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I noticed that my turtle has some kind of discoloring in the plastron, at both sides. Since I've bought her, she had that. The tank setup has everything she need and I feed her with reptomin baby, sometimes I give her lettuce, tuna... and also i put cuttlebone in the water. She eats normally, she´s not letargic or anything, she swims a lot and also basks, nothing unusual in her behaviour. Here is a pic of how it looks like.



Any suggestions of what can it be. I know that where I bought her, they have the turtles in a tank without water most of the day.

The part that looks like grey in the pic, is almost like kind of transparent in some spots, is that like a major calcium deficiency, or because she is a baby (she´s like 1 inch long) the plastron is still getting hard, like the shell... Im worried that it might cause her problems...

My-man-turtle -- I don't think there is much to worry about. I have had hatchlings to grow out of it. What makes me think that there is no problem is that the fading marks are exactly alike and it is from genetics and not a disease. My suggestion is to keep to a good husbandry regiment with an emphasis on clean water and proper temperatures in water and basking.

And since hatchlings have softer shells, I'd make sure that you do not have any rough substrates or a rough basking area.

The water is clean, the temp is at 25-26. And as substrate I only have river rocks, that have smooth surface, and they are only at some parts of the tank. The marks are alike, and in the same places, and it hasnt expanded or anything. So I guess that there is no problem then...

when i first got my turtle his plastron was a nice clean bright yellow with very clear and distinct markings the plastron started to change like yours , it started around the edges and started to look like it was pinkish grey sort of 6 months later it looks something like this, Keep in mind this is my pastel slider


the markings totally changed and are fading and kind of blending in with plastron the front of the plastron by the head is still yellow, as I watch the turtle in his environment and when he walked the bottom of my tank the front of the plastron that is yellow seems to be rubbing on the gravel and basking doc when he gets out of water a lot ("less") than the discolored part of plastron so I am assuming it is just the normal wear of all the rubbing on bottom of the plastron QUESTION --Could this also the start of shedding of the plastron ? do they even shed them?

my-man-turtle -- I may suggest that you can up you water temp a little. If my calculations are correct I would suggest that you up the water temp to 27C. Hatchlings seem to do a little better in warmer water. Just my suggestion.

madmax1, you might get more of a response if you had posted this as a separate question. I don't have a pastel, but I can tell you that they shed scutes on the plastron like other turtles do. The coloring and pink in the seam to me looks like it's from growth. If you look at the two scutes (left and right) that are next to the two bottom ones, you can see the edges are not even with the scutes next to them and are jutting out a bit. This happens as the scute is pushed out by the growth of the underlying one, and at some point they should shed off. Btw, if you think the gravel is wearing on the shell, it would be good to get rid of it---I don't think wear of this type is really normal.

m_m_t, if you convert 26C, it is equal to 78.8F, which is fine for a healthy hatchling. The plastron looks good; the difference in coloring could be from growth, from rubbing on a surface (even before you got him) or just the way your turtle happens to be colored. If your turtle is healthy and you're providing him with a good diet and habitat, I'd keep an eye on it and see if it changes as he grows.

marisa wrote:madmax1, you might get more of a response if you had posted this as a separate question. I don't have a pastel, but I can tell you that they shed scutes on the plastron like other turtles do. The coloring and pink in the seam to me looks like it's from growth. If you look at the two scutes (left and right) that are next to the two bottom ones, you can see the edges are not even with the scutes next to them and are jutting out a bit. This happens as the scute is pushed out by the growth of the underlying one, and at some point they should shed off. Btw, if you think the gravel is wearing on the shell, it would be good to get rid of it---I don't think wear of this type is really normal.

m_m_t, if you convert 26C, it is equal to 78.8F, which is fine for a healthy hatchling. The plastron looks good; the difference in coloring could be from growth, from rubbing on a surface (even before you got him) or just the way your turtle happens to be colored. If your turtle is healthy and you're providing him with a good diet and habitat, I'd keep an eye on it and see if it changes as he grows.

Thanks Marisa ,I say my pastel is about 7 months old now he is just a little bit under 3" I took him out of the tank just now and was checking him out which I haven't done in about 2 months I try not to handle them to much, he is definitely shedding some scutes on the top and his plastron
thanks for the advice and help

You're welcome (Next time please make a separate post.)

Marsa -- Thanks for setting me straight on the conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius. “78.8 “ is ok for hatchlings; I keep mine around 79 to 80 until they are about 2-1/2” in size.