New To Turtle/terrapin World

[Kyle87]

Hey all, my first post so be gentle . Give you abit of background to myself.

Basically our house used to be like a zoo, we had a pet dog, my dad kept 2 tanks full of fish and i had a pet snake. All of which over the past 3/4 years has died due to old age and we have decided against replacing them. I often go down the local pet shop and look at the reptiles and fish as i enjoy looking at them and saw some turtles/terrapins and fell in love with them , i now want one as my pet.

Basically i am clueless if anyone could help then it would be much appreciated and would be happy to keep everyone informed and keep a turtle diary

What would be a good t/t to start off with? Basically id like somthing i could handle and hold.
Are they a social animal? Do they need to be in pairs or are they ok by themselves?
Ah they really time consuming? Do they require hours of attention a week? I dont mind clean the tanks every week and feeding ofc.
What do i need to setup? Im on a budget and any advice on what i need? Good cheap products and where to get them would be a godsend.
Where is the best place to get one? I'd like to get it from as young as i could.

Any sort of begineers guide to feeding, handling of the sort would be brilliant aswell.

Sorry for asking so much but im really interested and really excited about the whole propect!
Thankyou Kyle

 

[Boxa]

I wouldn't claim to know loads about these but, this is Ted he is a Florida Soft Shell Turtle.

Originally I had wanted a shovel nose cat or something similar for a specialist tank I was looking as setting up, the Mrs didn't really like the look of anything though that I picked out for the specialist tank saying that everything I had picked was either to weird looking or boring. We then saw Ted in our local pet shop and she loved him, said he was great and really cute looking, have had Turtles/Terrapins before but Ted is 100% different, all the supposed Yellow Slider Turtles I have had in the past have just looked like the standard Terrapins you used to get at the fair about 20 or so years back. As you can see by the pictures (if the link has worked) Ted has the long snout you get with the Soft Shell Turtles, if you can find a Soft Shell then I would recommend getting one, their much funnier and like sad have much more character than the normal standard Terrapins/Turtles.

At the moment he is housed in a 4ft fish tank with some community fish now nobody panic he wont be staying there when he gets big enough to eat them or start snapping, but at the moment he loves the company of the fish and he even tries to swim with them and sits next to my Discus when she is eating and they both shoo other fish away from each other to allow the other to be able to eat in peace.

As for looking after Ted eats the following: Bloodworm (frozen) we feed him frozen because the Mrs has this idea that it will stop him being aggressive if he doesn't have to kill his food or have live food, he also eats Turtle and Terrapin Complete food, he even steals fish flakes. The important thing to remember with all Turtles though as they are actually more Omnivorous than Carnivorous.

Terrapins can not and must not be kept with anything other than Terrapins either due to the excrement then put out, it has something in it which kills such things as fish and others

Turtles/Terrapins are inexpensive really just depend son the type:

Most will cost about £15 to £20

Tank: until they get too big you can keep them in a normal size aquarium, if its a Terrapin while their small you can get away with a 1foot tank as they spend most of the time out of the water, a Soft shell though is a fully aquatic Turtle spending 90% of the time in the water so nothing small than a 2ft as they love to swim.

Lighting: Terrapins just have any kind of light, a Soft Shell needs a UV light, have a double strip light setup so have the back light as UV and the front as a Sun Shine, and the UV helps the fish thrive in the tank helps kill Parasites and also has made the plants grow like they are on Acid! depending on the tank size a UV light will be anything from about £15 to £30

Heating: Yes, Ted likes the temp up at 30c which keeps him active and healthy

You have got to be pretty dedicated as they can be messy and while they are young you might need a feeder tank to make sure they are eating properly, had so many problems in the past with the Terrapins not eating. They are well worth it though.


Ted was 2months yesterday and has more than Doubled his size in that time but he has a good appetite he is about 2'' at moment but can eventually grow to anything from 1ft to 1.5ft saw some bigger Soft Shell Turtles the other day and they still look funny and have the Character still.

If you do go for a Soft Shell just careful where from and see what its temperament is like if it snaps at your fingers while small then keep away, because they do have a rep as being very aggressive but thats more down to Personality.

Where's that moth gone?

Pictures but no Autographs!

That Danio is massive!

Where did I leave that Snail?

mmmm I see you!

 

[jack-100]

i got a yellow bellied slider (similar to red-ear slider), hes about 8 months old now so getting near to full size.
Anyways heres what mine needs -

A tank with a minimum of 60 gallon capacity (i have a 90 gallon just to give him extra space for swimming)

UVB light - try get the highest rating you can, usually 10.0 (all turtles/terrapins need a UVB light for healthy shell growth, also they need changing every 6 months as their output can deminish)

Spot light - you can buy a basking light from reptile stores but normal spot lights from homebase work just as well. Temp on spot light needs to be in the high 80s

Filter with at least 2x the rated filtration of water capacity. This is because filters are rated for fish waste and turtles produce alot more waste than that

Also dont use the small gravel as a substrate as the turtle will often eat it and can impact their stomach leading to internal problems and an expensive vet bill at the least

I keep a couple of fish in the fish tank with him, but they are all fairly large and fast. He doesnt go for them at all and gets on quite well, even with the shrimp in the tank.
When they are young, their diet should be mainly meat foods then moving on to veggies and pellets as they are older.
Meat can be anything really, i fed mine mince, chicken, prawns, ham and all sorts.
Now hes a little older hes mainly on the pellets, this is purely for price because buying fresh veg all the time is too expensive. When i can i feed him cucumber, peas, grapes, lettuce, carrot tops, anything green that he will take basically.

Let me know if theres anything else you need to know. A big choice is deciding what type of turtle you want. You must realise alot of species can grow to around a foot long, depending on the sex. If your going to have homing issues when its full size then id suggest against getting it at all. They wont stay small for long, and its just not right keeping them in cramped tanks