Broken off from here.

Rudolph said:

Completely off topic; We have two pet turtles by the names of Yorick* and Horatio. The previous two turtles (who lived in the same tank together for about a year before moving to someone else's pond) were named Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

* Actually, it's a female turtle, so it's name is Ophelia. It was originally named Yorick/Ophelia because it's near impossible to tell the sex of a turtle before about a year old. Now it's obviously a girl, but due to her penchant for burying herself with just her head sticking out of the dirt, we continue calling her Yorick. 

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crmfghtr said:

Curious about turtles, do they show any kind of interest in owners or have any interaction or they just cool to have around?

The turtles have been a lot more entertaining than I'd ever imagined they could be.

Horatio (photos here) is a ~1.5 year old Southern Painted (water turtle) living in a 2/3 full 60 gallon tank. Whenever one of us walks into the room, by his tank, into the kitchen (he can see from his tank), or opens the fridge, he'll jump off his basking log and do the "Feed Me" dance. In a way it's amusing, in a way it's obnoxious, because it happens all the time. Within the last few months he's picked up a new habit; when we ignore his dance he'll swim down to the bottom of the tank where the food is kept. The real food is on the left side cabinet, the treat is in the middle, and he'll aim for one or the other, and never the right side of the cabinet. He definitely recognizes people too. He's afraid of my mother, and shy about new people. When Mom comes over he hides behind one of his big rocks until she leaves. The A/C repair guy spooked him into hiding a bit, but after a few minutes he came back out to "play". He'll chase fingertips through the glass. A couple weeks ago, Wifey was wiping the hard water spots off the inside of the tank when the turtle jumped up and grabbed the paper towel in his mouth. He pulled a while before finally tearing a chunk off, then dove to the bottom and tried to hide under the rock with his new "toy".

Yorick (photos here) is a ~2 year old 3-toed box turtle. Her tank is a 40 gallon long, which is divided about 60/40 with a pond in the small side. We got her at about a month old, and she spent the first 11 months buried in the dirt, hiding from everything (not uncommon for very young land turtles). We'd have to literally dig her up and put her on her food sometimes. After that year or so her personality developed, and now she's the more amusing of the two turtles. Some months ago she started collecting rocks; she'd go into the "pond" and pick the small, lighter-colored rocks from the bottom. Then she'd carry them in her mouth and find a spot in the dirt and bury them (though sometimes she'd build a pile first, then bury them one by one). One time I counted 24 rocks around her little den before they got buried. She has also developed a "Feed Me" dance, which is significantly more dramatic if she notices the other turtle being fed first.

A little bit of info about our turtles can be found at Wifey's site, http://www.turtles-r.us/ There are also a couple old videos at her youtube page.

If you (or anyone else) have any other questions, feel free to ask. Obviously, when one's wife starts keeping animals like this, one learns a whole lot about them :) I'd be more than happy to offer information regarding how, why, what kind, proper keeping conditions, etc...