Turtle and Tortoise Rescue Program

I saved some fish today! Fish Rescue .

2015-08-25T00:24:00.000-07:00

Operation Save the Fancy Guppies!

Fish Rescue !!!

I haven't been in a position where I could afford to rescue any more animals for years. And believe me, it's been hard turning away any animals that needed help! I've turned down so many cats, dogs, even the sweetest and tiniest, most well behaved male bunny that I've ever met. (Who went through so much bad stuff, which could have been avoided had I been able to (had the resources) to rescue him!) Bunnies require special food. (And special treats.) I don't have any bunnies right now. That would be an extra expense. Bunnies also require a lot of time with their humans (or at least some time!) And they require a certain amount of work to keep their environment clean and ultimately their quality of life good. I had no choice but to refuse any and all animals (as I said, I had to and still have to turn any animal that needs help, away. And I've had to do this for years, for financial and other reasons).

Sadly though, I found out that after I said no, that the bunnies toes had ended up getting bit off, by a dog. It happened right before it went to a new home, I feel so very bad! If I could do it over, I'd take the bunny. Especially knowing then, what I do now! I had no say in the matter. The bunny was given to someone I'll never know, and I'll never hear the story of what happened to that sweet bunny. This is very sad for me.

***

However, now, you may know that I have fish tanks. Fish are a lot easier to save, if you have a nice seasoned aquarium to add them into. They don't eat much and they don't take up much room at all!

It's not often that I get the opportunity or a request to rescue fish, but this was going to be a very unique situation.

***

Saving Fish and Preserving Strains!

Neighbors of mine, sadly just went through something that was very hard to witness! Here I will explain what that has to do with how I came to rescue some fish.

There was always a nice older woman who lived on my street. My mother called her the "ceramic lady". I guess she had taught my mother how to do ceramics (long ago) and she had lived on our street about as long as my family, which is about 40+ years. My entire family : great grandmothers and great grandfathers. grandmothers and grandfathers. my dad, my mom. And it seems as though every one that they knew from cousins to friends, all made ceramics in about the 70's. It could be earlier for all I know, since I wasn't born yet. :)

I knew this lady, more recently, as the neighborhood "cat lady". She always had food and water out for the kitties. She also fed the birds on the side of her house. It wasn't uncommon to see about 20 birds hanging out near her doorway. I thought she was very sweet! And I knew she was getting very old and had heard that she was getting sick. About a year ago, she passed away, leaving the house to someone else.
(Don't worry, all of the cats that she fed did/do have owners. They are well-fed and well-cared for. They would just visit her often and loved her food. I'm sure they miss her too!)

I never knew it, but it turned out that there had been two young adults there, that weren't completely mentally stable to begin with. They had been living there the entire time and I never knew it. Sadly, "their mental illness seems to have gotten so much worse since their grandmother died." So much worse that it even "spilled out of the house" recently. Up until then I didn't know how bad things had gotten for them. Now, since they were mentally ill, their grandmother made sure they were left with a caretaker. The house had long been paid off, but the person left in charge, the caretaker, took out a reverse mortgage on the house. They were able to keep the house for about a year. Finally they can't make payments any more. And they are losing the house. They are "packing up" and moving out, much quicker than I'd be able to do! I feel so badly for them! I can't imagine losing my home!

I've heard that they will have good places to go (the two young-adults.) So that was good news. But it is so sad to see the house go up for sale, when it's been occupied by such a wonderful woman, for so long (the ceramic lady). Anyone that knows her, has only wonderful things to say about her. She was simply a wonderful person!

I guess someone in the house had fish. I'm not sure who, they may have belonged to the ceramic lady. I was told that no one seemed to care about the fish and asked if I could take them in. So,,, someone brought me a bag of mixed guppies. There was about 40 fish in the bag. The guppies look kind of old and they are all fully mature. But some of the females are clearly gravid and going to drop some live guppy babies very soon. So,,, they are fancy guppies, and there are a few popular "fish store" strains, judging by the males. But I truly have no idea until I see the babies what they will look like once grown.

They all had ripped up fins and looked kind of depressed! Yes, the fish looked depressed. The water quality was only barely livable.

I took the fish out of the dirty water and immediately added them into a large 40 gallon long fishtank. The tank has excellent water quality and only had snails in it, plus a few random guppies. Now, a few days after adding the fish into their new home, one of the females has dropped her batch of fancy guppy babies (they are so cute, and some of them are blondes.) And all of the fish look happier! They are swimming around the tank as if they've lived there forever.

They have plenty of places to hide and a lot of free swimming space. The tank is perfect! There is so many plants floating around that most, if not all of the baby guppies survived and won't even need to be removed. The rescue guppies are perfectly happy! They adjusted so much better than I expected! :) Mission Guppy Rescue is a success!

Soon I will try to separate the colors/strains of guppy to preserve their colors and make their bloodline, as close to "pure-bred" as possible. The goal, will be for the strain, to "breed true."

I'll update about these rescue guppies ASAP. :}

Until next time!

* RainyFerns *

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Tortoise and Turtle Information

2014-08-22T03:44:00.000-07:00

For all of your Tortoise and Turtle information needs, I have a special place where you can find them all on my website! >>>

Your Guide to Keeping and Caring for

Turtles and Tortoises

Meet one of my Aquatic Female Turtles

2010-12-01T12:43:00.000-08:00

This is a video of my Red Eared Slider, Aquatic Turtle. She is a female. She is taking a rare stroll around the yard, normally she wouldn't venture far away from the ponds. Her name is Lilly, for the Tiger Lily marks in her shell. She is most likely hungry and searching for food, or looking for a good place to lay eggs. She is extremely friendly though, and will follow me around the garden for hours. :-)

Meet the Rest of My Aquatic Turtles ! >>>

RainFerns TurtleVille : Meet Her Aquatic Turtles

Red Eared Slider basking entering water

2010-11-28T18:58:00.000-08:00

I really like this idea for an indoor pond, to house one or two smaller aquatic turtles. But the turtles eventually get large, messy and need to spend some time outdoors (only if it's warm outside : warm climate, in the summer or warmer months and the sun us shining.)

Pictures of my Turtles

2009-09-27T17:56:00.000-07:00

Here you can see a turtle that was sun bathing

and is now "sliding" into the pond water.

I've been working on getting better pictures of my turtles but if you know me, you know that I'm busy!

Here is a fuzzy picture which should have been a clear, close up.

My turtles are very happy to be living outside in nature, under the sun. They can choose between 2 ponds and they have other turtles to interact with. They are well fed and my family and friends loves to stop by and visit them. I will eventually upgrade my water turtles to a much larger pond(s). I hope that the general public will be able to visit my turtles where people can learn more about the interesting life of a water turtle.

To learn more about what the future has in store for my turtles, Check out

The Auna Foundation.

You will find the link in the right-hand sidebar of this blog.

Here you can almost see both of my turtles ponds.

I will get some better pictures of the turtles and their ponds in the next few days, so Stay Tuned!

Aww, here you can see a smaller turtle and 2 larger turtles.

They are enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Come back again soon and visit the NEW and Improved
water turtle habitat!

I'll be adding better pictures, more information and videos!

See you then,

* RainFern *

Temporary Ponds

2009-07-01T19:54:00.000-07:00

I finished the 2 Temporary Water Turtle Ponds and the entire turtle enclosure is looking great considering the small amount of space I'm working with. I know my turtles are happy but I still can't wait until I get them into their permanent habitat which is going to be huge!

I'm going to get some pictures of the turtle ponds very soon so Stay Tuned!

* RainFern *

Turtles love snacking on fresh grapes!

2009-06-30T18:20:00.000-07:00

Every year when my grapes are ripe I feed some to my turtles. My grapes are ready now and my turtles couldn't be happier. Nothing compares to homegrown food. I'm sure my turtles agree!

To learn more about my grapevine , check out my :

Garden Blog

See you next time,

* RainFern *

Turtle and Tortoise Rescue Program

2009-04-26T07:34:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Turtle and Tortoise Rescue Program

Brought to you by RainFern

They love to climb all over each other and bunch up in a big pile and bask in the sun.

Red Ear Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) are turtles. I have rescued these reptiles from various places. Most of these turtles were dropped off at the pet store that I had worked at a few years ago.

I care for nine red ear sliders and at this time I have four small turtles and five large, adult turtles. One of my oldest female turtles is over 14 years old. She's a real sweetie! Another one of my turtles was found wandering through a parking lot. He couldn't have wandered into a better parking lot, let me tell ya.

My turtles love to spend their summers outdoors in the sunshine and eating the natural food that I grow for them in my garden. I am currently working on a new pond for the turtles. Once I have finished that project I am going to upgrade them to a larger pond at least two more times.

My next turtle pond project will be attached to a water garden and will also hopefully have a solar powered pond filter. Also, I hope to work out a pond heater so that my turtles can enjoy the warm Las Vegas sun even during the winter and maybe even stay outdoors permanently.

I plan to regularly add video, pictures and updates to this blog
so please stop by again!

Thanks for visiting!

- RainFern