Habitat - Indoor :: Cuttlebone making a big mess

[Tenodera]

I just chucked in a another piece of cuttlebone in Serra's tank yesterday and now the bottom of the tank is littered with tiny tiny flakes of cuttlebone! Anyone else experience this and know how to solve it?

If I give Serra cuttlebone small pieces at a time she doesn't want to eat them. She prefers to eat them on her own time.

What do I do?


Kevin

[SpotsMama]

All I can think of is to put a chunk of cuttlebone in a veggie clip. That way, there will still be flakes but the flakes will all fall in the area just underneath the veggie clip and be easy to clean up. It's a theory anyway! I'm not that neat a person - it didn't bother me to have cuttlebone flakes all over the place!

[WyredHardware]

I toss mine on the basking platform if Kokoro does not want to eat them. Then if she wants it she drags it into the water.

[Tenodera]

I used the turkey baster and sucked up water and pumped it back to the bottom of the tank to stir it up and hopefully the filter will suck it in...

[megcornell]

Leo does the same thing when I give her cuttlebone, I'm not sure if she gets some calcium from it but she does enjoy shredding it . In a day or two the filter pretty much takes care of all the white residue that's left, so I just leave it.

[marisa]

I'm wondering why having flakes of cuttlebone on the bottom of the tank is a problem...are there really that many of them? If so, I'd give less cuttlebone. I've always just left any tiny pieces on the bottom in the tank, assuming they will eventually dissolve and add to the mineral content of the water.

[DavidY]

You might want to check the pH and alkalinity of your tank water. If it's really high, the tiny calcium particles would be much less likely to dissolve. Also calcium can precipitate out of the water in extreme cases, but I doubt that is the case here. But it's worth having your water checked just in case. Your new apartment may have more minerals in the tap water than your last place did.

[Tenodera]

Cuttlebone can dissolve??

[DavidY]

If the pH is on the low side the calcium will dissolve into the water slowly. Reef keepers use various methods to introduce calcium into the aquarium water since it is a necessity for most reef corals to grow their skeletons as well as for mollusks to grow their shells. It is often added to the aquarium in liquid form. When mixing fresh salt water using tap water, sometimes you will see some of the calcium or other trace minerals precipitate out of the water and lay on the bottom of the mixing barrel like white flakes.

[Tenodera]

oh well anyways most of it's gone now

I was fussing over a small thing lol

[steve]

I don't think there is anything you can do to prevent the crumbs... I just scoop it out.

[DavidY]

Although leaving calcium in the bottom is a good thing too since it helps buffer the water somewhat. That helps maintain a stable pH. Although i don't think turtles are that sensitive to pH fluctuations.

[marisa]

I would think if the mineral content of the water were that high, a turtle would start to develop mineral stains on the shell.