I can't sleep so decided I'd post some of my observations of these turtles. Quick background;
Randomly bought one from PetSmart a few months ago because they were on sale and I thought my wire might enjoy turtles since they're a little more active than the geckos we had and I had a spare 55 gallon tank and some ideas swirling in my head. We enjoyed this turtle so much, a month later we bought turtle #2.
Anyway, I have to say I spent days researching these turtles and wasn't sure what to expect but leaned closer towards them being more of a sit around species. I was wrong...very very wrong. After they got settled in their demeanor and every day activities changed. They often swim around their tank and bask. The smaller of the two will also dig into the dry land every so often or hang out in the cave I have underwater for them. When the little one does this the bigger of the two will stick his head in their every once in a while as if to see what's going on, any other time though he doesn't bother with it. These two spend a LOT of time scavaging. I used large river rock in the bottom and they walk around sticking their heads between the rocks getting at whatever food they may have missed. When that doesn't work they turn into bulldozers and move anything that's in their way. With that being said, make sure ANYTHING you put in their tank that you want to keep in place is secured down in some way. I have several plants in there that are planted in 2" high clear plastic planters that you can get at Lowes. These planters were just originally filled with fluorite...that lasted about a week, they uprooted most of the plants AND moved the planters. So I replanted them and put several river rocks on top. They simply saw that as a challenge and to shove it in my face, they also dumped the fluorite out of two of them. So now there are only two out of six plants left planted and I left the others floating. I may replant a couple but when they come up for air they seem to prefer the area where all the plants are floating, I'm assuming it's a security thing.
I've owned MANY species of reptiles and amphibians; monitors (tree monitors, mangroves, waters, savannahs, dumeril's, crocs, niles, savannahs, and some others), iguanas, geckos, sliders, painted turtles, snappers, mud turtles, and many others. I have to say that these two turtles are by far the favorite out of any species I've owned, they're also some of the most intelligent as they know my feeding time routine and get visually excited, especially the big guy. Oh and there is a size difference of about 2" or so between the two of them. During the first week I thought this may be a problem as they would sometimes nip at each other, but it seems now they have a pecking order and I have seen no signs of aggression in almost a month. Though not the most colorful, I'm surprised this species isn't a lot more popular due to how active they are...they really are just fun to watch.
Randomly bought one from PetSmart a few months ago because they were on sale and I thought my wire might enjoy turtles since they're a little more active than the geckos we had and I had a spare 55 gallon tank and some ideas swirling in my head. We enjoyed this turtle so much, a month later we bought turtle #2.
Anyway, I have to say I spent days researching these turtles and wasn't sure what to expect but leaned closer towards them being more of a sit around species. I was wrong...very very wrong. After they got settled in their demeanor and every day activities changed. They often swim around their tank and bask. The smaller of the two will also dig into the dry land every so often or hang out in the cave I have underwater for them. When the little one does this the bigger of the two will stick his head in their every once in a while as if to see what's going on, any other time though he doesn't bother with it. These two spend a LOT of time scavaging. I used large river rock in the bottom and they walk around sticking their heads between the rocks getting at whatever food they may have missed. When that doesn't work they turn into bulldozers and move anything that's in their way. With that being said, make sure ANYTHING you put in their tank that you want to keep in place is secured down in some way. I have several plants in there that are planted in 2" high clear plastic planters that you can get at Lowes. These planters were just originally filled with fluorite...that lasted about a week, they uprooted most of the plants AND moved the planters. So I replanted them and put several river rocks on top. They simply saw that as a challenge and to shove it in my face, they also dumped the fluorite out of two of them. So now there are only two out of six plants left planted and I left the others floating. I may replant a couple but when they come up for air they seem to prefer the area where all the plants are floating, I'm assuming it's a security thing.
I've owned MANY species of reptiles and amphibians; monitors (tree monitors, mangroves, waters, savannahs, dumeril's, crocs, niles, savannahs, and some others), iguanas, geckos, sliders, painted turtles, snappers, mud turtles, and many others. I have to say that these two turtles are by far the favorite out of any species I've owned, they're also some of the most intelligent as they know my feeding time routine and get visually excited, especially the big guy. Oh and there is a size difference of about 2" or so between the two of them. During the first week I thought this may be a problem as they would sometimes nip at each other, but it seems now they have a pecking order and I have seen no signs of aggression in almost a month. Though not the most colorful, I'm surprised this species isn't a lot more popular due to how active they are...they really are just fun to watch.
