General Care Discussion :: white fuzz on body

[lawsofpower48]

i recently noticed there is white fuzz growing on both my RES and snappers. i tried scrubbing it off with a toothbrush softly, but its hard since they keep sticking their head and body parts into their shells...so its impossible for me to scrub! The snappers seem to have more of it. at first i thought it was skin shedding, but that stuff seems to be growing! does anyone know what this stuff is? btw, i posted the pics of my snapper because those were the only shots i can get since my RES were in another tank but the basking light is currently off. thanks.

[SSMcLeod]

To me it looks more like frayed skin shed (could be wrong of course)...

Could you possibly post a pic of your RES for comparison purposes

[lawsofpower48]

yea i can try and do that tomorrow. but trust me, it looks EXACTLY the same...

[marisa]

I once saw a snapper in a children's museum with fuzz like that. I had assumed at the time that it was a fungus from poor water quality.

How big are the turtles? How big are the tanks they're in? What kind of filtration is being used? How often is the water changed?

[SSMcLeod]

I showed this picture to a friend of mine who works at the vet office. Basically she said it was hard to tell from a picture but if both have it, it may be a fungus of sorts. She recommended Sulfa for both...

I should mention that this was only from observation of a picture, and that she could be wrong but I though I would share anyways

[lawsofpower48]

thanks for the replies. i couldnt get a good shot of my RES with the fuzzy stuff because he keeps swimming and moving around. its not as bad on him, so its harder to see on camera.

but im actually getting sulfa dip soon, none of the pet stores around my area has it !! unbelievable.... i was hoping its just skin, but both my res and snappers have it...and looks identical....skin shedding doesnt seem to look like that in my opinion....

@marisa: these are babies. had them for about 3-4 months. they are in two seperate tanks. the RES that has it was housed in a 10 gallon tank with 3 other baby RES....i have 2 filters running in there..a zoomed 501 and a reptofilter.... water is changed about once a week, the water is half filled with uvb/uva lighting... my snappers are in a small tupperware tub about teh size of a 10 gallon tank...only have 2 snappers in there.... no filter is running since i change the water once it even clouds a little...

[steve]

Austins Turtle Page has some info with dealing skin fungus, which I think mostly involves dry docking.