General Care Discussion

Hi

I'm a newbie to this forum, and provided a kind of adhoc care for my Yellow Belly Slider, but I want to do a better job! My YBS is about 2 years old and I have a few questions if I'm caring for her correctly:

is the care for a YBS the same as the care for a RES?

typically once every other month I top-off her tank with "creek water" Is that ok? is it messing up her charcoal based filter? the rest of the time I use "spring water" from the grocery store. Is this ok?

I clean her tank once every 3 months or so. Is this ok?

I feed her once a day everyday, either a small worm, dandelions (mostly), a small dried shrimp (not very often at all) or a "green pellet" . Is that too often?

The rest of the care I've given her is pretty much the same as a RES and I don't have any questions over.

Hello! Yes, the care will be similar to RES. Is the creek water potable? Does it supply your household water?

Hard to know exactly how much the turtle is eating... what kind of work is it? Look into a good pellet from Mazuri or Omega-1.

How big is your tank? You should be changing some of the water every week or so, not just topping off. Do you have a filter?

Last edited by tjurhs on Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

vear wrote:How big is your tank? You should be changing some of the water every week or so, not just topping off. Do you have a filter?

...that's part of me wanting to do a better job taking care of her

in size, my YBS is not quite 2inches from the front of her shell to the back of it.

so for the past couple years, she's been in a 10gal tank. just this last week I moved her to a 20gal tank.

I usually "top off" her tank once a week with either creek water or "Spring" water that I buy at the grocery store and then I've been changing out her tank about every 3 months, but I've been reading that that is not often enough.

I've also been using a "cheapo" filter that uses a charcoal replacement bag. I'm sure it doesn't adhere to the "times 3 rule". So I'll have to get her a new filter....

she does have two water heaters at opposite ends of the tank that keep the water around 75.

I have been using a standard 60watt "soft white" light bulb for her basking. there's a wide stick under it so she can climb as high as she likes for heating. That bulb just burnt out and so I bought black/purple UVB light. do I need to still give her the 60watt "soft white" light bulb ?

so more replies would be greatly appreciated by her

ok so I got rid of her playground gravel, and bought her some egg sized river stone rocks enough to cover the tank's floor.

reading the the filtration posts, I went and got her a MarineLand C220 filter. I think it almost makes the X3 rule, but it was all I could afford, hopefully it's good enough.

tjurhs wrote:
vear wrote:How big is your tank? You should be changing some of the water every week or so, not just topping off. Do you have a filter?
...that's part of me wanting to do a better job taking care of her

in size, my YBS is not quite 2inches from the front of her shell to the back of it.

so for the past couple years, she's been in a 10gal tank. just this last week I moved her to a 20gal tank.

I usually "top off" her tank once a week with either creek water or "Spring" water that I buy at the grocery store and then I've been changing out her tank about every 3 months, but I've been reading that that is not often enough.

I've also been using a "cheapo" filter that uses a charcoal replacement bag. I'm sure it doesn't adhere to the "times 3 rule". So I'll have to get her a new filter....

she does have two water heaters at opposite ends of the tank that keep the water around 75.

I have been using a standard 60watt "soft white" light bulb for her basking. there's a wide stick under it so she can climb as high as she likes for heating. That bulb just burnt out and so I bought black/purple UVB light. do I need to still give her the 60watt "soft white" light bulb ?

so more replies would be greatly appreciated by her

It's great that you're doing your research. I'm just asking questions to better help you. You should change about 30% or so of your water every week... so, take out a little less than half the water, then refill it. There's no need to empty out your entire tank if you're doing weekly water changes.

Is your tap water not ok for drinking? What's the reason for using the creek water, sounds like it would be very difficult to do water changes. (Also expensive if you're buying the water!). If your tap water is ok for drinking you should be able to use it in your tank.

About the lighting, yes, you need both UVB and the regular light bulb, the reason for this is that the UVB bulb does not give out heat. Is she able to get on her basking spot easily?

I'm not sure the black/purple UVB light is what your turt needs. I hope someone else chimes in on that...

Hi Vear,

Thanks for your insight!

The creek is less than 300yds from my house, so getting it is easy, I make the kids haul it.

30% change out every week, will do.

The reason I thought creek water is good for her is that that's where we caught her about 2 yrs ago, and I thought that there is probably "good bacteria" in the water that she would like (its fed from a lake where lots of other turtles, mostly snappers live)), but if creek water is not good for her then my kids will be happy to know that they no longer need to haul it

I bought here a heat lamp. During the Winter I bought her an extra water heater, so I'll put it in her 20gal tank.

Thanks again from Thor (we named her when we thought she was a he)

What's next?

Todd

Make sure the UVB bulb really says UVB on it or somewhere in the box, it's very important that it's the right bulb.

And yeah, no need to haul creek water, beneficial bacteria will colonize your tank/filter. You can do a search on "cycling a tank" so you can learn more about it.

Make sure you read through the main site, there's tons of information.

I tried using sand to cover the floor, that was a big mistake! After sitting for 3 hours the water is till cloudy.

Is it ok to put her in the tank is cloudy from the sand?

It depends how cloudy, but if you're not sure I'll avoid it. What kind of sand did you get? Was it rinsed?

the sand was "playtime" sand the kind that little kids can play in

she needs to spend the night in it (unless it's bad for her) because that's the only source of heated water at 75F I have for her

If the air temps are about 70-80, she can be there as well.

You need to rinse play sand really well before putting it in the tank. The cloudiness will go away. Settle that is.

Well after about 4 days (including replacing the tank, because the first one leaked), putting in and taking out sand, Thor the female YBS is really well situated with big rocks to hide under, a rope ladder (rope wrapped around a 2.5 inch PVC tube) to climb up, a basking lamp, a UVB lamp and a MarineLand C220 for a 20gallon tank. And I got her a tiny minnow to try and catch... She should be good to go, right?

not so fast, I've decided to use her old tank to grow aquatic plants, but that post is for a different thread...

many thanks guys! and Thor thanks you too

General Care Discussion :: newbie - I want to do a better job with care of a YBS

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