Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Please help! I recently got a florida soft shell who had been living in my brothers pond which had no fish or any kind of living animal other then mosquito larve. I'm not sure what he was eatting but he lived there for several months. We recently moved him to my 50 gallon tank which has a nice sandly section for him to bury in. (i didn't want to make the whole thing sand for fear of killing my filter.)His carpace is about 3 inches (when you add his neck he becomes much larger!)He is now living with 2 other turtles (a common musk -about 2 inches in length, and a florida cooter - about 3 1/2 inches in length)They all get along very well and like to hang onto each other. The soft shell (gilbert) wont eat! I have offered him reptomin pellets and dried shrimp, plants, live fish, live ghost shrimp, blood worms, beefheart, and snails. He doesn't even look at any of it.. i have had him since saturday and thought he probally needed time to adjust but today is wednesday and he still hasn't eaten. I am getting really worried and am wondering if it would be best to put him back in my brothers pond or if there is something else i cant offer him.

(sorry for the long message length but i wanted you to make an informed judgement)

If you say that there is nothing in your brother's pond besides mosquito larvae and that a very young softshell lived there for three months, you likely have your answer as to what the turtle has been eating.

Have you tried mosquito larvae? That's probably not a great idea. Try fresh bloodworms (petshop freezer section) since they're practically the same thing. Also try earthworms from an uncontaminated source. Avoid stuff like ghost shrimp, which cost too much to supply in practical quantity (unless you live near the coast).

You did just move the animal. It could still be rebounding from its move. Three days of fasting won't do it harm. Ten days won't so long as its weight upon moving was good. A voracious apetite should return soon so long as nothing else is amiss.

When you put sand in only a small part of a softshells enclosure, you restrict almost all of the animal's use to that small part of the enclosure. Healthy softshells young and old will spend most of their time (i.e., time not spent foraging and eating) buried so long as they have the option. You include many details, but none of them have to do with aquarium parameters. Is the tank's pH similar to that in the pond? What is the water temperature in the tank? What was it in the pond? How long do you watch the three turtles interacting each day? Could you be missing something between them?

One final note is, the sooner your softshell has a tank to itself, the better.

I'm not sure what the temp or pH of the pond was but in my tank the temp is between 76-80. Its been a warm winter in florda so the pond water sould have been about 70. The pH in my tank is about 6.4 (i previously had problems with fungus and my musk turtle.)I probally watch my turtles for about 1 1/2 hours a day total. The cooter and him get along great! But my musk turtle seems to be a little afraid of him. No one has seemed aggresive though. I have tried live and dried bloodworm. His sand pit occupies 2/3 of my 50 gallon tank.