A few years back my youngest son announced that he wanted a pair of “little” turtles more than anything in the world. His big brother willingly obliged, and as a birthday present two splendid little turtles joined the family. They really were very small and fragile. They came in a bright blue “lagoon” bowl with an island in the middle with a ramp and a removable palm tree. I knew absolutely NOTHING about these creatures except what I had learnt from the movie “Finding Nemo”. They were indeed very sweet but did nothing except sit on top of each other all day.

One day, I was in Tampa, Florida visiting my older son, and went into a rather quaint pet shop I used to frequent. The lady who worked there was close to 7 foot tall! Ever so helpful and obliging she told me that: #1. It was cruel to keep those terrapins in THAT lagoon. #2. They were miserable and depressed and that is why they climbed on top of each other and #3. Those sweet “little” turtles would grow to the size of dinner plates. DINNER PLATES? I repeated incredulous! I suddenly had images of them taking over the bath tub or worse still the swimming pool! “Yes honey and they easily live until they are 40 years old”. Wow, I went away with quite a headache.

When I got back home I immediately purchased a five gallon tank, stones, fake plants, a mini turtle dock and a clip on sun lamp. To see those little ones dive and swim around really was uplifting; they were superbly happy and never felt the need to “stack” again. 

On the subject of growing, they expanded in size almost visibly and one day having moved up from one size tank, to the next and the next and so on, we decided the time had come to build a turtle pond in the garden. Our original two ”babies” had also been joined by another two.

Building a turtle pond in the garden sounds pretty easy and I suppose it is, but, it wasn’t terribly simple in the Aranha household. First the black, prefabricated, plastic “drop in” pond had a leak, when we thought we had fixed it, it rained and the black plastic pond “popped” out of the hole in the ground. When we thought that we had it anchored in the ground, the leak reappeared. “Forget it”, we thought, “We will build it from scratch”.

Well after weeks of work, bags of cement, hours of labour, the most wonderful kidney shaped pond about 12 feet long and 5 feet wide, holding 370 gallons of water came into being. One end has a slope to make climbing out easily, so, of course, they always climb out the steep end! There is a rock cave built in the shallow end to hide under. We have a strong filter (suitable for 500 gals) and a small fountain. Add to this, floating fake lily pads (to hide under), a fake floating log (to hide in or sit on top) and we were just about finished creating the perfect turtle habitat.

We then landscaped the surroundings with sand (to lay eggs in) at one end and river stones around the rest of the pond, with a grassed in area (to burrow in). The final touch was one of those super sturdy plastic picket fences with a solid bottom. Our “habitat” was completed, or so we thought! The next few weeks were peppered with frustration as these escape artists dug under the fence. “Ok.” We sank plastic dividers several inches into the ground. Then I discovered that they could figure up how to climb through the gaps by flipping onto their sides (we filled in the gaps), still they were getting out, we finally found that they were climbing 12 inches up into the vine on the fence and slipping through the slats, so we put small lattice work on the fence!  

I am proud to say that, after about four months of frustration, we finally got it right and the Turtle Pond is as secure as a maximum security prison. In the evening we often sit in the garden and watch them pop their little heads up for food and attention. It is so peaceful that I call it my “Zen Garden”.

The pond needs constant attention though. After filling it with water, a chemical that neutralizes the chlorine in the Nassau water has to be put in, so that the turtles can survive happily in our city water. I also add a chemical to cut down the algae growth but I have yet to find anything terribly effective. If I do I will let you know. Subsequently, as the algae grow fast, the water needs to be changed about every 10 days. Whenever it rains, the algae grow faster! My husband has hooked up a hose system with a pump so that we can water the grass and plants in the area. Scrubbing brushes on handles make the cleaning less back breaking and a wet / dry vac helps remove the last few gallons of water. The entire pond cleaning process takes just over an hour. While we clean the pond the turtles move into a plastic kiddies pool on the porch and if they are lucky there will be tadpoles in there for them to hunt, though they are so well fed that they tend to be a bit lazy.

I feed them daily, more food in the warm weather. Sometimes in the winter if it is really cold I skip feeding them altogether because they go into temporary hibernation mode and won’t eat at all. They love basil leaves, and romaine lettuce (very IMPORTANT: do not feed them iceberg lettuce, it is bad for them). They love dried shrimp and the various turtle sticks and pellets readily available in the pet stores or on line. I try to handle them daily to make them friendlier, they really can become very tame and affectionate. It is lovely to look out from my bedroom window and see them out on rocks basking happily in the sun.

Once the turtles reach adolescence (about four inches long), it is easy to tell what sex they are. A male turtle has very long claws and a thick and longer tail, the female has short stubby claws. The females grow quicker and larger than the boys. When they are babies there is no way of telling. Talking about “sex”, right now is mating season. One of my females has a horrible bite on the back of her neck inflicted by her ardent suitor. If I were her I would have dumped him long ago, but she keeps submitting to the most aggressive treatment with a passive sweetness that is apparently totally normal in the turtle book of love! All my turtle experts assure me that things will calm down soon when the “mating season” is over. I do hope so for her sake.

Since the original turtles have grown up, my son has acquired an additional six babies. “Kalik”, “Junkanoo” and “Dilly” are the Bahamian fresh water turtles and “Quarter”, “Britches” and “Frisbee” are the red-eared sliders. The Bahamian turtles are almost identical to the red-eared sliders except that they do not have the red on the sides of their necks and their shell is more brownish in colour. They live side by side in perfect harmony. The babies are housed in a 20 gallon tank indoors, with two floating docks, various artificial plants (to hide in) and river stones to play around. The filter creates a current at one end of the tank that they love to play in. The two turtle docks at the other end create a smooth, current free zone for “quiet time”. I have three heat / sun lamps over this tank. They are fed daily. Mostly shrimp, definitely the favourite, plus greens periodically. It is very rare to see them on top of each other when they are on the turtle dock, but they do lie close to one another, and are very sociable, you can easily see who are “best friends”.

Keeping the tank clean is very important, as shell diseases are very common in the baby turtle, as well as respiratory diseases, and eye infections. The best way to avoid this is to be very careful to clean the tank, scrub the stones, plants, turtle docks and whatever else is in the tank weekly (or more if necessary). The filter needs to be completely taken apart and cleaned. Filter pads must be thoroughly rinsed and can last about a month. The best way to wash the filter pads is, I find, to put the hose on full pressure and spray away the dirt and debris.

When filling up your tank, remember that turtles NEED the water to be as deep as they are wide. In other words, if you hold your turtle in the water sideways, there should be water under and above him. Always use a product that removes the harmful chemicals from the city water, I personally use Stress Coat and find it to be very effective. There is a product called, “Turtle Clean” that is a waste degrader that I find useful in an indoor tank. There are also various algae destroyers, I only use them in the outside tank, and as I mentioned before, I have not had great success with them.

The main reason that the water gets dirty quickly is that you are probably feeding your little shelled friends way TOO much food. It then drops to the bottom of the tank and starts to rot….quite nasty really.

Should you ever find that your tank water is cloudy or going green, remove the turtles immediately, place them in clean water (Remember the stress coat, unless it is bottled water) and clean out the tank ASAP.

When our turtles were tiny babies, I only used bottled water for them as their tank wasn’t so big, now that they are in a larger tank; I have resorted to city water with chemicals. I always add a Doctor Turtle or ReptoGuard, or something similar, this is a slow release block shaped like a turtle and contains calcium and helps to condition the water further. There are also medicated versions of these slow release turtle shaped blocks containing Sulfa and these help to prevent bacterial and fungal disease. If your turtle is looking very under the weather Turtle Sulfa Dip is a wonderful product mixed with bottled water as per the instructions on the box. You put your turtle in a small container for three hours daily with his shell just covered by the medicated water, always using a new “batch” every day, for at least seven days in a row.

Turtle eye drops are useful and easy to administer in the case of eye infections. The turtles eyes will swell up until the eye is not visible, this condition can be life threatening, and can takes weeks to cure, but with the right medical aides (sulfa dip, eye drops, and Dr. Turtle medicated block) plus periods in the sun to replace the lacking Vitamin A. Be careful when they are in the sun that the water doesn’t get too hot and you inadvertently “boil’ them. When you use the drops put them in a dry container for at least 15 minutes so that the drops can do some good before putting the turtle back in the tank and the solution gets washed off.

Sometimes you will see their shell flaking off; this is quite normal and happens about once a year. I use Turtle Vitashell during this process, once weekly, it help condition and revitalize the shell.

The bottom line with turtles is that, they are quite a lot of work, they grow big, they live for a long time AND they are a lot of fun to keep and they grow into real individual personalities. I have enjoyed every minute that I have spent with these bazaar little creatures who carry their “house” on their backs, and look forward to MANY more years together.

About the author: Kim Aranha grew up in the Berry Islands with her first dog, a beloved potcake named “Friendly” (who was anything but!).  First educated at home, and then in boarding school in Switzerland, Kim moved to Rome, Italy in 1974 to pursue a career in the dramatic arts and ended up working as an interpreter.  She moved back to The Bahamas in 1980, and now lives in Nassau with her husband Paul, and their two teenaged sons.  Kim has 3 dogs (soon to be 4), 5 fish (1 Beta, 4 Goldfish), 10 turtles (6 babies, 4 adolescents), 1 Asian box turtle and 4 Budgerigars. Her idea of relaxing is being home to take care of all her pets. Kim is a member of the board of the Bahamas Humane Society