Yellow Belly Sliders HELP!

[dearlymel3]

Hello,

My younger brother has two yellow belly sliders that my mom surprised him with from Chinatown back in July 2018. My brother's birthday was back in March and after I told him the hard work to have a turtle, he said no thanks. So you can imagine the learning curve we've been having the last month and a half. We named them Lightning (for his quick swimming speed) and Courage (the skittish one that we hoped would be less cowardly that the dog LOL).

We've noticed for the last two weeks that their shell scutes are turning a white dull color along with their spine turning white. We think it was due to the high basking heat (90-100 degrees), and thus moved the lamp higher. It's now around 85 degrees.

The water is around 78-79 degrees when we have the heat lamp on, and around 75 degrees (room temperature) when the lights are off. We have a 40 gallon Aqueon internal filter and have the babies in a 10 gallon plastic tub (I know, too small for the two one-inch turtles, but we're limited on space and funds to expand their home for now). The only objects in the tub are two fire-bricks stacked on each other with their basking rocks on top (we tried to DIY their basking area instead of spending $20 on the pre-made ones at the store). We use the Imagitarium water decholorinator when we change their water (I was doing 1/2 gallon water change a day, a whole tank change every 4-5 days).

I was concerned because for the first time we waited seven days to change their water (school started), and I thought they would be fine with the filter constantly on. We feed them their turtle pellet (one per turtle per day), and one freeze-dried cricket (Fluker's with the calcium powder gut) inside their tank (again, I know, I've been experimenting with feeding them outside in a feeding bowl, but my brother didn't like how scared they got so we went back to inside their home tank). I've been putting cut up small cuttlefish bones (an eco-version sold at a local Petco) for the past week as well and they've been gobbling them up.

We tried giving them red-leaf lettuce, a boiled egg, and shrimp for treats (maybe once every two weeks?). We stopped with the lettuce because we noticed they would just rib small pieces and spit them back out (there were about 20 small lettuce pieces floating at the top of the water that was clogging the filter).

The problem now is that I saw their yellow plastron turning pinkish-reddish and along with some darkish shadowy spots. The pinkish-reddish are has some white mixed in as well.

I've been googling all day what could be wrong. I wasn't alarmed because they haven't been acting differently at all. They are active, swimming around, walking around on the bottom of the tub, basking on their rocks, happily eating. There's no behavioral changes, sideways swimming, or any other alarming behavior. My husband went on google and determined that perhaps they were sunburnt (the white dullness of their scutes), hence the lamp height change. I found many sites saying it could be shell rot and septicemia.

If any of you could share your expertise, experience, and advice, we would greatly appreciate it. We don't have the funds to take them to the vet as he is a high-schooler and I'm in-between jobs. If need be, I could try to find a place that would be willing to charge my credit card as a last resort.

Here are pictures of Lightining and Courage:
1. Top View of Both (8.31.18): http://tinypic.com/r/sweg0n/9
2. Bottom View of Both (8.24.18): http://tinypic.com/r/14dofw6/9 (It seems like their bottom was already turning pinkish on the sides looking back now?)
3. Courage Top View (9.10.18): http://tinypic.com/r/6hrtx5/9
4. Courage Bottom View (9.10.18): http://tinypic.com/r/2jal1dl/9
5. Lightning Top View (9.10.18): http://tinypic.com/r/9fmhwx/9
6. Lightning Bottom View (9.10.18): http://tinypic.com/r/256b43s/9

I'll be making calls to the local vets to see if they have any experience with yellow belly sliders and ask for quotes. In the meanwhile, I really appreciate any help you can provide.

Thank you very much.

 

[Ellen & Toby]

Hi and welcome to the forum, unfortunately I am still fairly new to turtle keeping myself so can't offer a lot of advice. I can offer a couple of bits of advice, the first being that yellow bellied slider need to eat in the water so please only feed them in their water and not out of a feeding bowl. I think you are right about the basking temp being too high although someone with more experience will be better equipped to tell you correct basking temps. Is your lamp just heat or do you have a UV lamp too? YBS spend quite a lot of time basking and require exposure to UV light during this time. If they are kept indoors it is recommended to provide a UV light for about 12 hours a day all year round. Your water temperatures seem to be ok. Do you add new dechlorinator every time you do a part change? These chemicals can irritate the skin of your turtle and the constant changes could be causing a build up of these chemicals. Since you have a filter I would recommend not changing the water every day and just doing a partial change midweek and a full water change once a week, it may not look quite as clean but it will help to keep the chemical balance correct. To help with keeping the water clean in the mean time, make sure you remove any uneaten food after about 15 minutes that way it can't clog the filter.
Hopefully someone with more experience will give you some more advice but hope that this helps if only a little and good luck, I hope that Courage and Lightning get better soon!

 

[Markw84]

@dearlymel3

Your turtles look fine from what I see. The coloration on the bottom (plastron) is a normal change that hatchlings get as they grow.

Please post pictures directly here on the site as the are quite cumbersome to see having to click each link and they also require another selection to not go to YouTube. When you are making a post you will see the option to upload file. Just click that and browse to the picture on your computer. Then select "full image" to post the best resolution right in the post.

Also, your turtles are not Yellow-Bellied Sliders! They are a mix of what looks like predominantly Cumberland Slider and a bit of Yellow-Bellied. Most all breeding farms from which a place in China Town would have got their turtles, mix all types of sliders together in their breeding ponds. So you never really know what they really are. Kind of mutts of the sliders! But no difference other than that - as they are all of the same care requirements.

I would try to get them on a good pellet food. From what you describe, and how they look, to me they look underfed. There should be visible growth seams in 6 weeks and I can see no visible sign of active growth with your turtles. Certainly a single pellet is not enough. I like to use the Reptomin Baby Turtle pellets for hatchlings their first year. It is smaller and softer and has a bit more calcium and D3 added. I personally believe quite a bit of their D3 requirement - turtles get from diet. I put in as much as they will eat. If there is left over food in the tank, I feed a bit less next time. IF they gobble it all down in a few minutes - I give more. I also like to give them tubifex also called bloodworms. A good fish store will carrry it. They love the live ones but they will only last a few days in the refridgerator, so but a small amount and feed over a few days. I also buy the frozen tubifex cubes. very handy and don't have to worry about going bad! The tubifex are not a great balanced food source but it does trigger good feeding activity and along with the pellets as their main diet a great combination for a very young turtle.

I like your tank temperature. I like to keep about 76°-77° so you're about right. For basking heat, I use a lower wattage incadescent flood bulb from Home Depot. Adjust the height to where the basking platform reaches the mid 90°'s. They are avid baskers and do need a way to get their body temps up to at least 85°. Most of the "basking lights" you buy from a pet store are spot bulbs and have too intense a peak heat area. Use the 65 watt flood bulb instead. I also like to use a compact fluorescent UVB light right next to the Flood bulb over the basking platform. They are not too expensive and give a nice UVB reading over a fairly small area - so perfect for a small aquatic.

Don't spend money with a vet now. Your turtles look fine and there is little a vet can do with a hatchling aquatic. Just get your temps and basking correct. And ensure the turtles are eating well. Look for growth and that will be the sign they are doing well.