Reptile & Amphibian Forums

today when i was changing the water in my snappers set up i had him on his back rinsing him off with water he had his tail curled up under his shell (he has about a 4 inch shell length) and i noticed the last 1/4 inch or so was broken off and was stuck in a fold of skin where he pulled his legs in, i change his water every other day, he is kept in a 58 quart rubbermaid container but soon to be put into a 6 foot diameter kiddy pool, he eats very well in fact becoming a porker, he gets a small crawfish 1 time a week i keep feeder guppies and rosy red in at all times and have seen him nibble the plants i have in the setup i have even seen him nip at the cuttle bone i put in for calcium. so my question is am i doing something wrong, did the crawfish pinch the tail possibly even though i chose 1 with very small pinchers, or did he bite his own tail, thank you in advance for any help on this question

snappers have poor blood circulation to their tails. sometimes they will get it bent in the wrong direction and it'll break or they'll get bit and get infected. about all you can do is make sure they get a good diet and temps. sounds like your doing that. you just dont want it getting infected now. you can go to austinsturtlepage.com and find out how to treat it. goodluck

thank you for your answer i never knew about the poor circulation