Todd Stockwell
Candace; Most of the rest of you on this list have been at this a lot longer than me and I readily defer to those with more experience. However, I’ve bought and started quite a few hatchlings over the past two years to get started with the more desirable species and I’ve consistently found that using an in-tank aquarium heater to keep the whole tank at a warm and even 85 degrees has brought quite a few lethargic, very young hatchlings around when they’ve stopped eating, especially in the fall and winter. My personal favorite tank heater is a Tetra Acura 100 Watt completely submersible unit with two suction cups and a thermostat that can be set in one degree increments (and that actually seems to be quite reliable). This type of unit can be used horizontally in very shallow water as well as vertically in a regular aquarium set up. My personal experience has been that a 75 degree basking spot and even cooler water temperature is too low for the youngest hatchlings. 85 degrees water temp. has been working for a wide variety of young hatchling species for me. Is this too high for DBTs in anyone else’s experience/opinion? Just wondering. I don’t use tank heaters once they get four or five months old and/or close to two inches and bigger. Just the basking lamp. They also get big enough to start prying the tank heater off the wall as they get older. We use bottled water purchased in five gallon containers from a self-serve place for our well-filtered, permanent tanks and especially those with any type of fish. We use a little tap water conditioner and haven’t had any problems. On other tanks and tubs that we’re changing out or using temporarily, we use city tap water with a double dose of water conditioner (we have terrible amounts of chlorine!). I don’t think the waste elimination or eye scratching symptoms you described are as much to worry about as the temperature. I agree with Vicki – get Tex’s temperatures raised one way or another. I’m a frustrated corn and cattle farmer currently limited to raising turtles mostly indoors as my “livestock,” so my natural instinct is to get the young-uns warmed up when they seem sickly. We also have given some sickly hatchlings a drop of Baytril from our vet to treat respiratory problems and that has worked wonders on a couple of very little ones. The screen mesh covers for aquariums can be mail ordered for reasonable prices and come in handy for supporting heat lights and fluorescents on top of both glass aquariums and plastic tubs so that the heat lamp can be positioned directly over the basking area. I prefer the porcelain socket brooder lamps from farm supply stores over the plastic socket hardware store types. TSC stores here sell the brooder lamps for about $6.00 (I know it’s the farmer-thing coming out again!). After using many clamp-on type lamps my luck finally ran out just tonight! I came home to find one had fallen into the plastic tub it was attached to. Luckily the wire protector kept the turtles from breaking the still-burning light bulb (sort of like the Titanic with an eerie underwater glow) or getting in contact with it. I have them plugged into GFI-protected extension cords, but I’m still going to get some more screen covers to avoid this hazard! Also, be careful about too hot of a basking lamp too close to a sick hatchling. I learned the hard way that a little sickly painted hatchling didn’t have enough strength to move himself out from under a basking lamp that I was using in a last-ditch effort to “save” him. That was another reason I switched to the in-tank heater at 85 degrees. You have my sympathy, Candace, as I’ve been in your shoes very recently myself. Good luck to you and Tex. Keep us posted. Todd Brenham, Texas Candace Metcalf wrote: