This is Painter and Paintee (original names huh?) our painted turtles.
My 9 year old caught them last summer in a nearby lake. We have a nice setup here in the house for them. I grew up catching turtles in the ponds near my house, and always dreamed of a set up where I could keep them year 'round, but my parents would never let me.
It does cost some money (especially for the UVB and heat lamps that are required if you are going to keep turtles and keep them healthy) but it's well worth it.... and it's another thing my daughter and I can share together.
I really love sitting back watching them swim. They are so graceful and perfect when they swim. It's my dream to have a much larger tank someday with a few more turtles and a seperate area for basking. Right now they just have rocks that jut out of the water to bask on.... it works but could be better with a totally seperate basking area.
We also have a fish in there... a smallish sunfish that I actually caught on my fishing pole last summer!! I was able to remove the hook without any damage to the fish and we decided he would make a nice addition to the tank. The fish's face reminded one of my older daughters of a tuba player (the way they must hold their mouth to play the tuba) so the fish has been rightfully named TUBAFACE!
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The kids and i love to watch them basking in the sun!!
that's what I had mine in when I was young, too. The fish is too big for the turtles so they leave him alone. We buy minnows from the bait shop for them to eat and they do eat those.
better not tell me where the swamp is..... we'll come over and catch them!
Funny, I once caught some bass and brought them home to clean them. When I turned the water on in the sink, one of them started flopping around. He was on the smallish side and I threw him in my fish tank to see what would happen. He lived for about a year in there, though all my tropical fish were history!
I love the look of Neon Tetras but I can't keep them alive for over a week! I have tried and tried and tried with several tropical fish and I kill them every single time, but I can catch minnows or fish out of the local lakes or river and keep them for years. GO FIGURE.
Take care.
My first problem was temperature (I had NO CLUE you needed a heater lol) but after fixing that I still had so many problems and dead ones.
I think I'll just stick to keeping bass and bluegill and sunfish. LOL.
I honestly believe they are just so much hardier and more geared towards my part of the *(cold white north) world.
Awesome set-up you have for your turtles Joy! I have a pet turtle too, Missy the Ohio Midland Painted turtle. She has her own web page and right now she's even in a web competition, LOL
Here's the link, if you're interested...
Missy's page& you can vote for her from there...http://abitosunshine.net/pets/missy/index.html