Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys! I hope you can help me.

Two of my 3 year old RES's are spending a LOT of time near the bottom of the tank. Nearly everytime I look in, they are near the bottom. There is a third in the tank and he seems perfectly fine. He swims around and greets me whenever I come around. As far as the other two, their appetites are good and when they do swim, they don't seem to have any problems. They just spend ALL the time at the bottom. I'm worried that there's a health issue here. But if it was a problem with the water or housing that is affecting their health, wouldn't it be affecting the third one as well?

I don't have the money for the vet right now, so I'm really hoping this is something that you guys can help me with. Are there indicators of health issues I should be looking for?

On a side note, I've been noticing some pyramiding on their shells. How can I change this? Are there things I should be doing that maybe I'm not right now? I only take them out if I'm changing the water since I have a both a basking lamp and UVB light in there. Their diet is ReptoMin food pellets with some occasional dried plankton. They like ananachris, but it destroys the tank and I can't get them to eat any other kind of veggies. Any suggestions??

What's the water temperature? Do you have the water heated?
Staying on the bottom could possibly be a sign that the water is too cool.

As for pyramiding try to vary the diet more. Lots of live foods, rotate the foods, don't feed the same thing every feeding.
I feed mine Reptomin 2-4 times a month. Most of the time they get fresh foods such as live fish, worms, crickets, & I also use frozen foods made for fish and for turtles, some of these have veggies in them. You could try dark leafy greens such as turnip or dandelion & just float that in the water so that they can bite at it as they please. I try to make the diet be as natural as I can in captivity. Mimic a wild diet as much as possible.

I know someone who has a female western painted that's 8 years younger than my male western painted. Her's was wild caught as a quarter sized hatchling. Mine is captive bred, I got him as a hatchling and he took several years to reach adult size.
That female's shell looks horrible, it's not shaped the way it should be, it's lumpy & flared in an unnatural way.

3 years ago I told her this turtle is getting too much protein, you need to cut back on that. By then the turtle was 2 years old & already larger than my adult male, she grew way too fast.
Her reply was "Well, I feed her Reptimin" in a tone that said what else would you expect & with a look telling me that she plans to never feed the turtle anything else.

Then a few months ago she tried to give the turtle to me.. but instead another friend of mine took her. He couldn't get over how awful the turtle looked when he got her. Luckily for this turtle, the guy who took her in works for my vet, the diet is now corrected.
I've always, from day one fed mine the widest variety of foods that I can & he's beautiful as well as healthy.
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PHRatz

It is possible that the water is too cold. I have it inside but it is winter, even though I live in LA. I'll try to keep the temp up and see if that helps.

I've tried varing their diet but they just don't seem interested. I used to float veggies on the top and they would just sit there until they got too soggy and made the tank gross. I'll check out some aquarium stores and see if there's some variation I can try.

Thanks.

>>It is possible that the water is too cold. I have it inside but it is winter, even though I live in LA. I'll try to keep the temp up and see if that helps.

I live in a hot climate too but I still keep my tanks heated because inside the house we keep it comfortable for us.. no matter what time of year it is. That means it's always too cool in the house for the turtles if they don't have a heat source of their own. I've noticed in the past that when I've forgotten to plug the heater back in after cleaning the tank, my painted will stay on the bottom a lot.

On the food, I can't tell you how much food I've wasted over the years because I bought it & the turtles wouldn't eat it.. but just keep trying because you will find some foods that they'll accept. The more variety, the better for their health & the easier for you. I know it's hard to feed a finicky turtle.
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PHRatz

I live in Alaska so here a tank heater is a necessity regradless of time of year. I agree with the others on that you should get a heater, at the very least put a thermometer in there to keep track of the temperture.

Food wise, mine eat mostly pellets but I usually buy many kinds and mix them together. I also feed these moist stick food mixes that have veggies in them and once every several months I'll throw a couple gold fish in there for them to chase. My male RES with chase the fish for hours, but the female is never interested, she'll only go as far to snap at the fish if it passes her face. Also, when I have some salad in the house (i'm big on spinach and dark leafies) i'll put some in there tank to nibble on. Just remember if you feed veggies don't use Iceburg lettuce. It really isn't very good for anyone, including people.
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3.7 Dogs (husky mutts ; one wolf/german shepard hybred)
Salt and Fresh water fish