Yellow Bellied Slider substrate

[Am5687]

My wife fell in love with a little Yellow Bellied Slider over the weekend so it became her Mother’s Day gift. We are currently using rather large river rocks as a substrate but I’m wondering if anyone has used leftover substrate from their crabs. I only want to add a half inch or so to the bottom to give some of the live plants we ordered something for the roots to grow in. The leftover sub I have is roughly 5:1 sand to coconut fiber.



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[wodesorel]

The cocofiber will make a total mess. You can use straight playsand if you've rinsed it well to remove the clay dust (the water will cloud up otherwise) but because turtles root around even sand can get kicked into the filter and cause damage to it. I use pebbles with my guys - you don't have to use ones this big, just bigger than what the turtle could possibly swallow. I have 5 inch painteds who are still on small turtle pebbles without risks, though yellow bellies do grow pretty quick. (I'm also not sure what you're using the bowl for on the ramp, but just so you're aware, water turtles should eat in the water, it helps them swallow food properly.)

[Am5687]

The bowl just has some food for him to get if he got hungry the first day I have since removed it. Now that he is eating what I drop in for him. I was more worried about him trying to eat the coconut fiber and having digestive issues. I think I will work on getting a filter to try to filter out the coconut shouldn’t be that hard and using the sand. I plan on leaving the larger rocks since in the future when he’s bigger I plan on adding a few shrimp and the gaps may give the shrimp some place to try to hide even though most of them will end up as snacks for the turtle.


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