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How big is your turtle? 4 1/2 inches shell diameter
How long have you had it? +17 years
What is the water temperature? 76
Did you use a thermometer? yes
Are you using a water heater? yes
How much water is in there? 50 gallons
Are you using a water conditioner? Reptisafe in tap water for water changes
Are you using any filtration? 300 GPH of filtration (biological and foam).
What is the basking temperature? up to 90 depending on position.
Is there a basking light? yes
Is there a basking platform that is easy to climb on? yes
What kind is it or what is it made out of? Egg crate and plywood with "fake grass carpet under/next to the egg crate"
Is there a UVB light? Yes UVA/UVB CFL 18 inches up through a 1/2 inch grid.
What have you been trying to feed it? Reptomin pellets and an occasional red wiggler
When was the last time your turtle ate? yesterday
How big is the tank/pond/enclosure? 50 gallon preformed pond indoors
Is the tank near a window? yes
Is the tank in a room with a lot of activity? sorta
Have you read the Basic Care section? yes
Have you searched the forums for similar situations? yes
Is there any other unusual activity/symptoms? Behaves normally (begging for food/attention etc).
The situation is as follows. I have had 3 turtles for over the last 18 years starting when I was 11. They were in a 55 gallon tank for some time till several years ago I transferred them into a 20 gallon pond built up with dry land around the pond tub to allow basking. For all those years I never gave them a basking light or UV lamp as I was extremely ignorant of turtle setups. Before I moved to Texas (from Illinois) I convinced my dad to build a 1/2 inch plywood frame for a 50 gallon kidney shaped preformed pond. I set them up down here with proper lighting and they went crazy bullying each other (the 5 inch tried to kill the first turtle). I removed the largest (5 inch) to an extremely large pond of a friend and then separated the other two (both 4 1/2 inch) by setting up a 54 gallon Rubbermaid hi-tote tub. The Rubbermaid only had about 20 gallons in it and only a heat UVA light so I was swapping them between the pond and the tub every day. Since I haven't found a job down here I took a ride with my mom to my grandparents 50th and worked at my old job for two weeks. During which the first turtle was left in the tub with my girlfriend to watch over (the other one in the pond). When I got back I noticed instantly a really bad algae bloom and the turtle's head was a green color that didn't exist before. So I immediately removed the turtle and redid the Rubbermaid tote (including upgrading the filter substantially and increased the water level after removing the algae). Here I am weeks later and the turtle still has a green tinted head and now looks like he's shedding his skin. I'm sulfa dipping him in case it's an infection and I've also trained myself to stick to a tough regime of only feeding him every other day and only about as much as his head (I am a sucker and obviously was over feeding him even up til last week). After +17 years of terrible care I'm trying desperately to clean my act up but I'm getting worried about these guys. Both enclosures have a cuttle bone and I test the water weekly (along with water change when needed).
Here is a quick video of their current enclosures (the pond normally has a framed screen on top of 1/2 inch mesh and I removed two of the golf balls. The plant area was setup on the shallow end where the turtles didn't tend to go much anyway (there's anarchis growing and three water lilly bulbs that are now sprouting like mad). I plan to redo the shallow end once I get some funds (maybe even separate it into another tank as part of an external filter setup). They totally love to tear into the plants so I was trying to grow them to improve quality of life (water quality too) and thought the temporary loss of space wouldn't adversely effect them since they still have most of the pond to swim in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttVb85UyfDA
In the first one you can see that he's got some shell trouble probably from the 17 years of neglect (their coloration is coming back rather nicely though). There are some fairly long scratches that I believe were caused by the old wire enclosure I had to keep the turtles out of the plants (hence the much larger plastic enclosure in there now). Is any of this serious enough that I need to get him to a vet or do you believe he's still recovering from the neglect?
The second turtle is also displaying a similar shell problem along with a somewhat green ring around the circumference of his shell between the outer row of scutes and the more inner ones.
