weekend one

as soon as friday was over, the first thing i did was to call up SB who's a few continents away. the chat did a whole lot of good, in 15 mins flat i got a bunch of information that i'd otherwise have to collect with hours of googling. he told me about the species, what they eat, what they should eat, what they like to do and not, how to tell the gender, and also told me that i could approach PFA for any more help/assistance.

on saturday, i got an aquarium for tinnu. a 2ftx1ftx1ft. this was the same size that A used too. bought it from a not-so-nice shop at btm2nd stage, 16th main, after suganya tipped me off about its existence. a teenager built it, and didn't do a good job polishing the sharp edges and it cut deep into my arm when i was carrying it upstairs.

filled it half with warm water and put tinnu in it. he seemed pleased, alright. and i remembered to put the jar back and some stones into it. but it wasn't the end of our collective woes. tinnu had been shedding profusely around the time he changed his keepers. A had warned me to change water frequently till the shedding died down.

this was easier in the bucket than in the aquarium. in the mornings, i'd change the water in the aqua, drop some turtle food. by the time i got back home, the food would be replaced by poop in various stages of dissolution. and the water was covered in transparent shed skin. the turtle himself had lotsa transparent skin sticking out from his whole body. and then, if i didn't change the water right away, it would stink like crazy. so i had to change the water in the evenings too. it sure was tiring. and i was real concerned that i was doing it right.

it was very obvious that the aqua wasn't enough for this bubbly baby, and i promised him that we'd get a bigger and a better one as soon as we moved to a new house, which would happen in 2 weeks time.

i spent the whole of sunday shop-hopping to find a bigger aqua for the turtle which wouldn't turn my budget turtle. most places had the regular sized fish tanks with bigger and tailor made tanks costing through the roof. A had earlier told me that a turtle is an expensive pet to maintain. and i was keen to keep my turtle happy in a low budget, lest i lose interest quickly. end of weekend 2, i was so frustrated that i went  back to the btm shop and placed and order for a custom-made 3ftx2ftx2ft tank for a whopping 3.5k, of 4mm glass. i wasn't very happy with it because the teenager had earlier done a real bad job and i didn't trust him one bit. but then, there wasn't a better option i could come up with. all the shop-hopping had given me a good idea of what goes into making a fish tank, the way glass is priced and cut and polished and stuck and how size and thickness were related, so much that i was contemplating building a fish tank all by myself. only, i lived in a tiny place that wouldn't accomodate a tank-building yard.

meanwhile, the turtle and i were getting comfortable with each other's presence. during his living-in-the-bucket days, he'd get terribly scared and retreat to the farthest end(which wasn't very far) whenever i so much as  moved. i'd feel very sorry for him. so i pushed his bucket under the cot, so he wouldn't see me move around and would remain undisturbed.... in the tank, where he could move around a bit and feed at ease, he was more relaxed, and then he was by the window side too.. that kinda helped. he'd still retreat far away when i dropped food into his tank and eat only when i wasn't around. he was slowly changing ways and it was nice to see him not bang himself against the glass walls when he retreated in fear.

good for me, good for him!