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Hello.

I've been reading the forums and other sites about shell rot and fungus. I'm not sure if my turt has either. For awhile he was getting these dark green spots on his shell that looked like algae. I periodically take a toothbrush and scrub that stuff off gently, but they reappear.

When changing his water, I realized when he "dries out" his shell look white (kind of like ash or dry skin). I also put a new piece of cork bark for his basking area and I've noticed a HUGE increase in his basking time. Before the cork bark, I had rocks he climbed on. I don't know if this "increase" in basking is do to the fact that he really likes this cork bark, he has gotten use to the house and my roommates (had him about 10 weeks now), an increase in water makes him more tired and thus needs to bask/rest more, or he is trying to heal his "shell problem." By the way, his shell appears hard, but I'll double check.

He's about 3 inches long gets feed about 8 pellets of Rep Cal daily, has heating and UVB lights, eats veggies often. I do use API Tap Water Conditioner (chlorine remover), but I make sure it's well mixed in before he goes in. Pictures are below.

Here are my questions:
1) What are these spots? How should I treat him?

2) Do I need to get an ammonia killer too--like Ammo-Carb?

3) At first he tried to eat the cork bark, but after awhile he stopped. Is this normal? Should I remove the cork bark? I got it because people were saying that their turtles were eating the Styrofoam turtle docks. I'm trying to avoid that.

The whitish color looks normal to me.
Can you get some of the algae off by gently scrubbing it? If it's just on the surface I wouldn't be very worried. It happens to turtles in the wild all the time. If it's under scutes about to shed, I'd keep my eye on it, you don't want fungus to start growing under the scutes.

yea gently scrub the shell with a soft toothbrush and some salt. see if it looks any better after that and then just make sure that your turtle is basking enough and getting alot of uvb. but as long as the spots aren't soft or smelling it should be fine.

I see a little turtle that really needs to shed some scutes. Do you see how they are lifting around the edges? It looks like the little baby scutes never came off and now there are several layers. Lots of basking under good UVB light will help those scutes to shed. Another thing that will help is food containing vitamin e, which helps with shedding. Here are some foods that turtles like that contain vitamin e:

Tomato
Sweet potato
Turnip greens
Blueberries
Apple skin

By the way, my turtle's reaction to cork bark was quite stricking too. He was living outside in a pond and his basking area was a tower of flagstones. I thought the flagstones were smooth but they scratched his shell, so I replaced them with cork bark. It was amazing how fast Spot scrambled up on the cork bark, like he'd been waiting for someone to please give him cork bark for a long time. I think it must feel good and natural to a RES. When they are in the wild they do of course sometimes bask on rock, but most of the wild RES I've seen and in photos of RES too, they are basking either on a muddy bank or on a log. I think they like a softer surface.

Just looks like a little algae growing under some scutes that are ready to shed. Cute too.

No biggie

Thanks guys! I'll feed him some vitamin e foods to encourge him to shed. He's been basking like there's no tomorrow, so there's no worry there.

if you don;t already throw in a cuttle bone for him ( taking the hard part off first that is) that too might help with shedding. i know it helped Rolo

The green spots (algae) will come back, especially if all of it isn't removed. If you periodically remove it, there shouldn't be a problem.

Rep Cal is good, but I'd alternate it with another pellet for variety.

My RES also tried out the cork bark when it was first put in the tank (new object---is it edible?), but quickly learned to leave it alone (he will, however, eat algae that grows on it when it's long enough).

He should have a nice-looking carapace when he sheds those scutes.

What should I do if the algea gets under his scutes?

Video before scrubbing...

Clean what you can and regularly inspect it to make sure he's shedding.