Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a few questions.

One: (and this may seem like a idiot question but since I don't know much about aquatic life, I am going to ask anyway) Is there a difference between green and brown algae? I have two seperate tanks. One is a 60 gal with 2 RES in it, the other is a 10 gal with one RES in it. In the 60 gal, the algae that grows is brown. In the 10 gal, its green. They have virtually the same conditions in both, just a smaller scale in the 10 gal. I know that algae won't harm the turtles, but it doesn't make the tank look nice or smell that great. Just wondering whats the difference.

Two: One of my turtles in the larger tank has been keeping his head pulled in more frequently than usual. Its odd. I've never seen him act like that before. He even has it like that underwater. Is there a medical reason turtles keep their heads pulled in or is it solely for defense?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Sarah

First, the algea question is not stupid; you are correct that it is weird to have different algea in similar tanks. However, I suppose you are like me and have the different tanks in differnt rooms. If that is the case then that could be your answer. If you purchased/rescued the turtles from different places that could also explain the difference. It is more of a mystery than an emergancy, and I suspect that all you really care about is getting rid of it! Well many of us here on the forum use plecos to keep the algea at bay. Be sure to get one big enough that your turtles will not eat it, because they will if it is small enough! I found that this works well in my tanks. Also, you may have your lights on to long. Their "lighting" should be on no more than 12 hours and as little as 8 in the winter [I just leave mine on 10 hours year round]. If the light in on to much you will have a problem. Last thing to note is water temp. If you are using a tank heater make sure to keep it between 70 - 75 degrees. Any higher will stress your turtles and "feed" the algea.
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Joshua M Guillemette

1.1.0 Children [Deven 10 & Hailey due June 1]
2.1.0 Cats [Micah, Judo, & Elizabeth]
1.0.0 Bunny [Bugs]
1.0.1 Red Belly Sliders [Bernulli & Schrödinger]
2.0.0 Yellow Belly Sliders [Maxwell & LaPlace]
0.0.2 Cumberlands [Pascal & Joule]
1.2.1 Red Ear Sliders [Kepler, Napier, Gauss, & Kelvin]

plecos? I was told the turtle would either eat it or bite at it.. is this not true? I have a pleco that is about 7" and a turtle who is about 5 but the pleco has no protection from being bitten.. please let me know if this would be a problem because I would rather have this little giant in my turtle tank and out of my fish tank.

Please note: results may vary!

However, I have had a pleco in both of my turtle tanks for about 6 months. They are just as long as the biggest turtle and there is room for them to get away [swim to the other side/top]. I have read some posts that others have lost their plecos in turtle tanks. I am not sure if I have good luck or they had different conditions. My suggestion is that if you have a big enough pleco, and a big enough tank; then feed your turtles a little more than usual [more or more often], and go ahead and put your pleco in. If they do not eat it then in about 2 weeks I would go back to their normal feeding cycle. That way they are use to the pleco and will not view him as food nor be hungry enough to want to eat him in the first place.

Hope this helps
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Joshua M Guillemette

1.1.0 Children [Deven 10 & Hailey due June 1]
2.1.0 Cats [Micah, Judo, & Elizabeth]
1.0.0 Bunny [Bugs]
1.0.1 Red Belly Sliders [Bernulli & Schrödinger]
2.0.0 Yellow Belly Sliders [Maxwell & LaPlace]
0.0.2 Cumberlands [Pascal & Joule]
1.2.1 Red Ear Sliders [Kepler, Napier, Gauss, & Kelvin]

Second, the turtle with its head in concerns me. I am not aware of any medical condition that has this symptom, but I am not a vet. However, it is a defense mechanism; so the turtle may be defending itself from harassment. Is this the smaller turtle in the 60 gallon tank? Are the legs tucked in most of the time also? Is the other turtle nipping at the little guy causing this reaction? If so it looks like you have a territorial situation. The bigger one feels cramped and is trying to make the little one move out. However, that cannot happen in a tank so the little guy just gets endlessly harassed until the stress and lack of eating kills him/her. Note: it does not have to be two males. I had a male-female pair that grew up together from hatchlings, and when they got to big the big boy nipped at his little sister, and I had to move them to a bigger tank. Please figure out why the turtle is keeping his/her head in and fix it. The little guy cannot fix the environment without your help and could die from the stress.
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Joshua M Guillemette

1.1.0 Children [Deven 10 & Hailey due June 1]
2.1.0 Cats [Micah, Judo, & Elizabeth]
1.0.0 Bunny [Bugs]
1.0.1 Red Belly Sliders [Bernulli & Schrödinger]
2.0.0 Yellow Belly Sliders [Maxwell & LaPlace]
0.0.2 Cumberlands [Pascal & Joule]
1.2.1 Red Ear Sliders [Kepler, Napier, Gauss, & Kelvin]

Thanks for answering. I really appreciate it.

I did a major cleaning yesterday on both tanks so the algae is gone, for now but it will be growing back. I'll try and keep the light on a more regulated schedule. That could be part of it. I'm not sure what the plecos are you mentioned. Is this something that can be picked up at the pet store?

The two in the 60 gal tank are roughly about the same size. One of them is most aggressive of the three. He's just more outgoing. He'll even eat out of my hand. He did stress out the smallest of the three, which is why I moved him to a tank by himself. But the other two have never had problems with each other. They relate pretty well together. Ron (the one I was concerned about) hasn't been so shy lately. I think part of the reason was we had a lot of people over here the last week and it was noisy near their tank. Its been quieter this weekend and he's been peeking out again. I'm going to keep an eye on him, though.

Thanks.
Sarah

Some notes on algae...

Here is what i used to tell all the customers that asked me about algae when i worked at a tropical fish store.

GREEN ALGAE
Algae is a plant, and like all plants it needs food to grow. Algae gets its food from several things found in a turtle tank.

1. Light. Set your lights up on timers so they go on and off at the same time each day, there will be no extra light to feed the algae. Make sure your tank isn;t getting any direct sunlight.

2. Left over food. Whenever you feed your turtle the piecies he doesn't eat add to your algae growth. Remove any large chunks of food from the water using your hands or a turkey baster. Feed your turtle slowly so he has a chance to eat more and waste less.

3. Turtle poop! Algae also feeds on turtle waste. Remove any large particles of poop with a turkey baster. Maybe you could add a more powerful filter. Also, keep up on your cleaning. Weekly partial water changes are good for maintaining a relatively algae free tank. Complete 100% water changes are bad, they will work at first, but shortly after the algae will come back even stronger because you will have caused your tank to recycle.

BROWN ALGAE
Brown algae is different than green algae and is not as easy to get away from. Brown algae shows up the most in new tanks, or when you havve just done a 100%, or close, water change. Although keeping a clean tank and avoiding extra light will help control it, it really has to be physically removed. The best thing to do it to use an algae scrapper and scrape it off. Also,

A couple extra notes:

1. If you have rocks in the bottom of your tank they will add to the cervices algae can grow in. You may find removing these rocks will help.

2. The turtle that is in the 10gallon, how big is it? A ten galon isn't big enough for a turtle much over the size of a 2inch hatchling. If he is any bigger than that its going to be close to impossible to keep the algae down because there is no way to get rid of all the waste because there is too much turtle for that tank. Try moving your turtle into a bigger size tank (10gallons for every inch of shell) and you may notice a significant decrease in algae.
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican kingsnake
1.0.2 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0 BTS
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

One more thing...

Make sure you are feeding a high quality turtle pellet. Generally, anything by wardley or tetra is going to be full of nitrates, and the more you feed, the more the algae eats.
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican kingsnake
1.0.2 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0 BTS
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

What is a high quality food product to use? I have been using Tetra because that's what is at the pet store near my house. Any suggestions?

Mazuri is a good one that comes to mind. I havent had a turtle in a while so i can't remember brand names. Read the ingredients on the can, you basically want to avoid foods that are mostly fillers like corn products.

Im sure someone else will have some suggestions...
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican kingsnake
1.0.2 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0 BTS
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats