Baby turtle health issues... HELP

[TroyMIfishkeeper]

So the other day I came home to find my baby yellow belly slider dead. I only had him for a few weeks, and he seemed to be fine just a few hours earlier. He was under a rock cave decoration, eyes closed and legs tucked into his shell. Looking at the body, I couldn't tell how he died. No wounds, no marks, no rashes, etc. He is in a tank with three other similarly sized turtles (a Mississippi map, a red eared slider, and a southern painted turtle). NOW my red eared slider is starting to worry me. I'm not sure if this is normal, but whenever he is basking (which he does a lot), he closes his eyes and doesn't react when I approach (he usually dives back into the water). When I pick him up, his eyes stay shut, and he hides in his shell. But when I put him in the water, he opens his eyes and swims around normally. The reason this worries me is because LAST time I had a turtle do this, it ended up not making it.
Can anyone help with this? I'd like to know how my YBS died, and I'd like to make sure my RES doesn't die either. Thanks!

 

[Frank Castle]

So the other day I came home to find my baby yellow belly slider dead. I only had him for a few weeks, and he seemed to be fine just a few hours earlier. He was under a rock cave decoration, eyes closed and legs tucked into his shell. Looking at the body, I couldn't tell how he died. No wounds, no marks, no rashes, etc. He is in a tank with three other similarly sized turtles (a Mississippi map, a red eared slider, and a southern painted turtle). NOW my red eared slider is starting to worry me. I'm not sure if this is normal, but whenever he is basking (which he does a lot), he closes his eyes and doesn't react when I approach (he usually dives back into the water). When I pick him up, his eyes stay shut, and he hides in his shell. But when I put him in the water, he opens his eyes and swims around normally. The reason this worries me is because LAST time I had a turtle do this, it ended up not making it.
Can anyone help with this? I'd like to know how my YBS died, and I'd like to make sure my RES doesn't die either. Thanks!

You can take stool samples to be tested at your Veterinarian if you want to spend the $$$, if not it's a guess as bacterial or fungal and you would either treat with Melafix or Pimafix. The other possibility is simply natural selection....less than 20% of any given clutch of eggs from most prolific egg-layers actually survives to adulthood. Half die from predation, the other 30% probably fall under "unknown causes", unfortunately.

We are saying this is captivity , not the wild, but a lot of rules still apply here regardless. Myself and many associates have lost perfectly healthy normal snakes for no apparent reason, I have had days at Expos where I have talked to 7 or 8 different people who claim to have 100% healthy reptiles die for no reason and most of us will never know why with out running tests.

 

[TroyMIfishkeeper]

Ok... Just tested the water, everything seems fine, except my nitrate is ridiculously high. Which is strange because it wasn't that long ago that I did a water change (and my tank is far from overstocked). Guess I'll just have to do more frequent water changes?

 

[Woefulrelic]

It seems to me that most turtles produce more waste than almost any reasonably sized fish. I think a lot of it has to do with how they eat. I don't think conventional fish keeping wisdom applies to turtles.

 

[Frank Castle]

Ok... Just tested the water, everything seems fine, except my nitrate is ridiculously high. Which is strange because it wasn't that long ago that I did a water change (and my tank is far from overstocked). Guess I'll just have to do more frequent water changes?

uhm.......no, dude.....that's not at all what I said......

 

[TroyMIfishkeeper]

uhm.......no, dude.....that's not at all what I said......

Lol sorry. I did a water change and put some turtle fix in too, but I figured I should test the water because I'm trying to get into a habit of doing that. Just throughout the day today the RES has been improving, even before I changed the water, so not sure what was going on there. I already buried the little YBS, I feel bad about losing him but at least he wasn't a very expensive turtle.

 

[Frank Castle]

Lol sorry. I did a water change and put some turtle fix in too, but I figured I should test the water because I'm trying to get into a habit of doing that. Just throughout the day today the RES has been improving, even before I changed the water, so not sure what was going on there. I already buried the little YBS, I feel bad about losing him but at least he wasn't a very expensive turtle.

what is the ambient temperature, water temp. and basking spot temps?

IDK why people care so much about water chemistry in turtle tanks, you're changing 90% or more every week anyway, right?

 

[TroyMIfishkeeper]

Yeah I basically change almost all of the water every week anyways. Ambient temp is 67 F currently, water temp is about 82 F, don't know the exact basking spot temp but I use a 75 watt zoomed basking bulb with UVA. I also have a red nightlight that gives off heat, and a fluorescent UVB light as well.

 

[Frank Castle]

Yeah I basically change almost all of the water every week anyways. Ambient temp is 67 F currently, water temp is about 82 F, don't know the exact basking spot temp but I use a 75 watt zoomed basking bulb with UVA. I also have a red nightlight that gives off heat, and a fluorescent UVB light as well.

67F way too cold, try getting it up to 75F+. You wouldn't keep tropical fish at 67F, why would you keep a turtle? Important to know the basking spot temperature. Basking temps are crucial to almost all bodily functions for reptiles.

 

[TroyMIfishkeeper]

Wait, what exactly do you mean by ambient temp? I put down the temperature in the house, like I said the water is 82 degrees