I’m moving my turtle to a larger tank but I’m really worried about the shelf not being sturdy enough, especially since I’m a renter and dealing with water damage would be such a headache. I’ve done the math and it will be fine right now I’m pretty sure, but ideally we’d use this shelf as long as possible and I really struggle to understand the physics of how these things hold weight. Also, the instruction manual literally says: Do not use this for aquariums. But do they all just say that for liability or whatever? Hoping people here have more insight and experience!

I have a box turtle, Barbara. She gets zoomies like CRAZYY so I built this playpen in the house for my medium reptiles that I thought COULDN'T CLIMB.

BAR WHAT ARE YOU DOIN

NOTICE: SHE DID NOT FALL AND SHE IS UNHARMED. I PUT HER BACK IN HER CAGE WHILE I MAKE A NEW PEN DESIGN

Don't worry, he wasn't trying to escape, for some reason he was standing still on the wall (picture 2)

His name is ninja and he is 2 years old. His birthday was last week please wish him a happy birthday!!!

Questa è Caramella, ce l'ho da 11 giorni, ho cercato di metterla a suo agio in questa vasca appena comprata, e ho cambiato il filtro originale con questo fluval ac50, lampada che riscalda e a breve mi arriva la lampada uvb 5.0 da 13 watt. Consiglio sull'arredamento della vasca? non ho mai avuto una tartaruga. Mamgia reptomin, pesci essicati e gamberi, ovviamente alternati.

I mean they live in shallow water and kinda go on land and stuff, so a paludarium setup basically.

And the general rule is 10 gallon per inch of shell, so a 40 gallon minimum for most adults, roughly 91 cm x 46 cm x 43 cm.

But I’m thinking wouldn’t it be better to have a pvc vivarium that can be easily waterproofed that’s bigger?

Like an enclosure that’s 4 feet long, 2 feet wide and 2 feet high?

Or am I other thinking the care requirements for an animal I’m not intending having?

When I got Linguinii on August 18th she was 3.29 grams. Today, 2 weeks later she is 3.55 grams. She seems to be growing much much much slower than her brother, Tortillinii. When I got her bother he was just under 3 grams. He’s now almost up to 6 grams. He is a week older than Linguinii. Tortillinii went through a period where he just double in size within a few days but she just isn’t really gaming much weight, if any at all bc I can’t even be sure her stomach was empty when I weighed her today. She could very well still be closer to her starter weight.

I asked the breeder and instead of helping me he jumped to a bunch of assumptions - that I’m weighing too often (he thinks daily when I do it once a week if I remember to. Also kept calling the turtles tortoises so that didn’t give me much hope for them either. He also said idk what I’m talking about bc one could have pooped while the other didn’t and now I’m weighing and comparing weights. The problem is, I am using my working eyes to see that she is less than half Tortilliniis size. She is tiny. She hasn’t even broken the “acceptable birth weight” scale yet no less put on any ‘extra’ growing weight (I hope that makes sense). She is 1.5 months old.

Unfortunately I don’t have good comparison photos of them side by side now but the one I attached shows them both the day I got Linguinii and you can see they were fairly close in size. Now Tortillinii is more than double her size.

Is there anytng I can do? She eats but she’s not an eater like her brother who will try anything you put in front of him. She is very timid, and fails to realize she needs to hold onto her food, so it’s always getting away from her. I’ve made the pieces smaller, larger, I’ve tried holding it for her while she eats.

I can’t tell if she’s failing to thrive or if she’s just a bratty musk who happens to be small and slightly picky. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Apologies if this is a repost, had some issues with reddits auto-filters it seems.

First picture below is my turtle 12/2025. I posted here about it and got that it might be retained scute, didn't look that bad. Did 3 months of dry-docking and it seemed to be getting better. So stopped that around April.

Well it now seems to be getting significantly worse, see below:

But the shell issue seems to be getting worse, so I'm back to 5 hour/day dry-docking with provodine iodine on the shell, dry-docking is outside even to make sure UVB is being gotten. I mean I'm changing my UVB lights every 5 months to make sure. I'm not sure what else to do. It's 10.0 in a dome 9 inches above basking. I guess I can get a solarmeter to be sure but damn they are expensive.

Diet is 50% pellets, 50% escarole/dandelion greens, even crush up some cuttlefish bone and wrap in the leaves for calcium supplement (won't eat on it's own), no D3 supplementation anywhere for now. Behavior is fine, hungry, energetic and active, pooping normally.

Am I crazy that his back shouldn't be so flat? It should have some vertebrae ridges like the green arrow all across the back right? I did notice he seems to not bask as much as he should be recently. And when in water, that area in question on his shell gets kind of soggy spongey, but it's only a thin top layer, not the entire shell, no bad/odd smells. So what is going on here? I fear it's metabolic bone disease. I don't want this to get any worse. My boy is 36 years old.

Curious what filter everybody has because it seems like no matter where I get my filter it just loves to give out after a while

already posted in acquariums but maybe here it's more useful, sorry if double posting isn't allowed but i need help quikly

Hello everyone! i have this problem i belive, a co-worker of me is going to buy 2-3 water turtles pet (the common ones sold in gardens) to put them in this fountain (that isn't working) with no filter nor heater; they know the turtles need a basking spot and they are going to clean the water before adding them (it is under two cedar).
I don't know how many liters the fountain is (second and third picture are here if someone wanna do the math).

i have some concerns about:
1- volume of water
2- need of a filter/water change
3- temperature of water (now we have 30°c outside but in few months it's going to be cold)
4- the color of the fountain makes me think it is made of copper

can a few turtles live there? can they survive?
i don't thik i can change their mind. they told me they will move them when it's winter.

i'm the one bringing one of them to the pet store.

chatgpt version:

Hello everyone! I believe I have a problem. A co-worker of mine is going to buy 2–3 pet water turtles (the common ones sold in garden centers) and put them in this fountain (which isn't working), with no filter or heater. They know the turtles need a basking spot, and they are going to clean the water before adding them. The fountain is under two cedar trees.

I don't know how many liters the fountain holds (the second and third pictures are there if someone wants to do the math).

I have some concerns about:

1. The volume of water
2. The need for a filter/water changes
3. The water temperature (it's 30°C outside now, but in a few months it's going to get cold)
4. The color of the fountain makes me think it might be made of copper

Can a few turtles live there? Can they survive?

I don't think I can change their minds. They told me they will move the turtles somewhere else when winter comes.

Hi I’m looking to rehome a turtle and they think that it’s a Ouachita Map Turtle but they aren’t sure. I was told it’s three years old and he seems pretty small. Thank you for any help!!!

Edit: I am the one looking to take him in. I am not the one rehoming

I’ve spent ££££ on filters and they’re either not powerful enough or too powerful that they heat the tank up! I’ve decided to go for an external filter now but I can’t really afford anything over £80 at the moment and I’m struggling to find one. Does anyone have any recommendations? He’s a musk turtle.

In Chicago

THIS TURTLE IS HEALTH AND ABOUT 4 YEARS OLD.
Name: Talilo Gender: Girl? Turtle type: Red ear slider
(I haven’t takin her to a vet but she has never had any health concerns)

The Turtle, and food is free. However if you would like the 70 gal tank it will be 80$ (i did not buy it so I can’t say for Terran it’s 79 gal however I did some google searches and reached this number along with how many buckets of water I used to fill it.

!! I won’t be giving away any of the sipped untold the turtle is in someone else’s care. !!

And all the rest of the turtle supplies I have can come in a bundle for 150$
(I paid muchhhh more for the supples so this feels a little cheep to me however I understand some things are used.)

[The bundle includes]
-The turtle lights, any spares I have
Water cleaner
-Glass cleaner for the water stains
-glass cleang tools, Mattel scraper and magnet prepare
-water filter(only about 3 months old and you can have the warranty)
-Bucket and drain filters
-Water hose

I believe there is more but this is all I can think of. (No bubbler)

Im giving the turtle away because I dident do any research and was an inplus when I was like 16. I js don’t have time or energy to spend. 😞 I’m sad to see her go but it’s for her so please be nice, the comments about how I should have did research then and all BBB of that is not helpful no need to comet that. Also I did add more water in the tank after takin this photo.

My turtle is still not found. It is an adult female red ear slider that is 7 inches long. It could not have moved far since no one saw it since I reported it missing, and I have missing posters taped in a 2km area. There has been heavy rain the past two days, which means my escaped turtle is hydrated at least. Turtles sleep at night, and since it is early September it gets cold at night as well, which reduces their chance of moving. I suppose what happened is my turtle is hidden somewhere nearby living off plants and insects, but since turtles are so good at hiding no one had seen it. A turtle crossing a road will be conspicuous, and since no one had seen a turtle in my area for the last 6 days I presume my turtle had not crossed a road, at least not many. What do you recommend me to do? I had searched and scanned the road every day for any sign of my turtle.

Musk turtle! The filter is UV rated for 55-200g, has a baffle pointed up so it doesn’t mess with her swimming. Never seen her come out of the water but she can in the back corner. UV lamp, basking lamp… no sand? Not sure if I should? She’s a curious girl but likes her hiding spots.

I took her in 2 days ago and haven’t seen her eat— gave her like 12 pellets in the morning and they had just sunk when I got home and installed the filter.

First time turtle parent and hoping to improve her QoL (shell had some pyramiding) so really open to feedback!

Had this turtle for 6 months now and no one has been able to tell me what type of turtle he is... the person I got him from said he didn't know, and he couldn't afford to take care of him.

We just moved a little red-eared slider into a new 20 gallon tank. He is a rescue that my stepdad found in a crawl space during a home inspection. He was being kept in a very small terrarium. He just moved into a new tank today.

I know I still need to make sure I have UVA and UVB lighting. I know eventually as he gets older he will need an even larger tank. Currently we just have a warming light for the basking platform. If there's recommendations on what lights to get, I'd love that.

He's set up with an auto regulating water heater for 78° and and in-tank filter.

Over 60% of the water used to fill this tank came from our axolotls healthy tank during a water change. Testing the water shows ammonia nitrate and nitrite levels within acceptable ranges. We will continue to monitor the levels constantly for the first few weeks.

Substrate is large pebbles that are too big for his mouth. Eventually as he gets bigger these may need to be changed out for something safer for his size, but they are too big for him to swallow at this time.

My concerns currently are making sure that we get him set up with the correct lighting and also making sure he's able to actually get up on his platform. It sort of loosely floats in the water and is secured with a suction cupped rod to the side of the tank. I have a 3D printer and may decide to print a platform instead.

I 3D printed him a small cave that is secured to the bottom that he is able to easily go in and out of right now.

He currently swims around the filter quite a bit and I hope it's not agitating him in any way so if there's any advice or input on this please let me know.

We have another tank with an axolotl that we've had for a couple years so we're fairly familiar with setting up a freshwater tank. Still. I have not raised a turtle before so any gotchas or things I need to be aware of, please let me know and I'll appreciate it.

First picture below is my turtle 12/2025. I posted here about it and got that it might be retained scute, didn't look that bad. Did 3 months of dry-docking and it seemed to be getting better. So stopped that around April.

Well it now seems to be getting significantly worse, see below:

Now there's a whole story behind this turtle have poor husbandry simply because we got him before the internet, listened to what the pet store owner told us, and never updated our info. But since Christmas, I've had appropriate UVB light, proper diet (50% pellets, 50% escarole or dandelion greens), also using calcium supplements, taking cuttelfish bone, and breaking off tiny peices, wrapping it veggie leaf, so he eats it (won't eat it otherwise).

But the shell issue seems to be getting worse, so I'm back to 5 hour/day dry-docking with provodine iodine on the shell, dry-docking is outside to make sure UVB is being gotten. I mean I'm changing my UVB lights every 5 months to make sure. I'm not sure what else to do. It's 10.0 in a dome 9 inches above basking. I guess I can get a solarmeter to be sure but damn they are expensive.

Am I crazy that his back shouldn't be so flat? It should have some vertebrae ridges like the green arrow all across the back right? I did notice he seems to not bask as much as he should be recently. And when in water, that area in question gets kind of soggy spongey, but it's only a thin top layer, not the entire shell. So what is going on here? I fear it's metabolic bone disease. Currently none of his food has D3 supplements. I don't want this to get any worse. Broski is 36 years old.

Hi guys, somebody gifted this turtle to my daughter ( I agreed to receive it before it was gifted) , and I am looking for advice on how to best adapt the tank for the little guy( or girl ) , local stores are not very helpful because their advice is very relaxed compared to what I find in Internet , this is what I am planing to buy or improve , (I buy mainly on amazon because is the most reliable to buy things using a international courier)

the tank size is around 16x9x8 inches

Heat Lamp : we live in Venezuela with temps being 30+C (86+F) most of the year, so this may not be required, but I am still planning to buy a ZooMed Nano Fixture + Halogen 35w Arcadia heat lamp

UVB Lamp: I debating between using dome fixture vs the something like the Arcadian UBV kit 13 inches , (the tank is around 16 inches wide) , I also have to send that to my country using a international courier , so this make me question if the UVB led lamps like the Repti Zoo are any good, that may be the easiest option to import.

Tank ceiling: I plan to change the ceiling with an aluminum mesh.
Basking Platform and Water Level: I think the water level should be higher the current level was based on the store advise , but I think I need to buy a platform that is higher than the current one, I am not sure if those that stick to the glass are a good option. I may DYI one.

Hello, could someone help me? This turtle belonged to my mother and, now that I moved to a house, I decided to bring her to take care of her. It has many white (and even green) spots on the hull, does anyone know if it's normal? I noticed that she has the skin of her neck and paws peeling. Is she just "canging her skin and hoof"?

She is a very active turtle, spends most of her time walking around the house and garden, has free access. I put a lake for her on my patio, but she never enters it! I need to put her there at night to feed. I'm giving my own food to turtles only.

I brought her to my house to improve her quality of life, can anyone help me? Oh, and I don't know if it's female or male, but it's 22cm long.

Is this a male or female musk turtle?

Like…no way this is remotely suitable??? They’re worried about space in the house but maybe they can set something up outside in the yard? Maybe like a stock tank and some sort of barrier so the dogs can’t bother it? Any ideas I could give them?

Hi there, I have a 2 year old yellow slider who is currently housed in a 40 gallon tank.
Temperature is usually around mid-high 70’s and upon feeling the basking platform (which is one of those diy pvc types) I’d say it is noticeably warmer than the water. The basking platform has a heating light and uvb light directly above it.
The tank itself has some rocks scattered about as well as a back scratcher and a heater which we don’t turn on, it’s solely for emotional support because my son seems to have an attachment to it.
But anyways, to start with, we had him as a hatchling, so we started him off in a 10 gallon. He would ALWAYS bask in there as a wee little one in that tank. He loved the light! He would often even sleep on his favorite rock that was outside of the water.
Ever since we got this 40 gallon tank however, he’s become so nervous and skittish, which I figured would happen. It’s a new environment after all, but it’s been months now. He won’t bask at ALL, he is always extremely hesitant to come up to me and swim around the tank in general, and he constantly tries hiding away the entire day, which is so odd considering how he used to be.
I’ve tried leaving food on the basking platform to entice him up, nothing.
I’ve tried putting him up on his platform manually a handful of times, nothing.
I’ve put his favorite rock up there, nothing.
I’ve lowered the basking platform some and made it water level because I figured maybe the ramp to get up might’ve been too steep, but even being able to just swim right into the platform he still won’t budge.
It’s gotten to a point we’ve decided to just start putting him outside for a while to let him dry out and get some natural sun because I’m worried he’ll end up getting sick or having issues with his shell.
I’m at such a loss of what to do, I figured maybe over handling and near constant presence of a person might’ve been the issue too but even after a month long trip he still hardly left his little safety corner and never tried basking.
It’s like nothing is working! Maybe there’s just something I’m not thinking of or some underlying issue… I’m so unsure.