Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got a 10 gallon tank for my 2 bay RES and filled it with about 6 gallons. Theres a generously sized basking spot with a brick wall leading up to it. One RES likes to hang out on the wall and floats on the fake leaves. My other RES dives in the water and breathes out a lot of air and then sinks like a rock to the bottom. Its about 5 inches to the shallow water and he/she hasn't seemed to want to swim up... It dosn't even seem like he/she can even swim up without much air. Right now he/she is asleep on the bottom of the tank and I am worried that when he/she wakes up that they will not be able to swim up to get enough air... The trip up is about 7 inches and my RES is about 1 inch long.
Thank You for any tips or information.

Just think about how they live in their native habitat. They hatch, and within minutes they are in water often 40 feet deep. They will be fine in water as deep as your entire house. The more water you can give them, the happier they will be.

Turtles often sleep underwater, and they will even hibernate for the winter under water. I've been told that their metabolism slows down so much that they can absorb all necessary oxygen they need through their skin for months at a time during hibernation.

In short, don't worry about your turtles' swimming abilities. they will be fine.

I turned around after reading yourpost and there they were floating on their leaves... Well thats a relief

Turtles can drown, if you just got the tank, the smarter thing to do is to fill it up 3 gallons...then gradually increase it so they slowly learn how to swim...my friend had baby turtles and did exactly what your doing...they all died over night because they didnt know how to swim

the only way a turtle will drown is if it gets trapped under water and cant get up for air. Where did your friend get the 3 baby turtles?
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Or a turtle will drown if its a land turtle in an aquatic turtle habitat.
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I find it hard to believe that they didn't know how to swim.

Turtles are hatched from eggs, and usually the mother does aboslutely nothing to help raise them. Look at the sea turtles. They hatch and immediatley go to the ocean..and ALL of them can swim.

I don't think you have to worry too much about a hatchling drowning. Especially the way this one was described. It was hardly struggling or anything just relaxing on the bottom.

A more likely scenerio for a turtle drowning is when the opposite situation is done and for too long a period of time. (I have personally experienced this with many rescued animals that I have worked with)

I have gotten 4-5 inch sliders that were kept in no more than 2 inches of water their entire lives. I (before I knew this could happen) would put these animals into deeper water so they could swim and they would sink like a rock, struggle to hit the surface and if I did not pull them out end up on their backs under water and barely conscious. This is because they had no strength in the legs for swimming as they never really had to and also never had the opportunity to deal with balancing the air in their lungs. So I had to (in effect) teach them to swim by gradually increasing water levels every day until they have enough to swim, hit the surface for air and dive.

Little ones are lightweight, ready to go and designed to swim right away. Perhaps the ones you described had something wrong with them and that is why the drowned.

Hey,

Just to add my personal experiences with baby turtles not knowing how to swim. I had a hatchling painted, red-belly, map, and stinkpot together in one tank. All the turtles except for the painted knew how to dive, float, somersault in water, etc....but the painted just kind of floated around and had to struggle hard to dive. Some people told me some breeders kept their hatchlings in shallow water to minimize drowning so I guess this might have contributed to their lack of swimming abilities. Anyway, I kept the painted in shallow water and gradually increased the depth once he mastered the tricks of the trade.

On a sadder note, I had a baby softshell that got stuck underneath a stone and even though the water level was very low, he did not manage to get out and drowned as a result.

Johnny