General Care Discussion :: No bask, soft shell

[jimdotdev]

Hello,

I have a res that i picked up from a local dealer which was about the size of a silver dollar when we got it. It seems to have grown however its shell seems soft. Since having it we had the heat lamp for basking, however not the UVB as we were told that calcium substitutes could be used. After noticing the shell felt soft we immediately went out and bought a UVB 5.0 28watt light, and being on day 2 I'm just concerned.

The little guy swims around, seems happy, eats, poops, but always seems to stay in the water. The tempitures are 2-3 degrees on the basking area, the area is easy to access, Ive also got it a floating lily pad that is a dry spot which it doesn't use either... I've tried moving the heat lamp further away from the basking area but still nothing.

Concerned about our franklyn! Any insight welcome! Thanks

[steve]

Can you post a picture of the whole setup? I'm not understanding the temperatures of the water/basking area. You need both calcium and UVB (or a Vitamin D3 supplement). How long have you had him and how big is he now?

The shell of a hatchling will be slightly pliable. What kind of pellets are you giving him?

[jimdotdev]

I keep getting a bad request error when trying to upload the picture to the site, maybe its too big. When I get a chance Ill post some pictures to my website or a link to a youtube video for better viewing.

As for pellets it the Tetra ReptoMin and zoo med turtle treats. I also have a zoo med natural turtle food however its for turtles with a shell of 2" or more so we haven't fed him any of that. We've put a turtle conditioner that says "plus calcium" into the tank, ive crumbled up some sepia bone which he ate most of, and my water temp sits around 26c and 30-31 on his basking.

Two thing I did that the site suggests not to do is added small rocks, however Im in the process of fixing that as soon as I can, and I have my water a little under 3 quarters of the tank however the basking spots are completely dry.


heres a quick text drawing of it

**Heat lamp** | **UVB ***
---------------------------------------------------------------

ROCK_______ (lily pad )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <--- water level





_____________________________________________


the rock slants toward the water making it easy to get up on.


Ill try to get a video up tonight

[Gracie Turts]

if the "turtle conditioner" is something like this:
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... n=SHOP+FOR
if i were you i would take it out. the turtle(s) might try to eat it, which isn't too good for their health.
Good Filtration= clean water= free conditioner.

[Gracie Turts]

26 C = about 79 F

30-31 C = about 86 -88 F

[steve]

You can email a pic to me and I'll help you post it. I agree, those "turtle conditioners" are generally worthless.