Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm having some water quality issues. My turt sometimes will keep his eyes closed they are a little swollen and I believe his neck is getting lumps on the sides. Based on what I have read these are sure signs of poor water quality, but I don't understand what could be going on. I use tap water with reptisafe conditioner and change half the water once a week in addition to top-offs. Why do these changes not work and what can I do to otherwise improve the water quality? Also, I have a Whisper 10i for a ten gallon tank.

How big is your turtle?
How much are you feeding?

Many factors can lead to poor water quality, including:

1. Turtle too big for the tank
2. Not very good filter (which is possible with the Whisper 10)
3. Overfeeding

My turtle's shell is only 1 1/4" long. So far I've been feeding him one Nutrafin tablet a day and the occasional veggie.

One tablet per day? How big is a tablet?
You say the eyes are swollen and that there are lumps forming on the ears. The eye and ear problems are symptoms of poor nutrition. If one tablet is one pellet, that is not enough food.
A small growing turtle should be eating all it wants for 20-30 minutes per day. Meaning toss in plenty of food, let it eat until it gets full and stops eating, then remove any remaing food.
They should also eat plenty of variety in foods, several different types of pellets, live insects, worms, and feeder fish such as rosy reds, other minnow species, guppies, but not goldfish.
You should see a reptile vet for the eye and ear problems before it gets any worse. Lumps on ears generally indicate abscesses caused by infection which leads to pneumonia. All of this can be prevented in the first place through correct nutrition.

food deficiency. I have a similar setup for my hatchling
painted and instead of using a filter in the small aquarium
I just do a complete water change about twice a week. It
is very easy with such a small aquarium.

I would try this and re-evaluate the water temp and basking
area. If the turtle has bumps where his ears would be, they
can be abscesses which will have to be attended by a vet.
Are you using a UVB source?

Linda

For a while he wasn't eating any food, so he's only been able to eat one pellet, although his apetite has now increased. I have a ZooMed 5% UVB light bulb. I've seen pictures of ear abcesses and my turtle looks nothing like that. His neck is a little more swollen than normal, but that is all. I'll change his diet and take him to the vet asap.

What changes should I make to his diet?

I'm confused, how much food should I be putting in the tank? I don't want the turt to over feed but I want to make sure he gets wat he needs. He's only a tad over one inch so how much should I be feeding him?

>>I'm confused, how much food should I be putting in the tank? I don't want the turt to over feed but I want to make sure he gets wat he needs. He's only a tad over one inch so how much should I be feeding him?

That's tiny, he/she should eat daily. I have a painted not RES but painteds are similar to RES. He was a hatchling when I bought him, in his first 2 years I fed him twice a day as much as he would eat in about a 15 minute period. Any food left over was scooped out to keep the water cleaner.
He was a very active baby who burned those calories off, he swam a lot then, still does today. He's never gotten fat.
You can tell that they're too fat when too much "meat" is pushing out the leg openings.
Once he was going on to 3 years of age, I tapered off on his feedings, I went down to once a day. By the time he was 4 I had stopped the daily feedings. At times he'd have an insatiable appetite, that seemed to happen as he'd have growth spurts. Once the growth spurt seemed to be over he'd stop wanting to eat so much. He doesn't have these bouts of insatiable appetite now, he's fine with 2-3 feedings per week, he's going on 12 years of age now, he's a full grown adult.
I've always fed him a huge variety of foods, more natural foods than pellets, although he still does get pellets a few times a month. I never feed him the same meal twice in a row, one day it may be pellet, the next feeding it'll be crickets, the next fish, the next worms, etc. etc. then after several feedings we'll go back to pellets. This has always worked for my boy.

People have said to me in the past "the guy at the pet store said one pellet, two pellets a day is all they need."
It's a shame people are told that.. it's just not right.
Here's a not so great pic of my little boy.. I need to get a better one!

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PHRatz

If captive conditions are correct, I'd say that it’s pretty darned hard to over feed a turtle. If the correct temps (water and basking) are in place that allow the turtle to fully utilize the food it takes in, obesity shouldn’t be a problem.

Alright, I tried incoropating some new things into the diet. It completely turned down the carrot (seemed utterly repulsed by it actually). But I had some success with Leaf Lettuce. I was wondering, for hatchlings what is a good feeding schedule? Should he get a meal of veggies one day and a then mealworm the next and sometimes pellets? I know they shouldn't get too much protein but what so maybe feed them once every week? I need a clue. Thank you.

>>Alright, I tried incoropating some new things into the diet. It completely turned down the carrot (seemed utterly repulsed by it actually). But I had some success with Leaf Lettuce. I was wondering, for hatchlings what is a good feeding schedule? Should he get a meal of veggies one day and a then mealworm the next and sometimes pellets? I know they shouldn't get too much protein but what so maybe feed them once every week? I need a clue. Thank you.

Most hatchling turtles aren't very interested in plants for meals. They tend to want foods such as insects, fish, & worms more as hatchlings, then later begin to become interested in veggies as they get older.
They shouldn't get too much protein but how much is too much? It depends on the source of the protein IMO. Unnatural proteins like those in a pellet are worse for them than natural proteins they'd get from a natural food, like a bug.

I fed my hatchling painted a lot of live foods as he would've gotten if he were a wild turtle. Today his shell is perfectly smooth & normal looking.
On the other hand when mine was 9 years old I knew someone who'd gotten a western painted hatchling. Nearly 3 years later that painted has a flared shell, an odd shaped shell, she's larger than my 11 year old. She's never been offered anything to eat other than Reptomin pellets.

Variety in foods is good for their health, offer one food item one day, something else the next day, etc. etc.
A hatchling should eat daily then taper that off as they get older. Keep offering the veggies but don't let the baby go hungry if it refuses the veggies.
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PHRatz