Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Posted by: lacie143 at Sat Jun 21 00:05:40 2003 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

I have a 30 gallon square tank with about 20 gallons of water in it. I have an in-tank thermometer that stays between 75-80 never varying more than within those 5 degress. I have two Whisper filters, the ones that stick on to the glass and are ideal for turtle tanks. The basking spot is large, i'm not sure the temperature though. Theres gravel on the bottom, and some 'river stones' that i bought from the store, basically large polished rocks, and an undergravel filter base below -no actual pumping going through there though, i didnt know how to set it up. I got the tank used from my favorite pet store. It is a oceanic tank with the black box in the corner for saltwater filtration but i'm not sure if that is connected/connectable to the undergravel. Within the tank i have guppies and rosey reds and a chinese alge eater. I have anachris floating and corkscrews planted, but they arent very big. I havent tested my water because i dont have a test kit, i use to have my store test it because they had a really nice kit, but they recently closed and i havent gotten one yet, regardless, the levels were normall even when the turtles were showing illness. I've feed him reptomin and i am now switching to flukers water turtle. I I have a lighting fixture focused on the basking spot, but not too close, i have a normal bulb for now, my reptile one burned out, and i havent gotten another one yet. The set up has been the same since february, when i got the new tank. It wasnt until late april that i noticed any thing weird at all. I did remove the first turtle to act weird and put him in another tank ut there was no change, or rather, he only got worse.

The Fish:
All of my fish are fine, they guppies are of course breeding, but even the rosey's laid a clutch of eggs. I"m so perplexed

Wait a second u never said what is wrong with the turtles? Shell Rott? Or resp infections? What?

see below.....about 4 threads down

That sounds really bizarre. My hatchling was the size of a quarter when I found him. I started him out on cooked chicken and Reptomin, and never had any problems. He caught his first little crawdad yesterday. I catch my rosy's and hold them with hemostats, and he takes them, after a few tries usually. Hes not big enough to catch his own yet, but I do see him trying to hunt them sometimes. My turtle recognizes the hemostats as food so much that if I dont remove them once he takes the food, he will drop what hes eating and crawl after the hemostats.
I know this is a silly question, but you are feeding your turtle in water arent you?

-----

yes of course I am also putting some wet food in a shaded area of his basking spot just in case, nothing seems to work. I tried putting food on one of the now deseased's face (very small amounts not covering it, just enough to hope he'd open his mouth and eat some) but obviously that didnt work. He's been this way for awhile and i just cant figure it out. ive tried transfering him into another tank and he and the others were still the same.