The Turtle Topper above tank basking area
Filed under aquarium, equipment, products, red ear slider turtles, review, size, turtle basking platform, turtle tank, turtles, videos, water quality
I discovered this pet turtle product while surfing around in Youtube.
My thoughts on the Turtle Topper
It’s a commercial (not DIY) above tank basking platform made specifically for pet turtles. Cool. Overall, it looks like a great product, with a few shortcomings. The most obvious shortcoming is that it is made for only up to 55 gallon aquariums, which is too small a tank for most aquatic turtles. Secondly, it’s made of plastic, which may not be good given the possible melting due to the prolonged heat that a basking area will be subjected to. The product manager of the product posted on a thread discussing the product at TurtleForum.com , saying that the plastic is safe and will not melt. Thirdly, it doesn’t look so nice, but that’s really a matter of personal taste and the way it looks may not matter to some pet turtle owners.
With those three things in mind, the Turtle Topper product is great if you have a smaller pet turtle, like a map turtle, or if you understand that your pet turtle will use it temporarily until your turtle gets too big for it.
The Turtle Topper video
The video gets several things right about the proper care for pet turtles: the more water the better, the need for UVB lighting, and the need for an aquatic turtle to be able to completely dry themselves while basking. The rule of thumb for determining water volume was totally missed though by saying that water height should equal shell length… that isn’t entirely true. Yes, you want water height to be at least the shell length to provide swimming room, but the correct rule of thumb is that you want to have about 10 gallons of water for every inch of straight turtle shell length or SCL – straight carapace length. That means that if you have a red eared slider, the most common pet turtle, you need at least an 80 gallon tank for a male which will get to 8 inches in length or a 120 gallon tank for a female which will get to 11 – 12 inches SCL. The rule changes a bit when you add additional turtles – 10 gallons per inch of SCL for the first turtle, then 5 gallons for each inch of each additional pet turtle.
Here’s the video of the Turtle Topper. It isn’t widely available yet, but it can be found in a few stores including Amazon.com
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14 Comments for this entry
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December 29th, 2009 on 8:13 pm
id say your fairly on the money for this but i would make one minor correction
they TT is a great product but as shown even in the video i would say its geared for young turtles specificly which is why it isnt made for larger tanks esspecialy given teh hieght of the sides makes it fairly clear its only good for juviniles
December 29th, 2009 on 11:01 pm
And I wholeheartedly agree – I mentioned that it’s perfect for smaller pet turtles. Thanks for the comment David!
March 11th, 2010 on 9:20 pm
Will the turtle topper fit on a breeder tank that is 18 inches wide?
March 11th, 2010 on 10:17 pm
No, the turtle topper will fit tanks up to 12″ wide.
March 11th, 2010 on 11:32 pm
Yeah if they made one that would fit a larger tank and be larger in general for mooe adult turtles it would be great
March 15th, 2010 on 4:01 pm
And with that I agree!
May 27th, 2010 on 1:03 pm
just got the turtle topper a few days ago… can’t get them to go into it. i have put them in it and they run out, just as fast as they can… tried food and that hasn’t done it… how long should it take for them to go in? i have taken their other basking platform out. i’m afraid for them not to bask this long. can someone help me please?
thank you Shelley
May 28th, 2010 on 8:15 pm
Give your pet turtles a few weeks – they need to get comfortable with even just having it around – which they will do at their own pace. Once they are comfortable, they’ll start basking on it. Don’t rush them – your pet turtles will start using it soon enough.
June 10th, 2010 on 1:50 pm
hello! I raised 3 turtles from eggs and if you had any advice at all i would be dearly thankful for it. And i have some questions.
~ What kind of turtle basking area should i get?
~ I have a 10-15 gallon tank, should i get a bigger one?
~ Once the turtles are older, can i set them free if i wanted to?
June 12th, 2010 on 9:10 am
Wow, that’s awesome – you must have some really nice photos of them hatching!
What kind of turtles are they? Not all turtle species need a basking area like the Turtle Topper.
Regarding turtle tank size – you will definitely need a much larger aquarium. Your small one will be enough for when your pet turtles are small but they will grow. When that time comes, get the biggest tank you can get.
It isn’t advisable to set pet turtles free – it would be better to give them to a shelter or a zoo. Releasing pet turtles will have environmental impacts
June 18th, 2010 on 11:48 pm
It is NEVER ok to release your pet into the wild, regardless if it is native or not. Releasing a pet is illegal in most/all areas. A pet also doesn’t have the proper immune system to be in the wild & will most likely die a terrible death. Also they are use to a top diet which the wild doesn’t provide so many starve to death. Also due to feeding the pet turtle non-native foods it might have non-native parasites & bacteria on/in it that can harm or kill wild turtles.
This is one of the reasons why there are so many eco. issues caused by pet owners.
June 28th, 2010 on 11:50 am
forlogos, thank you for changing your post. The turtles & eco system Thanks You!
Kelly, I’m not an expert on hatching eggs (I’m sure they are dead if they are in the water) but think about this. Our tiny Turtle Rescue in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada took in about 400+ turtles in less then 2years. 98% of them are Red Eared Sliders. About 90% of them were neglected & about 50% of them were extreamly ill.
Common Turtles are worse off then th eover population of dogs & cats. Do them a favour. Don’t hatch the eggs, just let the eggs die in the water, or better yet, stop allowing your turtles to breed.
People are against puppy mills, & back yard breeders for the over population of mainly dogs. Don’t become a back yard breeder of turtles.
If you got your turtles at the same store, they are most likely brother & sister. Imbreading is wrong!!
June 27th, 2010 on 10:13 pm
Question? Our red ear slider just layed eggs. How do you care for the eggs because our male ate a couple of them?
Thank you,
Kelly
June 30th, 2010 on 12:37 am
the best answer is that it really isn’t such a good idea to care for them… I defer to Jess’ response, which you can read above.
Or, in this link: turtle eggs