I bought my turtle, Sylvia, last November at a local fair. She was a little over one inch long and wide. Her size has almost tripled since then. They had a lot of them at the booth in little tiny plastic carrying cases, all of the turtles were very small. I bought mine as more of a whim than anything else and then got home and began doing research so I would be able to give her a long and healthy life. I have a friend who has had a lot of turtles and I asked him some questions but his answers seemed to contradict things that I had read, so I thought I’d post my questions here as well.
She’s in a 30 gallon tank right now but I’m making preparations to move her into a larger one as she grows. I have a filter, heater, basking rock, and heat lamp. I’ve been feeding her Zilla Fortified Aquatic Turtle Food and nothing else, just for the simple reason that I’m a little confused on what is and isn’t okay to feed her. Her diet is one of my main concerns and I heard I could give her feeder fish but my friend said that I would have to “break” the fish before I put it in? I was under the impression that I could just release a fish or two in the tank and she would catch it.
Next is that when she’s in the water I can see almost transparent, whispy things attached to her neck. One person I talked to said she was just shedding but then my friend told me that this is actually bad and she might get sick if I don’t take care of it. Trouble is, I don’t know how to ‘take care of it’. Suggestions? Is she just shedding or is it something else?
The next question is about adding another turtle to her aquarium when I have more experience with them. Is there a chance of aggression or are most turtles okay with having company?
If there are any other helpful tips that you can think of I would be incredibly grateful!