Hey everyone,
I just found out today that my girlfriend's 13 year old cousin has had a baby red ear slider and a chinese pond turtle hatchling for a year. I was horrified to see the two turtles still in their Chinese bins (you know what i'm talking about). What I am horrified about was this:
-He has had these 2 hatchlings for ONE YEAR and they DID NOT GROW in size one bit! My 2 baby red ear sliders that were quarter-sized when I got them 2 months ago are now 2 times as big.
-They have been living in rancid water for 1 year. The kid told me his grandmom would clean the water every other day. There were at least 2 river rocks for basking, but the smell was putrid.
- The worst part was examining their shells. His red ear slider has red spots on his plastron, and he is very lethargic. The RES's plastron is faily soft as well. The Chinese pond turtle hatchling's plastron looks like it's been bleeding red...
I am guessing that both of these turtles have shell rot. I immediately went to target to buy a 15 qt bin, and then to PetSmart and burned 60 dollars on a small heater, filter, and clamp lamp with a 43w halogen light.
The kid has told me the red ear slider hatchling hasnt eaten in a while, and I can tell- the hatchling is REALLY skinny.
So right now, the two turtles have a nice environment that I created for them. I will post pictures tomorrow. I'll be honest though, I am not sure what else I am going to do.
Should I buy StressCoat and hope for the best? I'm hoping the correct water temperature, and an appropriate basking area is enough.
