White bumps on feeder fish

[Kacey]

I bought fish to feed to my Red Eared Slider turtles today, and noticed 1 little dude with some type of growths on him.

Didn't feel right to use him JIC it's a contamination that would be a problem for the turtles.

Anyone know what I might be dealing with... and might it be safe to go into my turtle pond?

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Appears to be fish pox. Quite common in Goldfish kept in water of poor quality.

 

[Mmathis]

Yuck, poor little fish! In nature, critters like turtles tend to be nature's garbage disposals: they will eat and can tolerate a lot of stuff. If, as @Meyer Jordan suggested, it is fish pox....IDK. I feed my dead fish [and one with fish pox, which is a virus] to my box turtles....my thought being that if they were in the wild they would probably eat it without any harm being done. Are your sliders in a pond with fish? If so, with semi-aquatics, there would be the issue of introducing the virus to the other fish, and I don't know what the turtle GI tract does to the virus -- if it kills it, or not -- so when the turtles poop, they might [I say might] be introducing the virus back into the water. But to be safe, I personally would err on the side of catution and not feed the fish to them, esp since we aren't 100% sure what it is. Maybe @Marshall will read this and comment. He deals with sliders and has a broader knowledge base.

 

[Jhn]

From what I remember keeping painteds and sliders, goldfish are a poor choice as a staple for semi-aquatic turtles. I believe they contain thiamenise, which blocks the ability of what consumes them to absorb thiamin.

I know feeder goldfish offer pretty much no nutritional value as food for other fish, besides all the disease they usually carry.

 

[Mmathis]

From what I remember keeping painteds and sliders, goldfish are a poor choice as a staple for semi-aquatic turtles. I believe they contain thiamenise, which blocks the ability of what consumes them to absorb thiamin.

I know feeder goldfish offer pretty much no nutritional value as food for other fish, besides all the disease they usually carry.

Interesting!

 

[CometKeith]

I know this is off topic but I noticed a Koi dealer among their many offerings online were selling bland looking Koi as fish bait on the same web site as their high quality Koi and goldfish. Would you buy a Koi from a dealer like that? I'm sure it goes on, but I don't really want to know about it when I'm shopping for fish for my pond.

 

[Nature Momma]

From what I remember keeping painteds and sliders, goldfish are a poor choice as a staple for semi-aquatic turtles. I believe they contain thiamenise, which blocks the ability of what consumes them to absorb thiamin.

I know feeder goldfish offer pretty much no nutritional value as food for other fish, besides all the disease they usually carry.

It also blocks them from being able to absorb calcium as well, or at least that's what an employee at PetSmart told me when I wanted to buy goldfish as my feeder fish for yellow bellied slider. He suggested guppies as a feeder fish. But to be honest, the last time I bought 12 goldfish for my turtle, after about 2wks, I was finding little pieces/layers of his shell in his tank. Kind of like an onion in the layers aspect of it & the thickness of these pieces were like layers of a finger nail peeling or something. So, ILL NEVER FEED MY SLIDER GOLDFISH AGAIN

 

[Mmathis]

Hello, “Nature Momma”! From what I know about aquatic turtles, they actually shed their scutes — the name for those little sections or “scales.” This is probably what you were seeing in the turtle tank. This is normal, similar to how a snake or lizard sheds its skin.

 

[Nature Momma]

Hello, “Nature Momma”! From what I know about aquatic turtles, they actually shed their scutes — the name for those little sections or “scales.” This is probably what you were seeing in the turtle tank. This is normal, similar to how a snake or lizard sheds its skin.

Omgosh, thank you for the info! That makes me feel somewhat better about the one time I fed mine goldfish. Do they do that very often, as in monthly? I've read quite a bit about sliders specifically, but other than shell sickness issues, I'm not to familiar w/it. I thought the lil guy was having calcium/vitD issues. Is it safe to say he's in the clear?

 

[Mmathis]

Omgosh, thank you for the info! That makes me feel somewhat better about the one time I fed mine goldfish. Do they do that very often, as in monthly? I've read quite a bit about sliders specifically, but other than shell sickness issues, I'm not to familiar w/it. I thought the lil guy was having calcium/vitD issues. Is it safe to say he's in the clear?

I don’t know how often they “shed.” It probably depends on how quickly the turtles grow.

 

[Mmathis]

@Nature Momma This article might “shed” some light on it: http://www.turtleholic.com/turtle-shell-peeling/

 

[Nature Momma]

@Nature Momma This article might “shed” some light on it: http://www.turtleholic.com/turtle-shell-peeling/

Again, thank you very much! I've saved that website for future issues, if any arise. You've been very helpful & I'm glad you saw my post. Needless to say, you've obtained a new follower

 

[Mmathis]

Again, thank you very much! I've saved that website for future issues, if any arise. You've been very helpful & I'm glad you saw my post. Needless to say, you've obtained a new follower

Glad to be able to help! My knowledge and experience with reptiles is somewhat limited to my box turtles, but you do learn a few things along the way! Just a word of caution, though. When you do your herp resaearch, PLEASE try to authenticate the source of the information you read (IOW — be sure it’s a knowledgeable source, based on biological science and experience and not something from a “backyard Joe” who doesn’t really know what he’s/she’s talking about). Just as an example, I joined a couple of box turtle groups on FaceBook a while back. I had to drop one — the advice people were giving was just hogwash. But there are some really good reptile groups and forums. Best to you and your turts!

 

[Nature Momma]

Glad to be able to help! My knowledge and experience with reptiles is somewhat limited to my box turtles, but you do learn a few things along the way! Just a word of caution, though. When you do your herp resaearch, PLEASE try to authenticate the source of the information you read (IOW — be sure it’s a knowledgeable source, based on biological science and experience and not something from a “backyard Joe” who doesn’t really know what he’s/she’s talking about). Just as an example, I joined a couple of box turtle groups on FaceBook a while back. I had to drop one — the advice people were giving was just hogwash. But there are some really good reptile groups and forums. Best to you and your turts!

Oh I will be sure that any advice I get is based on evidence. After you told me about the "shell scutes" I looked into it. I came back here & thanked you for the helpful advice. But to be honest, the whole goldfish thing was what i guess you could consider "hear say" other than the lack of absorbing certain vitamins...I just want sure which ones at the time. I was pretty sure it was calcium. I will be looking into that to verify anything i wrote in the forum so that i can correct myself. I actually have an issue with my feeder fish that I'm about to post about. If you know what it may be, please chime in if you have any experience on the matter before i feed any of them to my Lil turtle friend. Thanks again Turtlemomma!

 

[Nature Momma]

Oh & Turtlemomma, I hope you've had the time 2 check out my photo updates of my turtle friend!