Quite the haul...

On saturday, I found this on craigslist for 70 bucks!! It was delivered all the way up to my apt....it is a 125g tank and metal stand with a free sunsun cannister filter rated for 150g...ordered the parts for it off of amazon so they should be arriving friday. Found another listing on cl and got another cannister filter...it was a fluval fx6 along with 2 turtles which my big sis took in. She has a loft and a fondness for turts like me. They are living in a 150g stock tank with a fluval fx6. Cl can be a goldmine!!

Little by little I will be dressing up their new home...ordered new lights and might add sand as a substrate...right now designing their new above basking island...

Nice find. How many turtles are in the larger tank and what species?

5..
False map
Mississippi map
2 ybs 1 with pyramiding I rescued
1 male res

That is quite the haul. Good for you man!

RESULT ! ! !

cdmay said:

That is quite the haul. Good for you man!

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Ty very much!! The guy reached out to me and sent me a vid of a fluval fx6. Will be picking it up sunday for 40 bucks...his wife wants everything gone..

Wow! Nice.

Alex Z said:

On saturday, I found this on craigslist for 70 bucks!! It was delivered all the way up to my apt....it is a 125g tank and metal stand with a free sunsun cannister filter rated for 150g...ordered the parts for it off of amazon so they should be arriving friday. Found another listing on cl and got another cannister filter...it was a fluval fx6 along with 2 turtles which my big sis took in. She has a loft and a fondness for turts like me. They are living in a 150g stock tank with a fluval fx6. Cl can be a goldmine!!

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WOWIE-ZOWIE!!!!
What city do you live in that has listings like that??!?!

Alex Z said:

5..
False map
Mississippi map
2 ybs 1 with pyramiding I rescued
1 male res

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Alex - Just a note for you. Aquatic turtles do not pyramid. They way their keratin grows is quite different than tortoises, and it will not ever grow in a way that acutally will deflect and deform bones beneath. What people see and refer to as pyramiding is actually retained scutes that have not shed. It can be corrected and often will self correct once proper conditions and diet are provided to start allowing normal shedding. Many aquatics, especially in captivity, will not shed their first few years, and develop a much more "bumpy" look to their shell. It will smooth out and become completely normal in time.

One of the ybs I rescued about 2 weeks ago..I found has a curved raised shell. Is that pyramiding for aquatic turts?

Moozillion said:

WOWIE-ZOWIE!!!!
What city do you live in that has listings like that??!?!

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Nyc

Alex Z said:

One of the ybs I rescued about 2 weeks ago..I found has a curved raised shell. Is that pyramiding for aquatic turts?

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Have to see a picture. They certainly can develop MBD.

Here she is..

Alex That is both metabolic bone disease combined with being kept where it dried out excessively too much.

With metabolic bone disease in an aquatic turtle you will see the shell flatten, and frequently look like the turtle is outgrowing the shell. The bone growth is not keeping up with the turtle's growth. with the lack of bone structure, the keratin will also "outgrow" the bone growth. Because aquatic turtles continue to lay down new keratin along the entire underside of all their scutes, this expansion along the entire scute will begin to curl upward as essentially the underside of the scutes are growing while the older layers on top as well as the newly exposed seam is drying and hardening much quicker. This becomes quite pronounced when combined with MBD. This is the exact opposite effect of a tortoise that is pyramiding as the edges are where 98% of the new keratin is added and if dried out, will force growth downward. A tortoise would exhibit extreme pyramiding and a sinking around the hip girdle. An aquatic shows it as this upward curling. The turtles often have retained scutes with this condition. So the buildup of successive scute layers creates a mounding of keratin, but not bone. That is retained scutes (keratin layers). Not Pyramiding.

Hatchling turtles are extremely prone to the outer edges curling upwards if basking conditions are not correct. The drying effect will slow keratin growth below, while the whole underside of the scute continues to grow. The effects of too intense near-IR are way too common with the basking lights many keepers choose. With a new hatchling aquatic, the keratin scute is almost more solid than the newly forming bone beneath. So any progression towards lack of calcium uptake will magnify this.

This is why it is so frustrating to me to see the term pyramiding used for aquatics. And the lumping of diet issues and bone growth with true pyramiding. To understand and solve these problems, they must be seen separately and bone issues treated as such vs keratin growth issues. Perhaps it is because I have spent so many decades with BOTH tortoises and aquatic in dealing with and trying to understand these issues that has caused me to take up this as a cause!! ??? In learning about these differences between the way aquatics' shell grow, vs tortoise shells, it became more obvious to me what some of the real underlying issues are.

Ty for clearing that up Mark!! Great post..