General Care Discussion :: Cuttle fish bone getting nasty

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

I bought a cuttlefish bone for my RES and took off the backing and then put it inside his tank.
A few days later i saw that it had this white stuff on it i took it out and it smelled bad kind like pee it also was yellow in some spots.
I don't know why it got that way i have his filter running 24/7 and the water is clean

[Yashm_Zeytoon]

That sometimes happen for me too. Although I have never smelled it. Mostly it happens when I know for sure I have to do some serious cleaning.

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

Yeah i do have to clean it it's just my dad gets mad when i do clean it

[Yashm_Zeytoon]

I think that the nature of cleaning RESs, everyone gets mad, its a hard job.

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

Yeah lol they are messy

[BullDog]

I just put a chunk in at a time, rather than the whole bone. That way, less goes to waste.

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

Yeah i cut them into pieces when i take the backing off

[TurtleKeeper48]

I'm with Bulldog - I feed a small piece at a time, and it doesn't last long (15 minutes) My belief about anything you feed to turtles is that if it is in the tank for an hour and the turtle hasn't eaten it yet - you are over feeding. Net it out and feed less next time.

As far as the odor of cuttle bone - I've found that while it does vary somewhat, in general, Cuttle Bone stinks at least a little bit brand new out of the package.