General Care Discussion :: Help for my Res. ;-(

[Melissia]

Hello,

Hoping you guys can help me,
I have a Female 4 yr old Res. Shes 9in long and 6 wide. Have had her since she was like 2in. Here's what happened - She used to be in a nice bright room in a 55 gal tank. We decided to upgrade so I bought a used 125gal tank. The tank is so big we had to set it up in my basement. Which has very little natural light, unless we are down there to open the door and such. We are down there quite a bit just to check on her and keep her company, its a hang out spot for the family.. About 2 months after we had her in the new tank I noticed she wasn't herself, and I started to see pitting on her shell. Like small indents. Seemed to appear over night. She also stopped basking. We checked everything and discovered she didn't have a UVB light over the tank area. Never dawned on me to change out the bulbs over the tank. I thought the bulbs that came with the tank were UVB. So this was a few weeks back. She still isn't basking, My husband has been dry docking her during the day for a few hours with the UVB / heat in hopes to get her back on track. Once she is in her basking area she loves it. She is eating. On top of all this, my husband has also made her a new basking "house", that sits above the tank, which is awesome and big but she will not check it out. We scoot her up the ramp, and place her in there, and she turns right around and leaves. Seems like a lot has happened to her over the last few months and I am sure she is stressed out over it. We let out of the tank on most nights and she wonders the house and goes to her sleep spot, when we call her, she comes out and finds us..so cute. I feel so bad..But tank set up details - water temp is at 75-78, basking area is at 90-95, I bought new bulbs for her basking area as well. Basking -Her heat lamp is 150 watts, and her UVB is 10./ 23 watts. We have a power filter, and 2 big other filters, under gravel canister filter. I have a 10.0 UVB light by ZooMed over her tank. Also a "natural light" bulb over the tank. Everything is on timers. On at 7am off at 10pm. As was always. Her tank is crystal clear. We don’t feed her in the new tank. Another change, not feeding her in the tank. Which we used to do until the move. So with all this...She is eating, we feed her every other day, romaine, pellets, shrimp, meal worms, carrots, krill and other stuff as we always did.. but she still won't bask on her own..when we don't put her to bask, she just sleeps in the dark side of the tank. I am getting concerned, the pitting doesn't seem to be getting worse..but I am lost at what to do to get her to bask on her own again.

Thank you,

[steve]

Can you post pics of the pitting? Can you post a picture of her basking area?

[Melissia]

Yes..I have her basking at the moment..as soon as we are done having her bask I will. She also has some discoloration on her shell that has me concerned as well. But would like to point out that none of the pits are soft. So hoping I find the solution here.

[steve]

It the Zoo Med a compact or tube? Also, the pitting might be due to her diet. Sounds like she has a lot protein in it.

[Melissia]

Hi,

Here's a few pics of setup and the spots on her her shell.

Thank you for the help....

[steve]

She looks better than what I was expecting. Your setup is nice too, though you might want to remove the gravel/UG filter. I think she could use a good shed or two. I would try to cover all the sides of the tank, at least temporarily to give her more privacy. If that doesn't work, try leaving pellets in there to see if she likes going in there. If neither works, then you might need to revise the basking area.

[Melissia]

Thanks for the compliments. So you figure the pitting is too much protein? Could be..when she stopped eating I bought blood worms, she now wont eat hardly anything else. Even though we offer all the other things. Should I just stick to the greens for a bit..until she starts to eat them again?
She has always had the gravel bottom, do they tend to eat it as they get older? And she is in her tank all day alone until we get home, so she has lots of privacy time. Leave pellets in the basking area? I will post some pics of what she see's in a bit..when it's open. How would you recommend the revise on the basking area?

thank you.

[steve]

Most of the roughness is from uneven sheds. It doesn't look that bad IMO, unless I'm not seeing something. From the looks of it, I'd she's been just getting a tad too much protein since you had her. If she has a healthy appetite, she'll just hold out for the goodies.

Privacy is more than just being left alone, covering the sides might make her feel more secure. I suggest using cork bark for the basking area.

[Melissia]

Little update...I actually already had backing that came with the tank, and some left over from the box..we covered 3 sides. Also, we teased her up the ramp with some shrimp to find she couldn't lift her fat body (hehe) on the ramp, so my hub added a extension to it, works perfect. She is up no problem. She will go on the ramp to get food, but not to enter the box yet (unless a food trail) ..perhaps with a little time she will get used to it. We do have some cork board we could use for the basking area.. just waiting to see if she will go for this first. The cork board will raise her closer to the lights, and we have all set perfect temp wise / inch wise right now. If she doesn't go in on her own over the next few days, we will re work the lighting to support her while higher. Thanks for your help..much appreciated.

[steve]

That's great news, thanks for the update!