Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi.

I just got my 55-gallon setup complete. I have a floating basking rock (the large sized one), a Fluval 204 canister filter, and small stones on the bottom (despite seeing everyone here prefer glass-bottom for cleaning).

I am running into a few problems. My old tank (20-gal. long, maybe 7 gal of water in it, waterfall filter, stacked basking rocks) was very run down and it seems like my about 5" RES is suffering from the neglect. His shell seems to be peeling away and a dark brown color. When you look at it when he's underwater, it looks like there are greyish-green clumps on the shell as well. Is this shell rot? There are no vets in my area who do turtles, so is there a home remedy for it? Is there a "better safe than sorry" thing I can do to treat it if it is, and it won't hurt him if it isn't shell rot, but just the byproduct of nasty water?

Also, I haven't had a UVB florescent light since it burnt out a while ago. Before then, I hung it outside of the glass, which I later learned probably didn't do any good anyway. Now in my new enclosure, I want to start off new, and give this guy all he needs so he can live a better life than he did the past few months. I have a screen on top of my 55-gal, and most of the area over the basking rock is taken up by the heat lamp with a metal dome around it (like a painter's lamp cover). Do they make florescent lights that can just sit on the metal screen? Does the UVB light have to be over the basking area, or just over the water in general?

One more question that I asked many times before, but you can never have enough input:

Diet. I've been feeding him the Reptomin pellets everyday until I heard that 3 year old, 5" RESes need more greens than protein. The only greens I know are safe for him is romaine lettuce hearts. Can people list off common diet items (perferrably not live insects - going off to college and my mom doesn't want crickets in the house...) and how often I should feed the foods to him in a week's period? I know the pellets should only be 1-2 days per week, so I need ideas for the other 5-6 days.

I already also tried strawberry tops, but he wasn't interested...

I just feel bad because he went this long without a comfortable environment. Can't wait to move him in tomorrow once the water warms up to room temp, and the chemicals from the tap have time to burn off.

Thanks for all your help,

Brian

Congrats on getting the new tank set up. You mention that you are waiting for the water to get to room temperature. Do you not have a heater? You really want a water temperature around 80°. Can you take the turtle outside for some real sun? It doesn't have to be all day, 30 minutes a few days a week would help. And yes, you can put the UVB light on top of the screen.

As to foods, of course things like earthworms, guppies, minnows, mealworms would be best but I guess one can't push it when mom's going to be the reluctant caretaker. Will she at least go for something like Silversides which are frozen whole little fish that are sold as fish food (in the freezer at the pet store). I give my turtle (a painted) pieces of unseasoned fish that I'm cooking, rinsed water packed canned salmon and sardines.

Frozen fish foods that are good are Emerald Entree, bloodworms, daphnia. Just thaw them out first. There's also one that's specifically for aquatic turtles if the stores in your area carries it.

Good vegetables would be romaine lettuce, collard greens, dandelion greens, alfalfa, yellow squashes, cooked sweet potato, clover, parsley, cilantro, fresh corn, peas, lentils, kale, bok choy, tofu, watercress, cereal grasses, turnip greens, mustard greens, alfalfa sprouts, shredded carrots, beets. Either avoid or just give very small amounts of rhubarb, spinach, the cabbage family, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts.

Pretty much any non-citrus fruit is good but should only be about 10% of the diet.

As to the shell question, check out www.turtlepuddle.org/health/shellrot.html.

Good luck!

As to the question about the heater,

I used to have a heater, but people - pet store people as well - told me it'll do more harm than good.

I live in CT, on the shore (about an hour outside of NYC), and the pet store owner and employee (who owns several RESes) said that they live out in the wild around here, and will survive fine in an unheated tank placed indoors. Also, people said that having a heater will only increase the risk of burning and increase of metabolism for not only the RES, but also of bacteria in the water.

The water has been pretty dirty, but I don't see any puss or white spots. Just looks like algae. I can scrape it off with my fingernail (under a latex glove) for the most part, but he's getting a little frisky and doesn't like being picked up much anymore (he's a snappy guy)...

As for the food, I bet she'll go for the live fish. Is there anything I have to worry/do with them? I like the veggies and pellets because I just drop them in and in seconds, they're gobbled up. How many do I feed? Do I have to worry about a diseased fish? I'm completely new to this whole "live lunch" idea, and am probably making it more complicated than it really is haha...

Thanks for all your help so far
-Brian

As far as feeding fish, the most important thing to remember is not to feed goldfish, they are extremely dirty and disease ridden. Feeder guppies are a better idea and are usually in better health.

There are a variety of frozen fish foods that are good for turtles including frozen silversides, krill, beefheart, brineshrimp, bloodworms, and veggie foods. Its really important to start increasing veggies at this point.

A note on the gravel, bare bottomed tanks have a few good points, one of which being (as you mentioned) that they are easier to clean. But even more important is that the gravel can be injested and cause a serious impaction that can result in death if surgery is not performed. I would worry about this especially in your set up because you mentioned the rocks were small, and your turtle is larger so the risk is even bigger that he will injest them. I would either (ideally) get rid of the rocks completely or at least replace them with large stones that cannot be injested.
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0.1 mexican Black kingsnake
1.1 Leopard Gecko's
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4.1 Cats

Mine have always done well with watertemps 72-74 and a basking
temp of 85-90 degrees. They are 6 years old now and have never
been ill or missed a meal.

I tend to keep them more naturally and allow water temps
to fluctuate naturally without a heater. If you think about
their habitats in the wild, no where is the water a constant
80 degrees. We are unable to provide the wide ranges of
temps that are achieved in the wild.

I believe there are others on the forum that follow this
as well.

Linda