How deep should the water be in a 10 gallon tank with a RES measuring 4" in diameter? Any suggestions for a good homemade ramp for basking?
2006-06-24 08:48:02 · 2 answers · asked by Kasha 3 in Pets ➔ Reptiles
The standard water formula for RES and other pond turtles is 10 gallons per inch of turtle, so your tank is way to small for it.
This means that it is not getting the exercise it should, the water is getting dirty very quickly, and the turtle is going to be stressed overall. You'll find it would be a lot happier in a bigger tank, plastic tub, kiddie pool, or something.
Water depth generally should be about 2-3 times the turtle's length- but this is not usually an issue.
Homemade ramps can be fabricated from a lot of things. I like clean driftwood, but I've seen them made from pieces of big clay pots, rocks, shaped pieces of acyrlic (with self-adhesive texture strips), and kiln-dried hardwoods.
2006-06-24 11:26:43 · answer #1 · answered by Madkins007 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
a 10 gallon tank is too small for a turtle that size. he needs at least a 20 gallon tank. it should be almost all the way full of water. a cheap alternative to a store-bought basking spot is to use bricks stacked at one end of the aquarium. make sure you have scrubbed them thouroughly with diluted bleach water. make sure you rinse them very well, too. however, if you choose to keep the 10 gallon aquarium (i know aquariums are costly), you might not wnat to use the bricks as they will take up much-needed room. pet shops usually sell cork for basking that is fairly cheap. it just floats in the water.
2006-06-24 17:24:06 · answer #2 · answered by purple_euphoria 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋