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  1. Paschendale52

    Sleeping Turtles

    Good evening! How often do y'all notice your turtles sleeping? At night, during the day, doesn't matter. With all my previous turtles (Southern painted, razorback musk, Mississippi map, giant mexican musk) I noticed them sleep pretty rarely except when I came up to them late at night when the...
  2. Paschendale52

    Shell Dimple/Dent

    Hi all, I noticed this morning that one of my Rio Grande cooters has a decent dimple or dent in its shell. It looks like the center line was just pushed off to their left side. It is one of 4 in the tank and none of the others show this at all. The other 3 have normal, symmetric, high-domed...
  3. Paschendale52

    Rio Grande Cooters sexing?

    Hi all, I'm curious about sexing rio grande cooters. Generally turtles/tortoises can't be sexed until a few years of age. I noticed among my 4 Rio Grande cooters, two are quite a bit larger than the others. The large ones have relatively flat plastrons while the smaller ones have a relatively...
  4. Paschendale52

    Rio Grande Cooters

    I have noticed recently the Rio Grande cooters in the indoor 180 gallon aquarium like to spend some time brushing the tops of their shells on things. It reminds me of that post the other day where a turtle scrubbed their butt on a suction cup brush in their aquarium. It turns out cholla cactus...
  5. Paschendale52

    Giant mexican musk turtle upside down at bottom of pond

    We've had a cold snap this week here in Albuquerque like I think a lot of the US. Temperatures have dropped down into the 30s at night and all the turtles have gone mostly inactive. I havn't seen many of the turtles in the last week, but this evening I poked my head outside and saw one of the...
  6. Paschendale52

    Turtles hanging out in pond

    Hi all, I was feeding the turtles today and it seemed like everyone came out to be seen. The map turtles stayed pretty far back, but even they came out. It was a great opportunity to get a bunch of photos.
  7. Paschendale52

    1 year check in for the pond

    I was working on the new egg laying/basking area for the pond in the dark (once baby is asleep) and I noticed that with the flashlight in the dark Fatty swam right up to me. Early spring she would come up to feed pretty regularly, but for the last several months I only occasionally see her...
  8. Paschendale52

    Amusing video on turtle/tortoise species

    I've watched this a couple times and it always amuses me. Interesting to see where tortoises exist in the middle of all the water turtles.
  9. Paschendale52

    Rio Grande Cooters! Aquarium to Pond: Part 2!

    Hello! Today I received 4 Rio Grande Cooters (Pseudemys gorzugi) from Underground Reptiles. They were picked up from the local UPS store without issue and arrived active, looking around, and in good shape. I'm excited to raise these guys out for a while and then move them out to the pond after...
  10. Paschendale52

    Giant Mexican Musk Turtles into Pond

    Hi all, I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts about me moving my giant mexican musk turtles out into my 8000 gallon pond from the 180 gallon indoor aquarium. They're about 10 months - 1 year old at this point and larger than any of the other turtles in the pond (1 southern painted, 1 razor back...
  11. Paschendale52

    Skittish Map turtles

    Does anyone have any ideas for getting skittish map turtles to come to the surface to eat? I'm trying to feed with just floating pellets, since I can buy them in much larger bulk for my pond. My painted and razorback musk turtles are getting comfortable enough to come get some pellets at the...
  12. Paschendale52

    Spring Pond 2023

    We seem to be past our last freeze in 2023. So I've been adding some new plants, watching the old ones come back, and getting the pond going for 2023. First up: Fatty is back outside. Fatty weighed in at 6.6 oz in September when she went into the pond. After a health scare during brumination...
  13. Paschendale52

    The end of winter strikes hard

    Here in Albuquerque we got warm again a couple of weeks ago for about a week. Then it went back into the 40s, but now we're coming back up. Today I went outside and saw that one of the map turtles, who I saw swimming around a month ago after the worst of the winter, was at the bottom and...
  14. Paschendale52

    Bruminating Painted turtle health scare

    @Markw84 @Yvonne G Hello, I just went out to check on the turtles bruminating in the pond and I noticed that Fatty (southern painted map turtle) was upside down. Three map turtles were in evidence at the bottom, the others I'm sure are hiding out somewhere. The map turtles all look fine. Fatty...
  15. Paschendale52

    Sleeping Turtles in Pond

    Its been pretty difficult to get any pictures of the turtles in their new pond since I put them in in September. I finally went out the other day and noticed that all of their daily sleeping positions for brumination were out in the open. Usually I can find 1 or 2 of the 6 turtles if I spend 30...
  16. Paschendale52

    The turtles are in the pond!

    Today I added my 6 turtles to their new 8000 gallon pond. As expected, Fatty and Granny took to it immediately and can be seen all over the place. The 4 map turtles are much more skittish and I havn't seen since I placed in the pond on a lily pad. I took some documentation photos of them before...
  17. Paschendale52

    Trying to decide on a next turtle for my indoor tank. Will eventually go into a pond.

    I just finished my pond build a couple weeks ago and will be moving my current 180 gallon tank inhabitants out to it shortly. I'm still trying to decide on what to put in the 180 gallon tank (picture below) inside. My current plan is to get 3 - 4 hatchlings and raise them indoors for a couple...
  18. Paschendale52

    Pond Build

    Hi all! I'm finally working on a pond at our new house here in Albuquerque, NM. The excavation is done and I'm currently working on getting concrete footings poured for the walls. The pond will be basically a 20' x 10' square with dog ears in opposite corners. The walls will be ~2.5' tall and...
  19. Paschendale52

    New plywood tank

    I put the finishing touches on the new 180 gallon plywood aquarium today. We moved to Albuquerque a month or two ago and bought a house, so I got to put a nice big aquarium right near the front door. Its 3/4" plywood sealed on the inside with pond armor and silicone and decorated/reinforced with...
  20. Paschendale52

    Stock Tank cover outside

    My wife and I just moved into our first house in Albuquerque and we're getting the turtles settled in. Eventually I'll have an indoor aquarium for the 4 map turtle babies (the old one didn't travel) and a pond in the back for the big turtles (1 southern painted and 2 razorback musk). For now I...
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