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Like in taking/having any pet, also (and especially) having a red eared slider and caring for it encludes some important basics.

First of all the owner's responsibility. The owner is responsible of his/her pet and it's wellbeing, feeding, health, environment. A pet has been drawn away from it's natural habitat and is completely dependent of its owner.

Second of all the responsibility is always adult's responsibility, meaning a family should not get a pet based on child's willing, for the child isn't gonna be able to take whole responsibility of the pet's well-being. Therefore the whole family needs to consire this well and carefully and decide together, but the responsibility is adult's. Also the adult (parent) needs to realise that though the main responsibility would be child's, the adult need to ensure that the pet gets enough attention and ensure sufficient medical attention among other things.

Third of all you need to in beforehand find out all needs and requirements, before rushing to a pet store to buy a cute little turtle. For the truth is that a small turtle grows pretty fast to be a big turtle and not so cute at all anymore. That may present some unexpected problems.

A small 5-cent (2-inch) turtle grows in just four years to be a 20-cent (8-inch) and 1,5 kilograms weighting, and treating and caring isn't so easy anymore.

One needs to also pay attention to the equipments the turtle needs, for even the few things needed for a minimum establishment can be quite expensive. And the establishment should be ready before the turtle is being bought! The most important thing to remember is that an adult needs just swimming space about 250 litres, a heat source, a place to climb on to warm up and a filter to keep the water clean. And there is no point in buing a bit bigger tank every year as the turtle grows, the smart thing would be to get a tank big enough at once.

TANKS We have at this moment 4 tanks of our own for turtles. They are all specially made for turtles (not ex-fish tanks) and we also have built three of them ourselves.. We have used 8 mm thick glass so especially the biggest one is quite heavy just by itself. In the biggest tanks we have under the bottom glass used thin plates made of aluminium to prevent the glass bending when the tank is full. One of the smaller once has the bottom made of stainless steel Pienemmässä altaassa (100 cm x 100 cm) pohja on ruostumatonta terästä (1,5 mm). Also under this tank there are aluminium plates and a plate of styrox. Both solutions have worked well. The most important thing to remeber when considering building a tank is to remeber to get right kind of silicone. The usual silicone is toxic to turtles. In hardware and in some pet stores there is right kind of aquarium silicone available. Also need to be rembered that the silicone needs to dry well (few days) before using the tank so the vinegar acid won't hurt the turtles.	This tank is 71 x 101 cm. Material is aluminum and in the base 40 mm x 40 mm aluminum pipe This tank is 150 cm x 100 cm (675 litres). Material aluminumlist and the base 30 x 30 mm aluminum pipe. We also have another tank like this that is 100 cm x 100 cm.
FILTERS We have both Fluval and Sera filters and both have worked just fine. Ans as we talk of filters for turtletanks, we talk of external filters. Internal filters are rather ineffective when the tank or the turtle is big. We use internal filters in our tanks to whirl the water and to give some exercise to the turtles In the filters you should use as coarse material as possible. If you use the finest material, it doesn't work as well. in external filters there usually are baskets inside where you place the filter material. Usually coarse material lasts weeks or months, you can rinse and rinse it and use it over and over again. Usually the filters survive their job rather well, but the suction cups don't, so be prepared to get new in few weeks. When buying a filter you shouldn't stare just at the price tag, some producers give two years guarantee instead of one years'. There is also a way to clean the pipes of the filter after they get dirty. With a bottle brush! Tie a string to the handle of the brush and a screw to the other end of the string. Then with water pressure push the skrew through the pipe, and after that pull the string and the brush through the pipe. puhdistamisessa.	This is an Ehaim filter model Professionel 2226. This model is good, it has a special mechanism to unplug the pipes from the filter.
LAMPS We use two kinds of lamps, spotlights and usual aquarium fluorescent lamps. Even for the biggest tanks a dubble-spot is usually enough and for one turtle one bigger spot might do it. When attaching the lamp over the basking place you need to make sure the turtle does not reach to burn itself in the lamp, but that the lamp generates enough warmth for basking.
BASKINGSPOTS The most usual turtle baskingspot material is cork, that is usually available in any aquarium shops. The fact is still that a big turtle need a gigantic cork to keep floating and also that cork as material is a bit messy (the turtle can chew off pieces of it). A basking place is not very hard to make yourself. Good and easy to clean material is plexiglass. The ramp need though something extra to be easier to climb on, plastic "grass matt" is an easy choise. Just make small holes in the ramp and attach the matt to it with cable ties.	This baskingspot is 100 cm x 30 cm, ramp is 30 cm wide, 30 cm long, ramp is 30 cm high and the bottom of the ramp is 20 cm from the bottom of the tank. It has 6 aluminium feet. They are important to bring enough weight to prevent the plexiglass from floating. You might want to rounden the edges of the ramp so the turtles don't cut themselves in them.
OTHER SUPPLIES Net.A fish net from an aquarium store is ok. It's great for catching small turtles. If you have also fishtank, own nets for both species and don't mix them. Towels. We have special turtletowels that we use only for turtles, not for humans. They are most handy near the tank (that's were you usually get wet!). Basin. Only for turtles also. For washing them up and for feeding. Brush. For smaller ones a tooth brush, for bigger ones a dishbrush. For cleaning the shell.	Bucket. For example for emptying the pipes of the filter. Rubbergloves. If you're terrified of germs, use gloves. Also handy when scrubbing the filter material, it is rather coarse and doesn't feel too pleasant to the skin. Garden hose. You can use larger for sucking the water from the tank to the sewer. The thinner you can use to fill the tank.

MEDICINE CABINET

In this case common sense is also recommended. it is is wise to keep most usual medicines for small wounds etc. at hand. Specially in summer time turtle gets small cuts easily when going around outside.

Best is to remeber though that if you feel uncertain, consult a vetrinary at mediately.

For small scratches and wounds best is Betadine local antiseptic, (polyvidoniodine). Available in just about any drugstore.

If you are uncertain of the nature of the wound or injury, contact a vet immediately.

Virpi Louhi

vlouhi@cs.tpu.fi