Argh... Weird looking shell on my RES. Can anyone tell me what's going on with it?

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Floof

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Okay, so this RES was a bit of a pity buy. To the best of my knowledge, he was (probably) originally a rescue, since that's the local pet store's preferred source when people order in RES. (Which is what happened here--then the guy who ordered him changed his mind, and I got suckered into taking him home instead since we weren't set up for aquatic turtles at the time...heh)

Well, one thing I've noticed with this little guy, about 4" SCL, is that, ever since I got him, he has refused to thrive. At first, I figured, OK, relocation stress. He was in a tank with 3 other turtles, two being significantly larger than him, so maybe that had something to do with it. Then I separated him from the rest, into a 20 gallon--the largest water-tight tank I have at my disposal. As it stands right now, he's in a 20 gal, filled to the top, with an above tank basking area made out of egg crate with a piece of slate to hold heat. Temp on the basking spot is normally around 90-95, but can get pretty hot if I forget to turn on the AC some days. Water temps stay in the mid to high 70s. He has no UVB right now; as an alternative, I take him out and let him bask on the lawn as much as possible. (This should be changing soon, hopefully, once I can afford a new 75 gallon, or at least have the opportunity to test my beardie's 75 for leaks.)

Since before moving him into the 20, his shell has been turning cloudy, with strange little white spots that almost look like shell damage, except it's isolated to his carapace and there's nothing in there to damage that half. I could understand damage on the plastron, but I can't fathom how he would have managed to damage his carapace.

Here's his shell shortly after I got him...
P7020004-1.jpg


Here it is now, as of the 27th... (Granted, it is dry in this pic, where it was wet in the first. I'll see if I can get a wet shell pic for a better comparison)
carapace.jpg


And one of his plastron.
plastron.jpg


He hasn't eaten well once, that I've witnessed, since getting him. He chowed on a tadpole I stupidly tossed in his tank one day, and has since on a couple night crawlers. I've regularly offered Reptomin and greens. I don't know whether he ate any of those, or if they all just got sucked up by his filter (a Magnum 350 Pro, rated for 100 gallons). His only tank mates are a large apple snail and a few feeder guppies he hasn't paid any attention to.

So, please, help me figure out what the heck is wrong here. Is this condition some kind of residual from past care? Or am I doing something fatally wrong? As we all well know, RES are, as a general rule, virtually bullet proof with care... So what is it that has this poor guy in such bad shape? What am I doing so wrong that has him doing this poorly??
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Taylor:

I don't see anything wrong with the turtle. Can you pick at one of the white spots with your fingernail and does it flake off, or is it into the shell?
 

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RE: Argh... Weird looking shell on my RES. Can anyone tell me what's going on with i

emysemys said:
Hi Taylor:

I don't see anything wrong with the turtle. Can you pick at one of the white spots with your fingernail and does it flake off, or is it into the shell?

I agree I don't see nothing wrong at all with it maybe could you zoom in on the plastron and carapace
 

Kristina

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I don't see anything off about the shell. It looks pretty normal to me.

Are you sure this guy is truly male? The reason that I ask is that at his size, he isn't far off from being an adult. Many of my adults males simply don't eat that much - this is true for my tortoises as well.
 

WallieTheTortoise

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It looks fine to me. Penny's shell looks like Picture #2 when she's basking. Are you talking about the scutes? That some are smaller than the others?
 

ascott

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I see a couple of "pits" in the shell in pic 2....somewhat parallel to your thumb....right where the point of the edited come together...is this what you are referring to?
 

terryo

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I don't see anything wrong with that shell, but once I was out of food for about 5 days, being sick, so I couldn't get to the store and had nothing to give my RES, but my box turtle worms, which he ate as soon as I put them in the tank. AFter a week of worms and finally getting to the store for his food, he wouldn't eat anything but worms. Spoiled? I would throw in the pellets, and he wouldn't touch them. He didn't eat for 4 days, until he must have been so hungry that he started to eat his own food again. I don't know if that's the problem, but this happened to me with a rescue that I took in a few years ago.
 

Floof

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Thanks for the assurances, everyone. I'd be so, so happy to find out that I'm just paranoid and there's not actually anything wrong... Lol!

Kristina, I don't actually know the sex on this one. Calling it "he" is mostly wishful thinking (much prefer the smaller turtles... lol).

It's the white spots, like those circled in red here, that especially concern me. I did pick at the one on the right a little, and it didn't readily flake, but did kind of peel from the bottom. On the rest of the edges it seemed pretty attached to the shell.
carapace-1.jpg


The good news is, he must be eating a bit better than I thought. I was able to sit and watch him eat a couple nightcrawlers today. He's never been comfortable enough in the presence of a human to do anything but hide in his shell and, if out of the tank, try to bite, so he must really like those worms! Plus I finally got around to gravel vac'ing his tank (since he has a filter rated for 4x his tank size, I've been slacking..), and there was a lot of debris. Way more, I think, than can be attributed to the guppies and snail. And poop is always a good sign, right? :p

And a curiosity question... Why is it he would have developed these mineral deposits only after coming to me? His shell was perfectly dark and "normal" looking (well, "normal" to what I'm used to RESs looking like), and only turned this chalky, cloudy white a month or so after my getting him. Is my water just a lot harder than it was wherever he came from?

And are water lilies OK turtle food? There's lots in the pond out back, I'm thinking of snipping a smaller lilypad and tossing it in to "test" whether he's been eating the greens I throw in. That would be something that couldn't get sucked up by the filter intake, anyway, like the other greens I'd been offering...

Geeze, I never thought I'd feel so clueless with water turtles of all things... Lol!! Again, thanks for the help/answers, everyone. I knew there was a reason I loved this forum so much... :)
 
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