Perhaps Ive only ended up with intelligent healthy hatchlings so a large tank worked just fine.

Those of you who need a medical tank facility should start with a smaller tank.

(Things such as food intake,)
Ive always been able to monitor eating since I would feed the turtle when I was there, and didnt leave excess food in to cloud the water.
(temperatures,)
Ive always had sufficent current in the tank, so water temperatures were constant throughout.
As for finding food, it seems every turtle I had had an excellent sense of smell. Have you ever smelled inside the can of Reptomin?

Now if you are feeding live food such as fish, I understand its easier to shoot fish in a barrel than in a lake. In that case I would injure the fish to make it easier to catch. Cutting off the tail works good. Also I would hold the fish with a pair of tongs a let the little guy grab it first, then he would be hot on the trail and follow it whereever it wriggled to in the tank.

All this from a turtle the size of a quarter

As for turtles forgetting how to swim, A friend fo mine who had a RES (which I tried so hard to explain proper care) complained that their turtle wasnt eating and they had no one to turn to. I took their turtle, put in my tank. For about a minute it appeared to struggle to swim. My turtle was zooming all around it excited to have a new buddy. Within an hour, the new turtle was expertly maneuvering around the large tank.

I found out that even tho I have given them a 55 gallon tank for their turtle, they were keeping it in inches of water and the poor thing never had a chance to swim. Turtles dont forget how to swim, but it does take them a while to get going when theyve never done it before.

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