New red belly turtles

Nice turtles they're always fun to watch especially when they're young. Those are Florida Red Bellied Cooters, not southern red bellies. THe grow up to 13" so you guys better be ready to build them a huge enclosure in the future. Here's a caresheet for you to read up on if you haven't already. http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-flredbelly.htm

I just saw that there were replies to this thread.

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Originally Posted by West Coast Jungle

Looks good Jake. I was very close to getting a turtle setup going(I love turtles) just not sure if I have enough room between all the snakes and beardie stuff. I may set one up in the greenhouse one day, we shall see.

I would put a Mercury Vapor bulb in one of the sockets over the basking rock for a high UV basking area.

What kind of filter are you going with? I did alot of research on turtle forums and they mostly reccomend using a filter that is double the capacity of the tank since turtles are so messy, especially of you feed in the same tank. They are so friggin cute!

Tell Briana we said Hi:bye:

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Thanks Raul, I built a 3 stage filter for them out of PVC. Here's what it looks like: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=75751
It's overkill and works great with the turtles. The nitrogen levels stay perfect after about a month of water changes, and it's always crystal clear. I can't believe how messy they are, but the filter keeps up. I need to put some kind of UV bulbs in there, but I'll have to cut some exhaust vents and add a couple 40mm fans so I don't cook the little guys.

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Originally Posted by RichardA

Looking great!

Any updated shots to share?

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Yep. I've been meaning to post some updates. They've grown like weeds since my first post, and I've added a couple of plecos and a pair of bettas. I tried a couple of fresh water angels and a group of neon tetras and the turtles didn't rest until they ate every last one of them. I don't know why they don't mess with the bettas. :confused:

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Originally Posted by Boneyman

Nice turtles they're always fun to watch especially when they're young. Those are Florida Red Bellied Cooters, not southern red bellies. THe grow up to 13" so you guys better be ready to build them a huge enclosure in the future. Here's a caresheet for you to read up on if you haven't already. http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-flredbelly.htm

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Thanks for the info. I have a 90 gal? long aquarium waiting for me to pick up at a relative's house, but I was hoping I'd be out of my condo and into a house before I set it up for them. I got a book about care for the North American species before I picked these out, but I'll check out the caresheet, too.

http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...0e3cfdb557.jpg
http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...91421f7d9c.jpg
http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...0a88182486.jpg

Cute turtles and nice cage