealworms, wax worms, earthworms, crickets, cockroaches and for full grown adults baby mice.  Also put fresh greens in there occasionally as this is good for them!

Have fun and if you guys have any questions comment!