Reptile & Amphibian Forums

First off how fast should mt res grow I had 2 for almost a year and the only one of the two was growing and it ended up dieing a few weeks ago. The second is still alive but in almost a year it has only gained mabey a 1/4 of an inch in shell size, should it be growing faster or is this ok.
My other question is how deep should/ can the water be, i have a good filter and a heater in the tank, ive been wanting to turn one end of the 50 gallon tank in to a slide with a basking area at the top. My res is only ans inch and a half to two inches long and i dont want to stress it by puting it into to deep of water.
I have guppies in the tank with my RES in hopes of it eating them if itdose or not im not sure but i also feed it meal worms every couple of days is that an ok method of feeding
thanks for any help

no insult intended, but it sounds like you need some of the basic knowledge of how to care for your RES...so I'll begin there, leaving out some details you will find if you read the other messages on here.

ok...here goes:

You need a UVB light source to help the turtle have a healthy shell. You need a basking area so the turtle will dry its shell while warming itself up. Basking area should be 85-high 90's. I keep mine about 95 and they love it. Water can be cooler, but too warm and they won't get out to bask, too cold and they can get sick. I keep my water about 76-78. Different turtles seem to like slightly different temps. If you set your temps like this and they don't bask, make the water cooler to encourage them to get out and warm up.

Diet: you need to vary the diet more. Live fish are ok, but as a RES gets older they eate nearly exclusively vegetables. Anacharis is a popular food. They can also eat corn, carrots (cooked) and many other things.

Water depth: don't worry about the turtle being small. As babies in the wild, they swim in water many feet deep (ponds and lakes). Put all the water you can in the tank that you can without having it so high it can get out from its basking spot.

It sounds like you have split the tank and tried to provide "land" or wooded area for the turtle. Don't give this the same priority as the water area. They are aquatic turtles and only come out to lay eggs or bask. They really only need enough area to get out of the water and warm up.

Reading up on all the info available here and at Turtletimes.com is a great start for information. I have read about so many problems people have had and the fixes that I have been able to avoid ALL problems with mine. Thanks to these sources, I started on the right foot with my turtles and havn't had even the first medical problem or sickness. If you can do the same, you will find it much less stressful and cheaper than if you chose to skimp on equipment and wind up paying big money for medical bills or medicines.

Engloid said it fine but I'll just repeat some stuff

Yes mealworms are fine for meals -- that is if you want your other RES to die too. How the hell do you find this forum without finding some basic knowledge on how to feed a turtle? It's just a lie that turtles can live off of meat alone. Yes they'll eat it, of course they will, why wouldn't they? If they don't, they'll starve. In nature what's better to eat, a resting bug or some plants at the bottom of the water? Of course the plants aren't going anywhere so they attack the bug first, but in captivity it's only good for a treat. Or at most just part of the meal time (only a few will do)

Keep it up though the RES population is very crowded and there needs more owners out there like you to fix that population.

Visit austin's turtle page if you want your turtle to live - I hate when people post here when there are dozens of great websites that answer everything

Your turtle may be small, but is he healthy? Is he active and eating? Is his shell healthy? Just to add my two cents, I wouldn`t let the water temp. go below 76 degrees F, and I`d have the basking area 85-90 degrees F. High 90`s is dangerous, and mid-90`s is more for a turtle that`s sick. Besides the UVB light, you need a heat source for the basking area, which can be a regular lightbulb or a basking light if you want to spend the money. You need both.

Turtles do have different growth rates. They do grow most rapidly in the first three years, however, so if yours has only grown a quarter of an inch in a year, something sounds amiss. Mealworms are fatty, contain little nutrition, are difficult to digest and are best given as an occasional treat. For more balance consider feeding your turtle a pellet like Reptomin or ZooMeds Aquatic Turtle Food as a staple and supplementing with the guppies and other foods. Veggies are good if he will eat them. For a basic care sheet, try http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/trachemyscare.htm (Sorry, I don`t know how to make it a click-on link.)