Came downstairs this morning and found my moms turtle under this plastic piece in her tank. A bunch of pieces of her shell had come off. I'm not sure how long she was under there (at most 9 hours I think), is she okay?

The most precious creature in my life, Isn't she perfect?

I have had my turtle for 6 years now. And usually she hides under curtains or under tables but one day after cutting cucumber. I searched for her but don’t find her. I looked at the usual spots but not there so I searched everywhere. Under tables, behind couches, scanned everywhere and I’m scared because she hadn’t eaten in weeks now because I genuinely have no idea where is she. My brother keeps saying whenever I search that she is probably dead. But where is her body if she is dead? Is there a way she can come? Like a dog. Will me putting food in a random place make her come

My red eared slider is 8 yo and I'm not the original owner. My gf had to go abroad and I have been taking care of her for the last one year since her grandma is old. And ever since one month ago her water is being like this every day. Every day when I wake up and see her water, her water is like this. She eats normally and seems normal but the water is always getting like this. Did someone experience same thing or know what it might be? Chatgpt is clueless about this condition. If this info could help: she went into nesting behavior 11 months ago and couldn't lay the egg. And eventually her behavior shifted to normal after a month and she was releasing the eggs one by one. Whenever I change the water I find egg (total 5-6 eggs I found) but not in good shape egg tho. At that time this was also happening which I thought maybe it's her egg white thing. And it stopped after like half month and now it's back after 11 months.

Hi everyone, this is Tiny. My in-laws got Tiny as a baby in 2020. They did a very good job getting her everything she needed when she was little. Unfortunately, as the years have gone by, my father-in-law's health has deteriorated and my mother-in-law works over 40 hours a week (usually like 12 hour days)

She used to have pea gravel and a much better tank step up. My husband and I don't have space or funds currently to take Tiny into our home, so we can't just take her. I also don't know basically anything about turtles other than the fact that they need a basking spot, to be warm enough and ideally clean water (🥴)

They have a filter (like one of the canisters that's outside of the tank). We cleaned it for them earlier this year but it doesn't seem like a great working filter.

I would love to add some small things to her tank to make it better for her. My first thought was sand or some kind of substrate in the bottom of her tank. I don't have a ton of money to just spend on someone else's pet.

I know she gets lettuce (I think once a day) and it's no longer iceberg lettuce 🥴 she now gets green butter lettuce now because we got her some when pet sitting.

I know there's so much wrong with her tank step up. And I don't know much about it. I know she has heat lamps by her basking spot. And I know she has goldfish in her tank which she ends up eating (which I'm pretty sure she isn't supposed to do)

Please be gentle with me. I feel really awful about how her tank looks and I want to just do what I can to help ♥️🥺

I had to give him what he wants.

Is this algae, or shedding or is it bad?

Bought as a pet in Tenerife around Easter 2025; the shop called it a Chinese stripe-necked turtle. Could this instead be Pseudemys nelsoni? Which visible features distinguish them?

Found these weird orbs in the tank of my yellow eared sliders. They are white with a transparent gel like layer around them. Anyone know what they are? They don't look like eggs if I look at google images of yellow eared slider eggs.

Hii, we just moved apartments and my yellow bellied slider won’t go onto her basking platform :(

She’s in a 100 gal Rubbermaid stock tank, the water quality is good and the temp is at 78 degrees. She has a hot spot of ~95-100 degrees with with a 10 UVB bulb

I have tried a few combinations of lights and have a few options available including a bigger just straight up dome lamp and a t5 UVB with both 5 and 10 bulbs so I’m open to advice! I don’t have a great solution for the t5, admittedly. I lay it across a piece of the crate I lay over the top of the dock

She’s had a stock tank enclosure before, and the only difference with this one is the drain plug is on the other side

She always climbs up, does like, a skateboard stall on the top left or right of the ramp, she does it on both, then goes back down

She will sometimes like climb up a little and out and then splash back down into the tank

She’s eating her pellets but has been much trickier with her dandelion greens, she only takes a few bites usually

What can I do to make the dock more appealing to her? One thing that jumps out and is not lost on me is like, the dock might be quite shiny

She’s been in this configuration a little over a week

I appreciate anyone that even looks at this literally so much

Tried to post this a few times but I think accounts are all too young/not active enough, sorry if this post multiple times!

Butter, my RES turtle, has had these two spots on his shell appear and I’m not sure what it is. He was at the vet on 10/7 to check up on the retained scutes. (That is being treated and not my issue here.) These spots have appeared in the past day or two. Should I be worried and back to the vet, or is it a normal part of shedding?

Tank is 120 gallons, 78F. ReptiSun 10.0 UVB 19in away, halogen basking bulb, 88-90F. Fv6 filter.

A few months ago, I rescued a hatchling yellow-bellied slider from a dude bulk selling them on the street.

He (confirmed male) now has a 30gal tank (Rubbermaid, bio-safe, going to upgrade to a MUCH larger proper glass tank), constantly clean water, a very powerful filter (pads replaced weekly), water heater, basking rock, lamps, the works. He wants for nothing except my attention.

What, if anything, should I be looking for in terms of health issues? Not that I think he currently has any, but I want to know what to look for in the future, since I now have this guy for ~40 years.

Hii, we just moved apartments and my yellow bellied slider won’t go onto her basking platform :(

She’s in a 100 gal Rubbermaid stock tank, the water quality is good and the temp is at 78 degrees. She has a hot spot of ~100 degrees with with a 10 UVB bulb

I have tried a few combinations of lights and have a few options available including a bigger just straight up dome lamp and a t5 UVB with both 5 and 10 bulbs so I’m open to advice! I don’t have a great solution for the t5, admittedly. I lay it across a piece of the crate I lay over the top of the dock

She’s had a stock tank enclosure before, and the only difference with this one is the drain plug is on the other side

She always climbs up, does like, a skateboard stall on the top left or right of the ramp, she does it on both, then goes back down

She will sometimes like climb up a little and out and then splash back down into the tank

She’s eating her pellets but has been much trickier with her dandelion greens, she only takes a few bites usually

What can I do to make the dock more appealing to her? One thing that jumps out and is not lost on me is like, the dock might be quite shiny

She’s been in this configuration a little over a week

I appreciate anyone that even looks at this literally so much

Tried to post this before, but I think I didn’t log into the right Reddit account

Also, is it normal for her shell to look dry?

She’s a desert box turtle and I’m not sure of her age, maybe around 20 years old? She eats an earthworm and 2-3 mealworms every other day in the summer, along with box turtle pellets daily, and fruits and veggies on the day she doesn’t get her worms. She’s very picky and will only eat certain lettuce types, peas, corn, blueberries, and green beans. She pretty much hates all leafy greens though.

I feed her on a flat rock and she has a calcium block available at all times. She doesn’t really get much humidity, but I spray water in the tank when before she eats. Also have heat/uvb bulbs.

Wilbur makes my day every time I visit the local reptile store, I hope he makes you smile too :)

Today I came home from work to a turtleless tank. My musk turtle escaped via a small gap in his egg crate basking area and was found on the floor in the next room over. He somehow squeezed himself through the highlighted area and pulled himself over. Thankfully he was unharmed and returned to his tank.

guys help😭😭😭😭 ive been having her only for 3 days, at first day she was active and everything was okay, but on the next day she rubbed her eyes for an hour in the morning, then have gone sleeping in her house for the rest of the day. didnt come out to warm up under the lamp and to eat...

i had hay in the terrarium and she liked digging in there, google said that it can be irritating her eyes so i removed it and didnt bother her.

on the next day (today) she still did the same thing and i examined her eyes, it looked like theyre swollen a bit. i cleaned a little her paws and eyes with wet cotton pads and put her in another terrarium with paper towels since google said coconut soil can also be the reason. right now she looks better, shes warming up, ate and even bathed in the water bowl, but im still nervous since she mostly keeps her eyes closed and still rubs them, but not so often.

should i bathe her or it will do everything worse??😢

Hello as the title says my turtle is making sort of whistling sounds from time to time. I have a Mississippi Map turtle ( most likely) it was found in a bottle outside the train station, tried finding someone willing to keep it, but ended up becoming our pet in the end so not sure about the breed 100%. I returned from sea and the turtle is in my bedroom and every night it makes like a sort off whistling sound. The sound always comes in pairs and he brings his head out the water to do it. Is it a medical thing or maybe a mating thing, appreciate any input.

I saved 2 red ear sliders from a market in Shanghai I’m currently now in England don’t ask how I got them through customs.

I’m basically just asking if anyone knows what I can do to keep them from dying they aren’t all that active and seem to have a bit of a eye infection I think because the filter wasn’t working correctly in the water before they also have the correct lighting.

the water temperature is 27c and treated correctly with aqua safe here is some pictures of the set up I also plan to buy some blood worms tomorrow for them but for now iv been offering them food from china I’ll attach a picture to go with this post but really I’m not sure what else I can do they move their mouths and heads and legs slightly but they aren’t walking around and when I placed them in water after cleaning the tank they swam a little then walked out and climbed on top of eachother not moving much .

Any help or ideas would be appreciated :(

Just a cool soft shell I found on land the other day. There were some Nest spots nearby so I wonder if they were just looking for a place to brumate or hibernate. I'm definitely not an expert on soft shells or even most turtles but I definitely love the soft shells! She let me pet her and I only did so to make sure she was alive. She looked dry went to get her some water and she was gone when I came back lol

I recently got two red-eared sliders and I’m trying to get their care right. They’re currently not very active and one (or both) seems to have a mild eye issue — a bit of swelling/cloudiness.
Current setup:
• Water temperature is stable at 27 °C
• Water is treated with AquaSafe
• Filter is now working properly
• Correct UVB/heat lighting is in place
They move their heads, mouths and legs a little, but they’re not swimming or walking around much. After a tank clean they swam briefly then climbed out and stacked on each other.
I’ve been offering the food they were previously given and plan to get some bloodworms tomorrow.
Any advice on what else I should check or do to help them settle and recover would be really appreciated. Photos of the setup and the turtles are attached.

They were just getting onto the asphalt on a relatively busy cycle path here in Indianapolis. I moved him to the other side in the direction they were heading so he didn’t get squashed. I nearly missed them as it was so small, and I’m always on the lookout for them. Couldn’t imagine a cyclist seeing them.

I’ve been in the aquarium hobby for a little over two years (since June 2024), this is my second planted tank ever. Up until now, I’ve been a ghost on Reddit, Instagram, and the forums. No content creation, no YouTube channel, just quietly reading threads, absorbing information, and building in silence.

My journey started with a 40G grow-out for a baby turtle, where I incorporated live plants and community fish to see what worked. The only rule I brought from a brief attempt 15 years ago was that turtle tanks need oversized filtration (I ran a Fluval 207 on that 40G). What I learned there became my Version 2.0: a 75-gallon high-tech ecosystem where a Mississippi Map Turtle, community fish, predatory fish, oddballs, and delicate macro-inverts live alongside each other.

Why I Built This

1. To build a living window for my kids: I wanted them to learn firsthand about nature's balance, ecological zoning, and the responsibility of caring for animals.

2. To challenge the "dirty destroyer" myth: Turtles have a reputation in the hobby as toxic, plant-shredding chaos machines (which for some pond species is true). Most advice says keep them in bare glass boxes. But that just didn’t work for me.

My theory was simple: instead of stripping their environment bare. Lean into the chaos. Engineer proactive filtration, establish biological enrichment, and match the turtle species to the ecosystem. With the right planning, the right turtle doesn't just survive—he thrives as the focal point of a planted display.

The Execution

I’m an electrician by trade, not a biologist or professional aquascaper. I took my research on male Mississippi Map Turtles and tried to anticipate potential points of failure—heavy bio-load, plant damage, territorial aggression—engineering solutions directly into the framework of the tank rather than scrambling later.

After nearly a year of continuous operation, the tank is thriving. Because this is a highly technical setup, I’m dropping the full breakdown (filtration loops, water chemistry, plant care schedules, and full stock list) in the first comment so this main post doesn't turn into a wall of text.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. What else might we be dismissing too quickly?

Meet Greg.