Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I "rescued" a loggerhead from a couple, saturday. The musks were in a 100 gallon aquarium with extremely black water and tons of different types of worms and mosquito larvae. Needless to say the musks in this tank were in very bad shape.

I have the musk in a 10 gallon quarantine tank with a dry dock with pellets and some feeders roaming in there. The turtle seems to have had rot on his lower mouth since there seems to be a hole in his bottom jaw. I have a Dr. Turtle skin conditioner in the aquarium for the turtle. Hopefully this will help out with his wounds.

Anyway, he has a lot of moss on his shell. His shell should be a dark tan color like leather, but with all the moss on his shell, his color is a dark gray to a green color. I have taken a used toothbrush and knocked some moss off him but a lot seems to be well embedded in the shell. Will the shell eventually start to get rid of the moss by itself by basking or do I have to scurb or get some other type of conditioner?

Thank you for reading my rants!

T-out

The moss is no danger to the turtle to let you know, and most in the wild have alot of it on their shells. If you coulsn't get it off with a toothbrush, leave it alone. Don't give the turtle alot of basking light, or it may get more moss.
Michael
Michael's Place

-----

http://www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

Helmz614@aol.com

Dont give the turtle more basking light? You want the turtle to bask! When the shell dries out the algae will die and fall off. Most should come off with a toothbrush. Dont push too hard, but you can put some pressure into it.
Chris
-----
Hey whats up, I'm Chris and I currently have 0.1 Midland Painted, 1.0 Western Painted, 0.0.1 RES, 1.0 Bearded Dragon

Ok, his shell and all his wounds are looking good. I have doctored this boy since I got him. My main concern is that I have had him for almost a month now, and he has not eaten one thing! The feeders I gave him have either died or are twice as big as when I put them in. The feeders seem to be eating the reptomin I have given him. He doesn't eat red worms or meal worms. I have given him mosquito fish and goldfish, and he doesn't eat them either. I have given him lettuce and celery but to no avail. A friend of mine who is in the local turtle club has told me that other members who have had similar problems with their turtles had soaked their turtles in pedialyte and had some success. I tried this and still.. no eaty!

Every saturday, I clean out my other turtle tanks and stick them all in the back yard. I noticed that the musk seems to play with the other turtles. I have him in a quarantine tank until his woulds are fully healed. He seemed to be happier with the others. I am just afraid to put him in with the other just in case he has some virus that he aquired from the nasty aquarium that I rescued him from.

Is there a telltale sign of a parasite or virus? He was very light skinned but fat (maybe gorged himself from the mosquito larvae that was in that aqaurium) when I got him. He has not gotten color and the shell (that was blackish) has now turned a little brown in color. I have figured out that he is a common musk (stinkpot) instead of the loggerhead that the previous owner told me that it was.

He still doesn't eat and well, I am out of options. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

T-out