redearslider.com

Hi all. We clean our tank once a week, and recently I noticed tiny silver larvae looking things swimming on the surface of the water. There doesn't seem to be many, and our little guy has been eating them whenever we put food near these... things. My boyfriend seems to think that it's just mosquito larvae and it won't hurt, but I'm worried that they're parasites of some sort. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Are these tiny things harmful, and I should just take everything out and make sure they're all dead? When we clean the tank, we vacuum all but 1/4 inch of water.

Thanks in advance!

If they stay at the surface, mosquito is very possible. RES do eat them in the wild. Google mosquito larvae and see if that's it.

Mosquitoes are small insects, which wild turtles would feed on. I emphasised wild because I can't confirm for domesticate ones that we keep as a pet. On one site here, they indicate that:

The red-eared slider turtle is generally thought to be the most voracious turtle that feeds on mosquito larvae.

While the larvae aren't considered harmful, the adult mosquitoes are the ones that you should be worried about. Mosquitoes generally prefer to feed on warm-bloodied mammals like us, but they could potentially feed off from reptiles like your turtles and transfer possible diseases they carry. I'd opt to clean the tank again, and focus on removing any Mosquito pupa in the tank. They look like this, with different shade variants:



If you do find adult mosquitoes already active and flying around in there, having them removed asap is also suggested.