Musk turtle help

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Snowywood

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Sorry if iv put this in the wrong place, but I wondered if anyone on here knows about musk turtles? I have four, of late iv adopted two more from a friend, I though was two girls, but I think it's a boy/girl set. Ek! Means I have three boys and one girl! I regularly look at them in my hands, but hard work, they like to BITE! Am guessing I'll need two more girls at some point? My main problem is my tiny wee guy Sky. One night, 11months ago, I came back from work to find he got stuck behind the pump, so annoyed with myself, I put it in away they wouldn't, he looked dead, but gasped for air after couple of mins, spent the whole night, keeping him warm, tipping him to get all water out, so next day i took him to the local reptile vet, but she just said, yeah its a male, he's fine and plonked him in water. Then we saw her helper to greet us 'oh is that a tortoise that swims?' let's just say, I will never ever go back! Since then he's never really grown. Spends 70% maybe a little less, of his time under the tank light on the floating land, I feed him separate on blood worm and pinch of dry food. He's very active, loves a cuddle (he is the sweetest out of the four) and very nosey. He's just small. About 2" at most. Tank temp is 26 degrees. Once iv got my torts set up and Belva is over her infection, I'll possible need to get him to my new vets.

Any info, advise etc would be great! Iv tried to look for books on them, but no luck :-/

Thanks!
 

Saloli

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Check to make sure your UVB lamp is working. Also try to get him to eat some pellets zoomed natural or hikari gold cichlid pellets work well. They are both fortified. Musk turtles though are small turtles at adult males of some only reach 2-3 inches cl. They as a genus can be rather aggressive. They are also semi terrestrial and may also climb trees. Though depending on which musk they are they may need higher or lower basking temps.
 

Snowywood

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Iv asked several people before if they need any UV and iv been told no. So they haven't had any :-/ sounds like I was right in thinking they do! What watts do they need and for how long? I'll look for the pellets, they get a pinch of turtle pellets once a week, Sky is now feed on his own still. Iv possible got too many pets, but as soon as iv sorted the tort pen and christmas is out the way, they are my next task in hand, like to buy a big tank. They do have a basking area, mainly Sky uses it. If I put some pictures up, could you tell me what Musk they are? Thank you for the info though. Really grateful!
 

dmmj

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All turtles and tortoises need access to UVB for healthy development.
 

Snowywood

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Thats annoying, I thought they needed it and asking people I thought would know, I thought I'd get the right answer. They are all active, eating etc since iv had them (12months). Could anyone recommend a bulb?
 

Floof

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I don't know much about aquatic turtles, but, as far as UVB, Arcadia 12% and Reptisun 10.0 are both very good fluorescent UVBs. PowerSun is the popular choice if you want to use an MVB. There are probably other good MVBs, I just don't know what they're called. Hope that helps. :)
 

Snowywood

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Floof said:
I don't know much about aquatic turtles, but, as far as UVB, Arcadia 12% and Reptisun 10.0 are both very good fluorescent UVBs. PowerSun is the popular choice if you want to use an MVB. There are probably other good MVBs, I just don't know what they're called. Hope that helps. :)

Thank you. I'll look into this more now. Here's me thinking tortoises are harder than turtles lol
 
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