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Hello it's me again, The turtles are doing great in their new habitat. I do have one problem, well its not really a problem but inquiring minds would like to know. My turtles have developed gold spots on their shell. This looks like gold leafing or gold overlay on their shell. One, Crabby, is much more covered than Mudkip. This does not seem to be harming them in any way. They still eat their turtle pellets, fruit and veggies, as well as guppy's that I breed myself specifically for that purpose. They still have the same good basking habits and eating is all healthy and everything, it does not seem to harm them and theyre shells are in perfect order other than the gold spots. If anyone has any information could you please pass it on. Thanks.

My guess is that they're starting to shed their scutes. It's like a little air bubble that gets trapped between the old shell and the new one. In time, the scute will come off on its own.

From time to time, my three guys get these small yellowish spots on their shells. They only show up when they are in the water under the lights. I suspect they may be banging into things. They also seem to go away just as suddenly.....

As BullDog said those spots will start showing up as they begin to shed a scute. It's perfectly normal.

Its not the scutes shedding they have been through that and I already know what that looks like. This looks like someone went and painted irregular dots with gold paint on the back of the turtles. Its not harming them, I just wanted to know if anyone knew about it.

Does the gold paint color show up only when they are underwater or is it visible out of the water when the shell is dry? If you can only see it underwater, it's probably shedding.

Sweeney, can you post pictures of the area when it is dry? When they shed scutes, it could either be very thin layers (which will be translucent) or a thick layer (comprised of several thin layers).

When you pick your turtle out of the water and if you press your finger against the golden area, do you see water leave the surrounding area?

Healthy shedding should only be one scute (one layer). The gold spots are pockets of air trapped under the scute that's lifting.

They do show when the shell is dry. When I push on them no water comes out. I will try and get a picture of the gold spots. They are 6 years old now so I have seen shedding of the scutes. Its not that. Its not hurting them or inhibiting them in anyway.