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Wild RES, rescued from local pool, near by everglades, Fort Lauderdale Florida

How big is your turtle? 1.6 inches based on the size...how old is my turtle? gender? male perhaps
How long have you had it? 5weeks
What does it weights? 8grams/.3onces


What is the water temperature? 80-76 depends the time of the day
Did you use a thermometer? YES, sticker farther away from heater
Are you using a water heater? Tetra Submersible Heater ht 30, 100Watts [10-30gallon]
How much water is in there? More than 8 gallons at least
Are you using a water conditioner? Tetrafauna ReptoGuard Turtle Health Conditioner
Are you using any filtration? Aquarium Systems Duetto50, submersible, pumps 55gph

What is the basking temperature? 85-90 did not measure correctly
Is there a basking light? ZOOMED 75w
Is there a basking platform that is easy to climb on? ZOOMED floating dock
What kind is it or what is it made out of? plastic i guess, zoomed turtle floating dock
Is there a UVB light? Exo Terra Repti Glo 5.0 Compact Fluorescent bulb 26W

What have you been trying to feed it? Reptomin Baby, mini floating food sticks and Wardley's Turtle Delite Dried whole shrimp
When was the last time your turtle ate? not too long a go[daily]

How big is the tank/pond/enclosure? 10gallon
Is the tank near a window? no
Is the tank in a room with a lot of activity? yes!, my bedroom, not much activity besides me for a few hours a night

Have you read the Basic Care section? YES
Have you searched the forums for similar situations? YES

Is there any other unusual activity/symptoms?

First of all, please consider my questions i read the forum daily and i'm doing my best to PREVENT any illness or diseases from happening.

So, when i got the turtle from my mom, she actually 'rescued' the turtle herself, i noticed the shell was very dirty, i cleaned with an old tooth brush very soft and it came off without applying power or anything...
... i noticed that there are some BLACK lines/spots between the scute which are growing very fast.... so it worries me
i always had it on water/floating dock
then on week 2 added basking light
then on week 5 UVB

why are those black spots growing so fast? am I feeding the turtle too much? {im only giving 1 serving/heat a day ?!?!?}

Please help me out here, I thank ya'll in advance !

i did read something about it.... but after 'investing' 2hours daily here reading old stuff, i cannot find anything on it or recall reading about this issue...

please look at the pics
day 1 -dirty


day 1 -clean


week5


week5


???
why are the black lines growing
???

He's growing. The black lines are just going to keep growing but hopefully it doesn't grow like my turtle and end up like this. I wouldn't worry about so much.

You are developing wider margins between the scutes, which just means that s/he is growing faster than is needed. That is generally 1 of 2 things: overfeeding, or natural genetics. At this time, you should probably be giving the equivalent of about 3 Reptomin normal-sized sticks daily, so if you are giving more, cut back. I fed my turtle 3 sticks broken in half or thirds (so it amounted to about 6-9 small pellets) when she was 1.5". Oh, and high protein foods, like shrimp, should be given once a month, otherwise you may get irreversible pyramiding.

No, you cannot tell age or gender. Gender traits will develop sometime around 4", though some males will develop "Wolverine" type claws much earlier, or may fan earlier. You will not know 100% whether you have a female until 4". Age is impossible to tell unless 1) you got the turtle from someone who had it from birth and told you the truth about age or 2) your turtle still had an egg tooth on when you got it. However, by 1.5", the egg tooth is long gone. It is most likely (esp. if it is a wild/native turtle) that you are somewhere around 3-6 months at this point. If you start measuring now, and about 9 months from now, s/he reaches 4", you can say with relative certainty that s/he is about a year old at that point. However, you'll never know for sure.

Last point, at 1.6", your turtle already should have 16 gallons of water. Take the shell length and multiple by 10. You are providing approximately half as much as s/he needs. I would recommend that you consider your 10 gallon tank a very temporary setup and start working on getting at least a 50 gallon, if not a 90-120. A 90 should suffice for life whether you have a male or female, though it will technically be too small for a female. You can compensate by doing an above tank basking area (I'm working on one right now for my 90 gallon tank for my 6.5" female).

n00bEmpty wrote:He's growing. The black lines are just going to keep growing but hopefully it doesn't grow like my turtle and end up like this. I wouldn't worry about so much.

n00bEmpty, thanks for your quick reply... and picture too!

TheComputerGremlin wrote:You are developing wider margins between the scutes, which just means that s/he is growing faster than is needed. That is generally 1 of 2 things: overfeeding, or natural genetics. At this time, you should probably be giving the equivalent of about 3 Reptomin normal-sized sticks daily, so if you are giving more, cut back. I fed my turtle 3 sticks broken in half or thirds (so it amounted to about 6-9 small pellets) when she was 1.5". Oh, and high protein foods, like shrimp, should be given once a month, otherwise you may get irreversible pyramiding.

No, you cannot tell age or gender. Gender traits will develop sometime around 4", though some males will develop "Wolverine" type claws much earlier, or may fan earlier. You will not know 100% whether you have a female until 4". Age is impossible to tell unless 1) you got the turtle from someone who had it from birth and told you the truth about age or 2) your turtle still had an egg tooth on when you got it. However, by 1.5", the egg tooth is long gone. It is most likely (esp. if it is a wild/native turtle) that you are somewhere around 3-6 months at this point. If you start measuring now, and about 9 months from now, s/he reaches 4", you can say with relative certainty that s/he is about a year old at that point. However, you'll never know for sure.

Last point, at 1.6", your turtle already should have 16 gallons of water. Take the shell length and multiple by 10. You are providing approximately half as much as s/he needs. I would recommend that you consider your 10 gallon tank a very temporary setup and start working on getting at least a 50 gallon, if not a 90-120. A 90 should suffice for life whether you have a male or female, though it will technically be too small for a female. You can compensate by doing an above tank basking area (I'm working on one right now for my 90 gallon tank for my 6.5" female).

Hi Gremilim,

thanks for your input.

Like always people here are honest and knowledgeable

here are my mistakes then:

1. I am feeding 4 sometimes 5 ReptoMin
2. 1 or 2 dried shrimp a day
[oh man i heard what the pet shop dude said! shame on me! ]

conclusion: do not listen to petshop people.


okay, my room is quiet small its about 13x14 so i have no clue how i will put a 50g tank here.

i drew a duplex apartment dream for my turtle... i went to home depot and for 30bucks i can make a basking area the size of my tank of acrylic... so for now i will make the basking.... then once the turtle grows a bit more (and i find a cheap tank of craigs list)
I WILL SO DO THE UPGRADE. i will also need a new filter but no biggie.

so i will cut down, a dried shrimp a month?
and less reptomin

at this size/age, what else can i feed?
greens? fruits? i've been reading about it as well...


THAAAAAAAAANKS and i look forward for more answerers =)

If you are feeding Reptomin Baby, you are probably fine with more. I was feeding full-sized Reptomin, so that is why I needed fewer. However, Reptomin won't hurt nearly as much as the extra protein coming from the shrimp. Most people whose turtles have pyramiding are caused by excessive treats, like crickets, meal worms, fish, shrimp, etc.

In terms of shrimp, yeah, that's the best area to cut back. Depending on what the shrimp are (full-sized? pieces? I don't know how they are packaged), you may be able to substitute a piece of shrimp for the Reptomin that day. For instance, my turtle gets 3-4 gut-loaded freeze-dried crickets on Sunday. That's her Sunday meal. She rarely gets any other protein sources other than pellets. So her shell is looking pretty good.

You can definitely start on greens, and fruits and veggies, but sometimes small turtles aren't interested. However, just keep trying. I would try to give my turtle veggies/fruits (basically whatever I had on hand for people eating) and just remove it if it wasn't eaten. It took several weeks, but I finally found something she liked and that just kind of jumpstarted her eating them. She was about 3" at that point.

Okay here is what i feed the turtle,

now i am feeding:
- ReptoMin 3pallets
- Turtle Deligh dried shrimp 100% whole shrimp

now here is the question too...

since i have fish... the turtle loves to snack on the goldfish flakes....any problem with it?




i will start veggies and fruits next week....

my turtles love the fish flakes too i also feed my fish tiny dried blood worms and the turtle eat that to and im sure its not bad for them... i think of it kinda like us eating just bread its food but wont feel u up and isnt bad for u as long as its not the only thing there eating

i reduced the amount of food but i noticed the lines growing...in width =(


why.... i wrote about the lighting too... uvb and basking.... what do i do...

im gonna try to feed veggies and fruits....

YEAH THE TURTLE LOVES THE FLAKES.... and the fishes try to eat the reptomin.. hahah im worry they will die from eating the reptos...

i threw 1 in the water and the minnow out swam the turtle and got it hahahahaha