Hi there,
I bought a baby siamese res two weeks ago. It appears healthy and is eating and defecating regularly. Its about 2 inches across and 1 1/2" front to back. It was purchashed from someone who works at a turtle farm in Louisiana. The seller claimed it was born last year and "hibernated" all winter. Judging by its size and its special needs that is hard to beleive, but it could be true.
I was wondering if anyone out there has had experience with these or can connect me with someone who has? Setting up the perfect environment for these little guys has been a bit more tricky than you'd think. On land and in shallow water they tend to flip over quite easily, when that happens they flail and panic quite a bit. In deep water(2-3 inches) they can turn over and maneuver pretty good. But not always, a week ago I found them floating upside down, lifeless under the turtle dock, they had drowned. I put them on the turtle dock and miraculously they came back to life over a period of half an hour. They have now completly recovered! The turtle dock was in the corner and i have since moved it to the middle so they can swim out from underneath more easily.
My setup is a 5 gallon tank with a small zoomed tutle dock and a heater(unplugged) in the front left, bottom corner. They never use the turtle dock for basking. They spend 95% of their time on top of the heater. There is about 1/2 inch of water above the heater, so they sit on the heater with their heads out the water mostly. For heat I use a lamp with 60 watt full spectrum, which keeps the air and water 84-86. I'm concerned that there not getting out of the water and basking. So maybe I need to change my setup but I'm not sure how to exactly. I was thinking of buying some cork bark(where do i get it?) cutting it to fit my 5 gal. and making a slant. Or maybe I should try to find the perfect rock, one that comes out of the water in the middle while all the sides slope gently. Remember, getting out of the water is much harder for these guys than a regular res because they pull in different directions(sad and funny at the same time!).
If anyone could give me some advice or put me in touch with someone who owns one I would greatly appreciate that.
thanks for looking!
jason
ps-heres a link for 2 pics, 'turtle tank' and 'siamese', sorry the pics are so bad , i'll try to post some better ones later
picture links
