Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok so i have a baby RES. i take good care of it, or so i think. i put it out for sun everyday. i feed it reptomin enriched with calcium n D3. but it s shell. . .is so ugly!! a friend told me that it s because my water has too much lime or minerals in it. . and that the water was too hard, so the minerals from the water accumulated on its pretty little shell. so now the shell is like. . ugh, crustyish and like whiteish and u can t see the patterns. and when the turtle dries on a rock to bask, it looks dead cuz the shell is just ugh. i thought it was shedding. . .that s why its shell was so blah looking, but it s been like this forever. can anyone help?

Can you post a picture of the shell?

Linda

you really should get a uv light on the baby. zoo med reptisun 5.0 is sufficient. i have a flourescent and bulb lights, and my turtles prefer the bulbs. put a timer on one of those and its easier than taking the turtle out everyday. they should get natural sunlighht too sometimes. please post a pic of the carapace. also you should use a water conditioner. its dechlorinates the water. i use PRIME brand. its expensive and can only be bought at specialty reef stores. i think drs. foster and smith sells it too, but its worth it cause you dont need much and it dosnt leave the water with a fowl odor like some of the others. best of luck

Sounds like the minerals in the water is the problem. Do you have hard water? Use a good chlorine neutralizer. Also a pic would be nice to confirm this. Also almost all captive turtles have some kind of mineral traces on their shells.

And as to what the person above me said, I'm currently using one of the cheap chlorine outs *By Fish Doctor, i think* and it really does make the water smell bad, like sulfur.