Sam & Ella

 

This is Sam & Ella! I know...not very creative with the names but it has turned out to be fun. Cute little things right! That was 4 years ago come July. You can read my Pet Blog about them! They are HUGE now! I need to get them a 75 or 90 gallon tank. I'm in the processes of looking for one now! I can just imagine how big they are going to get then! YIPES! I want to make a fountain that trickles down a set of flat rock stairs they can climb up. If I get it completed I'll take pictures & post them. If you do not know, they are Red-Eared Sliders.

   
This is Ella - BTW they are both males! I didn't know what they were when I first got them so I just tell Ella he is French...French name! Ha! Ella has more of a distinctive marking on his shell now. He is also the smaller of the two but he can manage to spar with Sam quite well.

   


Sam is the dominant one, another way of saying "the Bully" in the Darwin Theory of Survival! You can see Sam is about 3 times the size of Ella. They are mostly eating superworms now but they just had some of the new foods that came out on the market recently. I hand feed them the worms & that is fun. Sam is quite a snapper! My grandpa would have loved them...well he would have told me we were going to have "turtle soup!" I'd be at college & talk to him on the phone & he'd tell me we were going to have rabbit. We had a bunch of rabbits from a friend that kept multiplying no matter how we tried to keep them apart. I guess if one is "determined!" ;-) At times Ella almost catches up but not for a while now.

  

Sam is being held. Wanted to give some perspecitve. You really need to hold him with 2 hands now. You can see an overview of how much larger his shell is & look at the difference in their feet. You can see Sam is much darker.

  

 I love watching them! They are such a hoot! And very relaxing! Well I'm a Pisces, so it is a kindred spirit thing! I think they actually understand their names when I call them...well if not it is a very strange correlation. Ella likes to sit on Sam's shell to sun bathe. One night I was on the phone & all of a sudden I see claws over the tank & then a head peering at me! Sam...the little devil had wanted to explore! I screamed! Ha! Sam hasn't done it since!

There are 3 goldfish in with them for about a month now. They managed to get 3 but these last 3 they don't seem to be able to catch? The fish even realize it & are not really intimidated by them now & swim right near their mouths. You know I had won a goldfish when I was in 2nd grade & it didn't die until I was like a sophmore in college. Amazing! Took up the whole tank! I think it was blind at the end because it would constantly pump into the tank...that are they sleep a lot when they get elderly! Ha! Huge fanned tail, mostly white with a gold spot. Now that I think about it, my brothers were taking care of it when I was at college, God only knows what they fed it considering the one gave his fish milk because he thought they were thirsty when he was little. I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did with them.

Well if you have Red Eared Sliders let me know all about them & any helpful hints you may have!