Need help with Yellow bellied slider (at least thats my guess)

fisers666

Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2019
Messages
51
Location (City and/or State)
Riga,Latvia
Hello.

Today i got visited by a friend and wile he was watching my recently acquired tortoise eating, he told me about a guy who keeps his turtle in aquarium maybe double his size and not caring in general. And hes willing to give it away. After given some thought I found a place for him in my apartment - to build an aquarium above the couch. If i have a tortoise, why wouldnt i have a turtle also, right? And my daughter as most of the kids loves animals.

I would appreciate some help with planning this little project. As for starters species, did i get it right? If not who is he/she? The length of carapace is 6-7,5 inches. This is only picture i have.
How big should aquarium/enclosure be for adult one (size and dimensions)? How much space it needs between water and top of aquarium? After getting these questions solved i could start planning the expenses, etc.
What should i put in the aquarium and what should be avoided?
His health condition. Hes kept in a small tank with no land and possibly no UV light. Thats all i know for now. Is there anything i need to prepare before i get him?

For now thats it from my side, ill really appreciate all the help i can get on this matter. Thank you in advance for answers. So its not all sad im adding a picture of my my daughter misting a tortoise.
IMG-20190602-WA0003.jpg IMG_20190530_104454.jpg
 

Toddrickfl1

Well-Known Member
Tortoise Club
5 Year Member
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 7, 2018
Messages
7,103
Location (City and/or State)
Ga
Looks more like a Cooter to me than yellow belly but I could be wrong. In any case basically the same care. You'll need a big tank. 75g+ if not a small pond. They are good swimmers the water level doesn't matter. You'll need to provide a basking spot that the turtle can completely get out of the water onto and dry itself off. It will need a UVB lamp as well. I keep my lamp on the basking spot and keep it about 95f. I keep the water about 78f. Use big River rocks or something the turtle can't swallow for substrate. For food I feed Reptomin and float greens daily. I also provide pieces of cuttlebone about once a week. Here is a pic of where my youngsters live.IMG_20190602_180708307.jpg
 

fisers666

Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2019
Messages
51
Location (City and/or State)
Riga,Latvia
Looks more like a Cooter to me than yellow belly but I could be wrong. In any case basically the same care. You'll need a big tank. 75g+ if not a small pond. They are good swimmers the water level doesn't matter. You'll need to provide a basking spot that the turtle can completely get out of the water onto and dry itself off. It will need a UVB lamp as well. I keep my lamp on the basking spot and keep it about 95f. I keep the water about 78f. Use big River rocks or something the turtle can't swallow for substrate. For food I feed Reptomin and float greens daily. I also provide pieces of cuttlebone about once a week. Here is a pic of where my youngsters live.View attachment 273753
It may not be yellow belly, that was just my guess. :tort: I think i could do 125 gal 51x23x23 in with half of it with water. Or do i need more water?
 

Toddrickfl1

Well-Known Member
Tortoise Club
5 Year Member
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 7, 2018
Messages
7,103
Location (City and/or State)
Ga
It may not be yellow belly, that was just my guess. :tort: I think i could do 125 gal 51x23x23 in with half of it with water. Or do i need more water?
You could probably manage with that. They can live in smaller enclosures but they are big swimmers so the bigger the better. If it were me I'd go 3/4 though.
 

fisers666

Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2019
Messages
51
Location (City and/or State)
Riga,Latvia
Brought him/her home yesterday. Builded a temporary house from basically what i got, its still better than previous one (in picture with towel in it). 38 gal tub with basking lamp, UVB lamp, filter and improvised basking spot.Basking temp- around 95f and water 80f. Only equipment i got with her was water filter, so i believe she never had to chance to bask and also only time to dry was with water changes. First pics with carapace and plastron are taken after several hours with toothbrush and soap water, it was more like peeling an onion than washing a turtle, but she didnt seem to be in pain. In last pic theres some small part of scales that came off. They did came off easy only with help of toothbrush. Was using this https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/shell-rot-in-water-turtles.133082/ as a guideline, if this is not a shell rot pls let me know what it is and how to deal with it, if it is, how serious it is and what else should i do? I did everything as told in the thread mentioned above, got betadine(will get chlorhexidine tomorrow ). Other than this she seems fine, eating a little at time, but frequently, using basking spot thought she gets spooked easy if caught out of water, shell is hard, no soft spots, no leaking. Also would like to hear your opinions on species and sex my guess was that its female :tort::cool:. Oh and shes 6 years old.
IMG_20190605_191839.jpg IMG_20190605_191241.jpg IMG_20190605_191446.jpg IMG_20190605_161429.jpg IMG_20190605_161549.jpg IMG_20190605_191318.jpg IMG_20190605_191027.jpg IMG_20190605_161619.jpg IMG_20190605_035956.jpg
 

Toddrickfl1

Well-Known Member
Tortoise Club
5 Year Member
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 7, 2018
Messages
7,103
Location (City and/or State)
Ga
I don't think that's shell rot. I think it's just retained scutes and hard water deposits. I'm fairly certain that is some type of Cooter. I could be wrong though I'm no expert. @Markw84 can probably give you the best answers.
 

fisers666

Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2019
Messages
51
Location (City and/or State)
Riga,Latvia
I don't think that's shell rot. I think it's just retained scutes and hard water deposits. I'm fairly certain that is some type of Cooter. I could be wrong though I'm no expert. @Markw84 can probably give you the best answers.
Still 1-nothing for Cooter. :) Hope youre right about the rot. In any case disinfection didnt hurt i think.
 

dmmj

The member formerly known as captain awesome
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
19,698
Location (City and/or State)
CA
Def. A cooter of some sort. Skin coloring dead giveaway.
 

Toddrickfl1

Well-Known Member
Tortoise Club
5 Year Member
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 7, 2018
Messages
7,103
Location (City and/or State)
Ga
I'm thinking Red Belly Cooter.
 

wccmog10

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 6, 2018
Messages
209
Location (City and/or State)
Georgia
I agree- looks like some species of cooter. The head markings and shell pattern look like cooter to me. Yellow belly sliders have a serrated edge to the back of their shell as well, this guy has a smooth edge.

Good for you trying to do better for this little guy.
 

fisers666

Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2019
Messages
51
Location (City and/or State)
Riga,Latvia
That is a Northern Red-Bellied Cooter - Pseudemys rubriventris.

I see nothing that looks like shell rot in any of the pictures. Actually looks in pretty good shape for how it was apparently kept!
Thats a relief. Just got worried when after pealing 2-3 layers from each scute i saw white small pits that i couldnt clean out. Does that mean i only need to keep conditions as they should be for recovery? Also maybe you can tell the sex of it?
 

Markw84

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 17, 2012
Messages
5,041
Location (City and/or State)
Sacramento, CA (Central Valley)
The small, white pits seem to be isolated bacterial infections or fungus under retained scutes from poor water conditions/not being able to bask and dry out completely.

There are not good pictures for sexing. Looks like a female. Front claws would be much longer at that size if it were male. Can't see the tail length/vs placement of cloaca.
 

Markw84

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 17, 2012
Messages
5,041
Location (City and/or State)
Sacramento, CA (Central Valley)
Cooters are what I believe to be the best turtles for a home pond. They NEVER get aggressive and never try to go after fish like koi or goldfish you would keep with them. All the rest of that complex - Sliders, Painted, Maps, Terrapins - do to various degrees. They are very friendly and curious and come to be fed readily. They do get quite large though - bigger than all the others I just mentioned. They really need an outdoor pond as adults and benefit from room to really swim. They do well outdoors year-round and will brumate at the bottom of the pond in cold weather. The shell conditions you see would not occur in a decent outdoor pond. They are easy to feed as they readily take and do very well on a decent koi pellet. The perfect pond turtle! The only drawback is they will eat any pond plants!
 

fisers666

Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2019
Messages
51
Location (City and/or State)
Riga,Latvia
Cooters are what I believe to be the best turtles for a home pond. They NEVER get aggressive and never try to go after fish like koi or goldfish you would keep with them. All the rest of that complex - Sliders, Painted, Maps, Terrapins - do to various degrees. They are very friendly and curious and come to be fed readily. They do get quite large though - bigger than all the others I just mentioned. They really need an outdoor pond as adults and benefit from room to really swim. They do well outdoors year-round and will brumate at the bottom of the pond in cold weather. The shell conditions you see would not occur in a decent outdoor pond. They are easy to feed as they readily take and do very well on a decent koi pellet. The perfect pond turtle! The only drawback is they will eat any pond plants!
I can only hope ill own a pond when shell be fully grown :rolleyes:. This is the best picture i got in ~5min, turtle was not in a mood for this kind of photo session ;):tort:.IMG_20190606_211608.jpg
 

New Posts

Top