Albino Emydura subglobosa breeding project

I have a small group of Emydura subglobosa which I've raising up for my first turtle breeding project. I've kept turtles since childhood and have had many dozens over the past 20 years yet only had a chance to breed a single pair of rio grande cooters for a single year before now.

These guys have all been raised up my me (minus one female possible het albino) since hatchlings. My group consist of 2.3 turtles of which 2.1 are albinos and 0.2 possible het albinos. I originally picked up 2 hatchlings in 2006 which have since be sexed as 1.2 one being a female possible het. In 2007 I picked up a single albino which has been sexed as a male. In early 2008 I had the chance to pick up a 2004/2005 female possible het.

I got 2 clutches of infertile eggs last year and 3 this year from the oldest girl. My 2 males aren't yet large enough to breed they are growing a bit slow compared to the females with any luck my 06 male will continue the nice growth spurt he had this summer and breed the females next year. The 2 06 females are growing nicely the possible het reached sexual maturity this summer the albino is was a hair shy in August and should be ready before next spring.

I keep the group in 2 150 gallon rubbermaid stock tanks. One holds the 2 possible hets the other houses the albinos. The stock tanks both have basking areas consisting of 12'' square tile raised with red bricks, drift wood as access ramps for the basking areas, & fake plants as added furniture. The albinos have an excessive amount so they have plenty of resting areas. I use DIY external filter for the PH with 500 GPH mag-drive pump and a external pond filter and another mag-drive #5 pump for the albinos. 2 submersible heaters totaling 625 watts are in each enclosure.

Pix below of the enclosures and some of the group

http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/v...150GRBSTii.jpg

http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/v...150GRBSTiv.jpg

http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/v...PH150GRBST.jpg

http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/v...9_2324copy.jpg

http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/v...2_2313copy.jpg

http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/v...2_2305copy.jpg

Im in love:bow: Those are some of my favorite turtles, I love how they are all smiling.

awesome. never seen them as albinos, good luck with breeding them!

Nice turtles and VERY nice setup. How did you build your filters? Are those underwater aquarium heaters encased in PVC for protection against breakage? How are the plants doing?

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Originally Posted by MarkS

Nice turtles and VERY nice setup. How did you build your filters? Are those underwater aquarium heaters encased in PVC for protection against breakage? How are the plants doing?

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DIY filters are pretty simply to make. The one have in place PH enclosure is constructed out of 18 gallon rough neck rubbermaid container. 1'' electric conduit in place on one side used as a bulkhead. PVC is added to create an output to the enclosure. A simple manifold is created out of PVC for the input from the pump. The container is filled lava rocks and bio balls which serve as both mechanical filtration and biological filtration. Here's one I made previously but is not longer in use. Functionally is basically the same.
http://www.turtletimes.com/forums/in...opic=66698&hl=
Yeah the heaters are in the PVC so the turtles don't have direct contact with them. The plants are all fake. I've used real plants before but they make a real mess of filters so no longer us any. That and the turtles would make sure work of them and they would have to be constantly replaced.

Xavier