Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok guys i actually have a few questions for you. First Ill give backround on me. Im a twenty year old student living in an apartment. I bought 4 red-earred sliders and i had a tank that seemed to be abundant in space considering that the information i got was that these turtles grow a half and inch a year. Well its a year later and Ive got three of these babies (one died to an upper respiratory infection a month after i got him, we had a funeral and everything). Ok, well i got bad information because these guys got big quickly. THey were the size of a half dollar when i got them and now they're like 4-5 inches. Well anyway i had to upgrade my tank but i have no money for some 1000 dollar glass tank so i got the biggest rubbermade container walmart carries and set it up. I have a filstar xp3 filter and a heater so im not concerned with that. In transferring the little guys two of them escaped but i caught them after 15 minutes. I put them into they're new tank but now they seem very unhappy... they claw at the walls and when i look in they scurry about like im a threat to them. Why are they so scared of me and is this tank ok for them? it was a pain to setup so i hope you say its ok. thanks for the help
jp

The larger space sounds like an improvement---great!

I'll bet your new "tank" is on the floor?
Possibly the RES are frightened by your looming over them.
In their first tank, you were kind of eye-to-eye.

Now, you may be to them a huge threat (predator) looming above them.
Hope some others chime in with other possibilities.

Good luck!

They're probably just freaked out in general, but they'll get used to it. Remember that they like food more than they don't like you, so if you give them food in the same place every day soon they'll be quite happy to see you.

First of all regarding the rapid growth. If you over feed they will grow much more rapidly. A 1/2 inch a year is still way on the low side even with moderate feeding.
You spoiled your little kids and they rewarded you by growing real huge real fast. You don't have to feed them every day and you can feed them food portions about the size of their heads.

As far as the tub goes they may settle down a bit in time. It is just a natural flight response to escape being caught. (They see you and react as if a predator is over head)

I have had many turtles that I raised indoors until they a reached around 4 inches. They were perfectly tame and would take food directly from my hand. Once they reached this size I put them into my pond outside. Every single one of them behaved as you described. My tame little turtles suddenly became wild animals who would flee at the slightest movement.

Eventually they calmed down a bit but never seem to get that tameness back again.

Now I can at least walk up to pond slowly and drop food in without them all scurrying away.

Just normal behavior.

Sounds like you have done very well with new set up. The Rubbermaid tubs are a really handy and inexpensive solution for turtle habitats.

Steve