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Hey everyone,
So one of my RES (Fredo) has had white spots on her shell ever since I got her as a baby.
I just noticed this past weekend that the spots are getting larger and there are more of them now.
I was finally able to get some ok pictures to show what im talking about.

In this picture you can see her to the left behind George.


Heres another shot


Neither of my other RES have these.
Is this something I should be worried about?
Ive taken her out and lightly scrubbed her shell with a toothbrush but nothing ever came off.

Thanks for any help!
-db

can you take a picture of them dry? and i think the reason why their getting bigger as she grows is because its fungus. and it could be spreading around the shell

Thank you for the response!
Ill dry dock her today for a little while and take a pic.

I'm no expert in this - but it sure looks like fungus to me. The way you describe it reminds me of how people describe turtle shell fungus too.


I would recomend doing a search of this site for the word "fungus" - just leave the search on the default "site quick jump" and you'll get all kinds of results. Start with the stickied thread titled "history of curing a turtles shell" which was so kindly contributed by forum member Spots Mama. There are pictures and a great deal of discussion. That thread is stickied just above this one in the General Care forum.

Good luck to you and your turtles!

I agree, it's fungus. I'm surprised it hasn't spread to the other turtles. Set up a dry dock area you can use for a couple of weeks and get some silver sulfadiazine cream. At night, dry dock the turtle for about 30 mins to air dry the shell, then apply a thin coating over the fungus. Let your turtle sleep overnight in dry dark (it should be dark) and in the morning, gently wipe off what ever residue is left. You might need to do a gentle scrub with clean, warm water with a new toothbrush. You can put her back into the tank during the day.

Oh man! I had no idea.
I dry docked her this weekend and took a few pics.





Thank you for all the info!
I will try to get her all started when I get off work today.

I usto put this on her shell, is this not the right stuff to use?

I dont see in the ingredients anything about silver sulfadiazine.
Thanks for the help I really appreciate it!

The first night went well.
Got her setup in a 10 gallon, came in this morning and she was sound asleep
I just used the stuff I pictured above. Guess ill do some research about that silver sulfadiazine cream.

VitaShell is not recommend for anything and some people have reported problems with it. Silver sulfadiazine cream in the US requires a prescription but it's the only thing that is really effective.

steve wrote:VitaShell is not recommend for anything and some people have reported problems with it. Silver sulfadiazine cream in the US requires a prescription but it's the only thing that is really effective.

Dang thats disappointing, thank you for the help.