Urgent Care :: shell fungus problems. what more should i be doing?

[mega_devastation]

hmm, i guess this would be more pressing than a worm in my tank but, i just dont know.. I've posted here before some months ago but it is untill now that I finnally got an adequite setup for my turtle at her size. it turns out that it was shedding but afterwards i noticed there was fungus, but because i didnt have a good setup, i felt like there was no point to do something about it if the water conditions were still bad~ anyway, a couple of weeks ago i bought the new setup and then i heard around here that Hibiclense was good for the fungus so thats what im trying to combat now. im not sure how much to use it though, so i just put a drop onto a toothbrush and scrub for a min or two and rinse, is that right? .. im not sure but am i overlooking somthing?
her shell seems perty beatup...

im feeding her redleaf lettuce almost everday and pellets everyother day
temp stays at 80
had her for a year now.



note: i hadnt put the uvb light yet

[SpotsMama]

I put a little (a couple of tablespoons) of hibiclense in a bowl and add an equal amount of water. Then, holding the turtle with a firm grip over the sink I gently scrub the hibiclense all over the shell with a soft toothbrush. I drizzle a little of the mixture around where his arms, legs, tail and head come out of the shell, where I can't reach with the toothbrush. Be very careful not to get any on his head. I then rinse the turtle very thoroughly. Repeat every other day for about a week and a half.

Getting the UVB light will help. Does your turtle bask very much? Basking will help a lot because it will give your turtle's shell a chance to thoroughly dry out - which it should do once a day. This will discourage the fungus.

You can lower the water temperature to 73 to 75 degrees. Then make sure the temp on the basking area is at least 10 degrees warmer than the water. This is important to motivate your turtle to bask.

Very pretty turtle by the way!

[marisa]

Rather than just feeding red leaf lettuce and pellets, try varying the diet more.

Just about every scute on the carapace that's whitish looks like it will be shedding at some point (can't tell about the plastron). I'm not convinced it's a fungus, but hibiclense won't hurt.

[steve]

Has she been basking regularly? Aside from the excessive growth, the white patches look similar to what my RES had (I have not been able to confirm what it was). Are they spreading/worsening? When it is dry, can it be scraped it off?

I'd also put a screen over the basking area, it looks like an easy escape route with a hard fall. The tank also seems to be missing part of the rim in the front...

Oh, for my RES, the white patches stopped after they started to bask more. It still did its damage, covering most of their scutes. But with some regular shedding, things have been improving. Let us know how the hibiclense works out!

[mega_devastation]

thank you for all the advice ill follow your instuctions regarding the hibiclense Spotsmama, thank you very much
ill lower the temp although i heard that it helps the immune system.., yeah my turtle basks alot (its basking as i type) but i think ill give her more cuttlebone, its somthing i keep forgetting to give her often

yeah i fixed the problem with the screen, i just used one of the screen doors it came with, its missing the frame because its a reptile habitat tank, i just put some aquarium sealant on the corners so it would be fit for water.. its was perty cheap like $100 for the tank and my dad made the stand..

no, you cant scrape off the white stuff, its been there for months. a while back i used sulfa dip and it was going away but it didnt go away completely after 7 days so i was reluctant to use another bottle (cuz the bottle sed to take it to the vet and nothing about using some more) you can see my other older post, it gots pics. but then the filter i had (fluval plus3) was really not doing a good job, the water would get green and cloudy after 2-3 days so the infection came back, especially on her underside... so i think it was spreading but very slowly, now that i got everything i need, ima heal Turtle as fast as i can.

heres a pic i took today: (though my dad kinda put the uvb light wrong, its suppose to be facing downward instead of towards me, is it harmful to us?)

[mega_devastation]

actually, it prolly has excessive growth because when i had the smaller tank with the crappy filter, i would have to feed it outside of the tank and on most school days i just wouldnt have the time in the morning so i would just drop her some pellets cuz i know she eats those fast, now that i got the better filter, i can drop in lettuce and the water will stay clear, but yeah i know waht you mean, i should vary the diet more, i would give her some carrots on occasion but ill go check out the nutrition section at the site for more suggestions, thank you for your feedback (every pun intended, lol)

[SpotsMama]

Hi Mega,

You are correct, that UVB light should be shining down with as much of it over the basking area as you can get. We humans are not supposed to look directly into a UVB light but since the UV rays dissipate rapidly with distance it's probably not a real big deal.

I still feel nervous about the little one escaping, though I see there's a barrier now where the most obvious escape route would be. I never thought I say this, but if you want to lower that water an inch or two I think it would be ok!

[mega_devastation]

heh, yeah, i want to lower it too, but the problem is that the water level has to be 24inches away from the top of the filter (it sed in the instuctions of the xp3) so thats as low as i can get it. i didnt realized the problem untill my dad brought the stand,or else i would have told him to make the stand taller : (

[marisa]

What filter are you using? The XP3 says it should be 24 inches below the water level (and ideally this would be best), but it will also work if the water level isn't exactly at 24 inches...

[mega_devastation]

okay, i lowered the water level a bit.

umm, ive been doing the treatments everyother day like spotsmama sed and im not seeing any results, well, i guess what im expecting to see are the spots slowly dissapearing.. or do i gotta wait till it sheds before i see anything different?


i was also thinking about leaving her dry over night, like in a container, would that be too stressful or even nessesary?

[marisa]

Since you said you can't scrape off the white, I suspect that the areas will disappear when the scutes shed.

If he's basking a lot on his own, to me it wouldn't be necessary to start dry tanking him.

Is it getting warm where you are, can you take him outside for some unfiltered sunlight? That would be really good for his shell as well. Don't forget the cuttlebone.