I thought that by now I would be finished or at least much further along with my House of Miniatures Chippendale Dresser. But alas, when I came home from work last Tuesday I found a lovely surprise waiting for me.
Herman must have been very busy that day because there were turtle eggs all over my aquarium! I counted 14 whole ones. I have no idea how many there were in total because Cecil had obviously been eating some of them as well. It was such a mess!
This one is almost an inch and a half long! I can't believe there were so many of them!
This is afterwards as Herman was desperately trying to escape while I was attempting to measure just how big he/she really is.
Here is a front view to share, this is from a few months ago, but Herman is still about this same size. From left to right the top of his shell measures 8-1/2 inches wide.
And from front to back the top of his shell measures 9-1/2 inches long. He just doesn't seem to be big enough for all of those eggs! I may have mentioned it before, but Herman was already named when he was given to me and I've been referring to him as a "he" for so many years that I still have trouble saying "she."
I'm sure you're wondering at this point, but no I won't be having lots of baby turtles swimming around. Turtles like RES require very specific conditions in order to have viable eggs - for example a place to bury the eggs like in sand or dirt, specific temperatures, incubation time, etc. Also there is no way to tell if these eggs were even fertilized to begin with. I have reason to believe that Cecil is a male, but then again I thought Herman was a male for a long time as well. I've read that female turtles can carry sperm for as long as 7 years after an encounter with a male as well. Crazy, huh?
Anyway, the tank and the filter were such a mess that here it is days later and I still haven't been able to put it all back together again. I'm actually writing this Sunday night - guess it's time to sign off and give it another try - wish me luck!
4 comments:
Very interesting. It sounds like a really big mess though!
How cool- that is a lot of eggs!! Bummer that it's a big mess to clean up though- cute pics of Herman :)
that is so fun! i love all your mini projects too~
Thanks everyone - yes, it was a big mess, but I love my turtles anyway!
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