Do you consider the conservation of our wildlife a "trivial matter"?

Yes there are events that have more tangible consequences happening. Murders, rape, whathaveyounot. But at the same time there are also "abstract" and "victimless" crimes happening like insider trading, tax evasion, intellectual piracy... should we let these proliferate because we need to prioritize the "real" crimes? I don't think so, keeping society behaved requires a holistic approach on all fronts.

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Added on June 15, 2010, 2:36 am
Two wrongs don't make a right, heard of that? You can fight those actions based on their demerit, but you can never use it to justify your own.

The best thing you could've done was probably to leave them where they belonged. Look, I sympathized for your loss, but you really should've done some research before you invested into them. These tortoises have been CITES-listed for decades. I know you have good intentions, but you're still contributing to the trade by creating demand.

Hey guys, I'm back after a long absence Filter question:

I looked at the (third party) foam blocks in my Fluval 305 canister filter and I think it's ineffective. A lot of green goop still find its way to the bio rings. On the foam block itself, goop gets trapped on the surface of one side of the foam, but I don't see anything inside. Smells bad too It has been about 6 weeks since I last cleaned the filter.

I'm thinking of changing the foam blocks to something else like Eheim Mech Pro. How well do you think this will work against turtle goop?

Welcome to the club

Your turtles look very young, but you look like you're in it for real. Your terrarium landscaping is fantastic! Probably something to think about in the long run is how they're going swim about when they grow larger. Because they grow fast and large and live very long

The WKGF and I just watched the video of guppy feeding time.. they're so cute Brings back memories of our turtles when they were younger.

We teased them by lining dried shrimp up the log... then they climb up, bite, and jump back into the water to eat it. Rinse and repeat

Wow, that spiny turtle is beautiful.

question, my RES has a lot of these "flakes"... any idea where they come from and if it's a concern? they've been having them since forever but i never asked about it before.

Thanks, hope you're right about the skin! Yeah we have a platform for them to bask, the photo I posted was a holding tank while I was cleaning the aquarium

Here are my RES basking on the new washboard platform we prepared

Thanks The pale one is from early-2009 and the darker one is from mid-2010. When we started we didn't pay as much attention to sanitation as we should have - the older turtle's shell slowly lost most of its color. But I think it has been recovering, slowly. No plans to breed them, and won't do it until I'm confident that I can commit to them.

This is why society should be thankful that I'm not a civil engineer the platform broke down after a week.