Worried about my baby Yellow Bellied Sliders and tank.

[Aaron4321]

I have had two baby Yellow Bellied Sliders for about a week now. The tank setup inculdes a heater that keeps the water at 28 Degrees, a filter that is a sponge filter with an airpump ap90 and for the basking area we only have a 13W Repti Glo. When we bought the turtles the shop said that all this will be ok. There are also 3 small Silver Sharks and 6 small Green Tiger Barbs and we have a few elodea plants that the turtle only seem to eat. The turtles dont seem to eat any of the food that we give them i.e. pellets or frozen bloodworm, they just seem to eat the plant every now and then and the water seems to get dirty over night. I am wondering if we need another lamp that gives off heat in the basking area and a stronger filter? Also wondering why the turtles are not eating?

[angela__k__84]

The Terrapin Tank - www.TerrapinTank.co.uk -
This site has some great care sheets and I'd recommend you read them.
Don't go with what the pet shop said.

[Graham]

Well at least they're eating something! It can take them a while to settle into a new environment, and adjusting to new unfamiliar foods too, do you know what the shop was feeding them? Try giving them what they're used to, as it may be they simply don't recognise what you're offering them as food.

You water temps are a little high, mid 20s will be fine, and yes you do need a spotlamp for heat over the basking area, as cold blooded reptiles they need an external heat source to raise their metabolic rate.

A foam filter might be OK for very tiny hatchlings with regular water changes, but if your water is getting dirty overnight then it's obviously not coping. I suggest you think about getting an external filter, in the long term you're going to need one anyway, and unless they're already in a fairly large tank you'll be needing to upgrade that at some point in the near future, so make sure you get a big enough filter that you don't have to upgrade that too.

There's a sticky at the top of this section explaining tank sizes and filtration.

[Aaron4321]

Thank you for the quick replys. I am think of getting the FilStar XP2... our tank is about 25-30 Gallons, just wondering if that is too powerfull or just right?

[Graham]

It's a great filter, but TBH it's a bit on the small side and quite expensive for what it is. It's only rated for 300 litres max, and as turts are much messier than fish (filters are rated for use with fish) you need to use one rated for 2 or 3 times the actual water volume.

The excellent Eheim Classic 2217 is cheaper and rated for 600 litres, one of these would see you through a tank upgrade which you'll need to do within a year, your turts are going to grow fast and will soon be too big for a 30 gallon tank.

Cheapest place for these filters is still www.zooplus.co.uk I think.

[Aaron4321]

Ive heard that if you put the input tube at one end of the tank and the output tube at the other it will create a flow in the water and pick up the dirt off the bottom of the tank, is this true? and if so would it work with big rocks and pebbles in the tank? Obviously they will be in the way of some but will they just stop the flow?

Your help is much appreciated, i prefer to talk to people and find out this kind of stuff than read a website. So thank you.

[Graham]

Yes you definitely need the tubes at opposite ends of the tank, otherwise clean water entering the tank gets sucked straight out again, and dirty water at the other end hardly gets filtered at all.

Obviously if you have lots of decor in the tank it will reduce the flow, and will also trap debris, it's a bit of a balancing act to get the right amount of decor and a powerful enough filter. If you find you have dead areas where debris collects you can try rearranging things, or get a cheap submersible water pump and place it to improve circulation.

[Aaron4321]

We are ordering the new filter sometime next week which should be helpful but until then we are changing the water quite often. We have found that they like to eat dried Bloodworm and Mealworm. Although one of the turtles doesn't seem to eat that much. Unlike the bigger one who takes big bites this one just tends to take little chunks and more often than not doesn't get any food from it, we have also noticed that the bigger one tends to bully the smaller one for food. Will this be OK? How could we help the smaller one start eating?

[Graham]

Feed them seperately, and if neccessary keep them in seperate tanks for a while until the smaller one gets bigger and more confident.

[alanabain1980]

Originally Posted by Aaron4321

We are ordering the new filter sometime next week which should be helpful but until then we are changing the water quite often. We have found that they like to eat dried Bloodworm and Mealworm. Although one of the turtles doesn't seem to eat that much. Unlike the bigger one who takes big bites this one just tends to take little chunks and more often than not doesn't get any food from it, we have also noticed that the bigger one tends to bully the smaller one for food. Will this be OK? How could we help the smaller one start eating?

Try and not give them blood or meal worms too often. I know this will be difficult as it sounds like they like them.