Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My yellow mud has been floating for the last couple of weeks. It appears that he can't walk on the bottom of his tank if he wanted to. He isnt actually floating at the top - he is suspended in the middle. He is eating and moving around fine. He resists strongly if I give his leg a pull.

What's going on? Is he just getting fat and is floating because of it? He doesn't LOOK fat at all.

Chip

floating turtles ....nothing to do with being obese
usually its a fluid in the lungs condition which causes an inability to submerge.
this is often associated with a respitory infection.
this turtle likely needs a vet.

-rob

Turtles will float for a variety of reasons, everything from gas in the digestive track to fatty liver disease to being severely underweight. A trip to the reptile vet would be in order, and blood work is highly recommended. Fatty liver disease can be caused by a number of things. Are you offering a variety of foods? Has a fecal check been done?

Katrina

if u have taken the turt to the vet and found nothing wrong with him .. consider this .. the turtle might be stressed or bored. I had a couple of golden threads which i used to keep in a bare tank (no gravel .. just a piece of rock for the basking area). One of them had this habit of floating around aimlessly, moving with the slow current, bumping into whatever it is in the way. I thought it might be sick. I checked for the symptoms and found it to be healthy. So I just decided to decorate the tank a bit (putting in plants, gravel and such). The floating thingy just went away. It was just bored. Strange but true.
pics of my turtles