My Turtle!

Okay, I just got my new tank, but in order to set it up, the turtle [as of yet unnamed] has to hang out in the small tank.

Here we go... that's my turtle. He's suprisingly quick. You'll also note I'm calling it a he... He very well might be female, and prolly is, but whatever. Come to think of it, I pay for every, feed the thing, and yet whenever I'm around (s)he seems annoyed with me, and desperate to get away, or pretends not to notice me... Sounds pretty female to me. Regardless, I'm calling him a he.

Here's the aquarium I got. It's pretty nice, I think. I had no clue how much gravel I'd need, so I bought 2 small bags.. then decided that wasn't nearly enough (That's all they had at Meijer), so I went to a pet store, and found another small bag... then saw the giant bag, and grabbed that too. Why didn't i put back the small bag? Because I'm a retard.

So I added some stones (after rinsing them and all that.. a rather complicated process (because I'm retarded..) So far that's about half of the big bag..I may have gotten a bit too much.

I've added some water (It only took like 50 trips back and forth from the bathroom). I've also added a heat lamp, a water pump/filter, and a water heater. Oh, and a ramp rock thinger. Now I'm off to meet my sister for dinner [Kristin / Max & Erma's]

I've also added more stones.. I ended up using the entire giant bag.. and I think it's about right.

At dinner, Kristin gave me a outlet timer, and a perfect little piece of fake driftwood, and then I headed off and found some little fake shelf contruction sets, and some fake plants.. so I got those too. So I put the stuff in there.. I'm trying to set up a few places where the guy can bask in the light. Turtles seem to like that.

And here's the turtle, who at this point seems to be a very big fan of the heater.

...and not such a huge fan of the flash.

Woot. It's tomorrow, and I went out and found what I was looking for: There was a little expansion pack for those fake rock shelf thingers, and I got that, so could not force the one on the right side to oddly balance on the arch rock. I also added: 7 fish (Rosy red goldfish), the 6 fake plants, a live plant (right side), and a special basking ramp (center). So now the guy has three places to go to bask, and a number of places to hide, swim through, etc.. I think it looks pretty good now.

Here's a view from the top. I really like that basking ramp... it dips into the water, so he can get on it no problem, then has another raised section that will stay relatively dry/warm for him.

So there's one of the fish (I chose not to name the fish, as they are not long for this world.) and a Frill Plant on the right side. I really like that plant too.

I made the rocks/gravel kinda wavy too, as I thought it looked better that way.

Here's a little clip of the turtle doing a whole lot of nothing.

Here he's doing a little swimming

I am finished setting up the aquarium now. I like it.

Here he is.. My turtle.

The next morning I noticed that the plant had been trimmed down quite a bit. I moved one branch to another section to see if the turtle would go for it.

He noticed... and headed on over to check it all out.

And now he goes to town on the plant.

Next morning... notice anything missing?

The plant is gone... completely... and one fish is no longer alive. And I fed this guy a lot.. He's going to get f-a-t.