Morning!

We are the new owners of a turtle/terrapin and were wondering if anybody could identify him?






Also, we keep reading conflicting things, will he eat vegetables or meat only?

What is the ideal temperature?

And most importantly, are his green bits ok!?

We have just bought a lamp for him, hopefully that will help.

I would ask what food is best, but I've noticed lots of threads on that, so I'll try reading those first!

aww he/she is a stunner!!! sorry cant help i know nothing about turtles

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looks like some form of red belly, does it have a long neck cos it could be a snake neck.

try terrapin tank some one will know what it is, and yes the "green bits" are ok use a soft tooth brush if u want rid of them, its just a build up of algue

It's an African Helmeted Turtle Pelomedusa subrufa, there are lots of very similar subspecies and I'm not sure exactly which one it is, but they are all carnivorous so a diet of pond snails (breed your own as wild caught may have parasites), dried or fresh freshwater shrimp, fish, worms, supplemented with a good brand of terrapin pellets such as T-Rex.
Also provide plenty of aquatic plants for it to hide amongst, it may take a nibble of a few which will do it no harm!
Being an African species it does need heated water, but only in the mid-20s Centigrade, and they bask so it needs a UVB lamp and an ordinary spotlamp to provide heat, or better still a Mercury Vapour lamp which provides both heat and a UVB level close to that of natural sunlight.
It will need good filtration as all turtles do, a large external filter rated for 2-3 times the water capacity of the tank.
How big is it (straight carapace length), and what size tank do you have it in?

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2.3.0 Southern Painted Turtles
1.0.0 Florida Red Belly
2.1.1 Common Musks
1.0.0 Classic Cornsnake
0.0.2 GALS + infinite babies
0.1.0 Tibetan Spaniel
1.2.0 Brahma Chickens

Thanks for all of the replies!

The tank is 4', we have just bought a new filter because the one supplied was small. He also has a UVB lamp and a heat lamp.

I haven't measured him (will try and do so tonight!) but I would put him around 6 inches in length.

He doesn't have a particularly long neck, either.

Are there any aquatic plants to go for in particular, or to avoid?

Is the filter an external one?

Any of the usual aquarium plants will be OK, give him plenty to root around and hide amongst. Duckweed is a good one, if he eats any it's an excellent source of calcium.

__________________
2.3.0 Southern Painted Turtles
1.0.0 Florida Red Belly
2.1.1 Common Musks
1.0.0 Classic Cornsnake
0.0.2 GALS + infinite babies
0.1.0 Tibetan Spaniel
1.2.0 Brahma Chickens

Both filters have been internal, not sure of the make of the first one but it was very small.

I then bought a fluval 3+ internal, which seems a LOT better, it removed all murkyness from the water practically overnight!

I will try and find some aquatic plants over the weekend, are there any good websites/shops that you could recommend?

I'm in the Nottingham area.

I could probably spend half the day asking questions, so feel free to ignore them!

1. Is there an ideal water depth? We have increased the water from 3 inches up to 5/6 inches, which seems a little deep for him to sit and poke his head up!

2. We have been leaving the UVB and heat lamp on all day and turning them off at night, are we doing the right thing? He doesn't seem to want to bask under the heat lamp much, he is always in the water, splashing around!

Cheers!

The water may look clean but I'm willing to bet it isn't! Internal filters unfortunately do little more than move the water around, they simply don't have the capacity for the amount of bio media needed to keep turt water really clean, only an external filter can do this adequately and it needs to be quite a big one, rated for approx 3 x the volume of water in your tank.

The water probably needs to be a lot deeper to provide the volume required, for a 6" turt you should have a minimum of 240 litres of water, I'm guessing from the size of your tank 5 or 6 inches of water only gives you around 70 litres which is nowhere near enough.

Does he have a basking spot where he can get himself completely out of the water, and is the basking lamp directly over this area? He doesn't need to sit and poke his head up, he will swim to the surface for air and will climb out onto the basking spot when he wants to.

Yes that's right, the lamps should be on 12-14 hours a day. His reluctance to bask could be due to several things, it may simply be that he hasn't really settled in yet and feels insecure in his new environment, it might be because the basking spot isn't warm enough, it should be around 32°C but you could make it a bit hotter, provided that he can move away from the lamp to a cooler area should he feel too hot.
If the water is too warm he may be more inclined to stay in it than to bask, if the basking spot temp is right and he still doesn't bask you could try lowering the water temp.

__________________
2.3.0 Southern Painted Turtles
1.0.0 Florida Red Belly
2.1.1 Common Musks
1.0.0 Classic Cornsnake
0.0.2 GALS + infinite babies
0.1.0 Tibetan Spaniel
1.2.0 Brahma Chickens

Thanks for all the info Graham, you must be an expert!

Can you recommend a decent external filter?

The water temperature is around 24 degrees constantly now (we leave the water heater on all night).

He can get out easily onto some rocks and sand, with a 100W heat lamp just above it. I haven't checked the temps under it, but I will do.

I will have to check the exact depth of the water, could you take a rough guess in inches how deep it should be?

The tank is 48 x 18 x 18 inches.

Cheers,
John

Not an expert, but I have been keeping turts for nearly 20 years.

Your tank, if filled to the brim, would hold approx 240 litres of water, so you need to fill it as deep as you possibly can! You really need a bigger tank, but with really good filtration you may get away with it, you will need a very good filter though.

I suggest you check out the Fluval XP5, Eheim 2250 or 2260, and Rena Filstar XP4 filters, all of these would do the job, with the Eheims being the best quality of the lot. Shop around as prices vary enormously, you should be able to find the Eheims for pretty much the same price as the other two.

I think the basking lamp may be a problem, 100W is probably making the basking spot too hot and you need to check it, a 40W bulb is usually adequate, or a higher wattage bulb wired through an ordinary room dimmer switch of the appropriate rating.

If the basking spot is too hot that would explain his reluctance to bask.

__________________
2.3.0 Southern Painted Turtles
1.0.0 Florida Red Belly
2.1.1 Common Musks
1.0.0 Classic Cornsnake
0.0.2 GALS + infinite babies
0.1.0 Tibetan Spaniel
1.2.0 Brahma Chickens