baby hatches

we feed tetra reptomin broken into small pieces and small krill. ours have grown like weeds! michelle — jkfactor http://mailplus.yahoo.com

Congratulations on your 6 pack! I’m far from being an expert but can tell you what I’ve done with my hatchlings ~ I use this method with all my water turtle babies. I start out with my babies in a famous ” plastic sweater bin ” with just several inches of water. I put in a piece of floating cork ~ place some small gravel in a small low plastic container which acts as a “land source” and then a small water hyacinth. Over it I have a basking light and a UVB light. I do not have a filter on it but rather change the water every other day or so using a bit of water declor and conditioner. I feed live black worms ~ live brine shrimp which I get fresh 2 x a week at my local tropical fish store. I also give them the frozen version too when live is not available. The live worms love to gather in the roots of the water hyacinth and makes a nice “serving buffet” for the turtles whenever they want. I was told by a friend that I got my European Pond babies from that she believes well fed turtles will be less likely to nip at each other?. Don’t know how true this is but I can say that all my babies have their tails ~ especially my E.ponds!! I also keep a piece of cuttlebone in all my water turtles ponds and tanks including the babies. You can also put a block in but if there’s a filter on the tank it will be gone in no time. All my turtles crunch on the cuttlebone. I do use broken up pieces of Reptomin but prefer to use the Aquamax broken up as well. If you feed them the Rep & Aqua in a separate container it’s a lot better ~ doesn’t mess their container water and only do this until they can eat the “whole” bit of Rep or Aqua. **I use the “growth” Aquamax which is small round pellets. As far as heat is concerned ~ that I can’t tell you on as the room that I keep them in is warm. Best for someone else to give you advice on that one! As they grow ~ you can also offer them small meal worms ~ they enjoy those also. I was surprised at what a young age they will go for them. I didn’t know about meal worms with my dbt but with my E.ponds they were eating them at just a couple weeks old! Good luck with your new adventure ~ I know you will get a lot of helpful information from everyone. Enjoy!! Sharon jkfactor wrote:

wow thanks sharon. john — In diamondbackterrapins@y…, Tom & Sharon Paquette http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/