Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my soft shell hasn't been eating for a few days now. ever since i cleaned its tank it has stopped eating. yesterday it started being very inactive and this morning i woke up and it was just floating at the top of its tank and has been doing that since. it will swim around the top of the tank for air but it won't go and hide in the and like ur usually does. i put some dried shrimp in the tank again, and it just swims past it. does anyone know what's wrong with it!?! or is this supposed to be normal? i've had my turtle for about 2 months now and it has been ok until now. HELP!!!

Hi Daisy. I have had several that have done this over the years. I have probably had a dozen softshells or so in the last 10 years (since I was about 13) and I think two have died like that. I think some just have a tought time adapting or just can't handle captivity. Weird, I know. I dunno what to tell you other than try adding some aquarium salt(1 teaspoon per gallon) to his tank. This will kill any fungus or bacterial infection he could have. You will also want to make sure the water is around 80 degrees for a week or so. Oh yeah, what is your water temperature? If it's below 65 degrees or so, this could be why he is inactive and you may need to buy a heater. Hope this helps, Chris

How old is your softy? I have about a 1 yr old softy whose doing the same thing...wont even eat his favorite...mealworms. Been doing this upwards of 3 weeks now. Just tonight I noticed him floating around the top of the tank, and I never even knew that he could float...always sank like a stone. Chris...how long did it take for yours to die after they stopped eating? I'm going to take mine into a vet tomorrow...they only charge $10 here for an office visit. I'll let you know what the vet says. -Chris

Hey Chris. Funny you mention that, but mine was a little over a year old also. I had him in a 55 gallon for about 10 months, and he started eating all my fish, which he had never oncer bothered. So I moved him to a 29 gallon I had and he adjusted great. He was eating the next day and was fine for about 3 months. The outta nowhere he started becoming inactive and wouldn't eat. I tried heating the tank( It was at about 70 degrees, so I thought maybe it was getting cold) I heated the water to 76 and no change at all. Within a day or two, he was floating like yours. Once he got to this point, he floated for maybe a week and then all of a sudden died. I knew he was in bad shape because when I touched him he would barely move. I tried all I knew to help him. I am gussing he contracted some kind of disease that is fatal and unique to softshells, because that has happened to me twice. Let me know what your vet says, although I am guessing he won't have a clue, no offense(: Chris

(this is the same message I posted new just re-posting it here in case anyone doesnt read the new thread)

My turtle was floating for the past couple days, and the pet store recently hired a new guy in charge of all the fish and reptiles. I went down and talked to him today, he amazingly knew what he was talking about. I know a lot about fish, so he hired me But thats besides the point. He told me most likely I had a parasite from the guppies I fed him. He sold me this stuff by Nature Zone called worm guard. It's a brown powdery stuff...it contains stuff that are toxic to parasites, including pumpkin seed, black walnut, cloves, wormwood, black cumin (no idea why thats in there...taste maybe? lol), Thyme, Kieselguhr, and Papain. All these (cept the cumin, dont know what that does) are either toxic to parasites or parasites really hate. It's not true "medicene" because the FDA has not approved it. But he said he's given it to his, so I decided to give it a shot. Hell $4.99 is a lot cheaper than a vet visit.

You either put it on their food, but in my case I had to mix it with water and force him to take it thru an eye dropper. The bottle says "Natural diatary supplement, Controls intestinal worms and parasites, safe laxative action expels worms and parasites, increases appitie". I'll keep everyone posted on how this treatment works. Hopefully it'll save Gustof's life.

-Chris