Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I picked up a male mississippi diamond back terrapin yesterday and he has a lot of abrasions on his skin. His shell is in good condition though. I put him in a quarantine tank and i have no idea if he was CB or WC. He's rather docile and doesn't get frightened and jump back in the water if you approach him when he's basking so i'm guessing he's CB. At any rate, i'm kinda concerned about how lethargic he is. When i got him yesterday he was very active and swam around his tank a great deal. Today he's spent most of the day either basking or sleeping in the water. I know turtles take a while to adjust to new surroundings but i've never had one respond like this. I was also wondring if i should add some pond salt to his water. He's in fresh water right now and i let the filter run for about 5 hours in the clean tank prior to putting him in there. I know that they suggest 1.02-1.04 for the salt concentration for brackish water, but what is the unit of measure for that? is it ppm or is that just the percentage? My other DB was CB so i've always just kept her in fresh water without any complications. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance

It could be that he's just destressing but with those abrasions..... I would take him to a vet for an evaluation and parasite check.

The abrasions are at pretty typical areas... the elbows, knees, and bottoms of his hind feet. it appears that he was just kept in substandard conditions for a short period of time. They've already started healing up a bit. It probably would be wise to get him checked for parasites. Thank you!