Today we did some tank management with their turtles. The result of which was a whole new look! Complete water change and complete tank clean. Also layout change from this

This was when we first set the big tank up in Oct 18. It looked amazing and we absolutely loved it. However, the turtles clearly didn’t as they set about making “adjustments”.

The result of which was the soil and stones were all pushed around to create a completely different Landscape.

The Pesky little demons were so unkeen on our look that they kept pushing substrate from the top to the bottom.

In fact other than to dig the substrate from the top to the bottom, they spent no time in the dry at all!

The New Look

This is the new layout for now in the summer. Due to the turtles dilike of the substrate we will completely remove it.

Introducing our guys (and Gal)

We have 5 turtles in total this includes 3 Stink pots (musk) turtles and two Reeves.

Kaiyo (means ocean in Japanese and she was our first turtle). She wasn’t in great shape when we got her. However, she’s now doing well even if we are still learning what’s best for them.

Kenshin (named after a Japanese warlord Uesugi Kenshin) He came to us with our little Masamune.

Masamune (named after Masamune Date also an other Japanese Warloard)

Oda (named after Nobunaga Oda the famous Japanese warlord). Interestingly enough while looking into the Warlords we learned a lot.

Numbunga Oda was key in unifying Japan. While he wasn’t scared of a fight and even is believed to have committed ritual suicide. He was known for not taking the easiest path.

Our little Oda is the smallest of the two reeves. However, out of all the turtles but he’s the only one not scared to stand up to Kenshin.

Hideyoshi (named after Nobunaga’s apparent right-hand man Toyotomi Hideyoshi). Hideyoshi was actually the man who went on to rule the newly unified Japan after Nobunaga’s death in June 1582! so again fitting for our two odd balls.

All 5 boys have Japanese names. We wanted to keep Kaiyo’s name so decided warlords important in Japan’s history would do this.

However, I won’t lie allowing an opportunity to have the children learn some history was also a bonus. Therefore after a 2 weeks of research I think they did well.

If you would like to learn more about the children’s Turtles click here.
However, if their Japanese adventures are more your thing you can find them here.

If you would like to learn more about Japan here is one of our kids favourite sites.

2020 update:

We have recently found this amazing website which allows you to listen to radio stations from all over the world. Find this here.