Shell Dimple/Dent

[Paschendale52]

Hi all,

I noticed this morning that one of my Rio Grande cooters has a decent dimple or dent in its shell. It looks like the center line was just pushed off to their left side. It is one of 4 in the tank and none of the others show this at all. The other 3 have normal, symmetric, high-domed cooter shells.

I'm wondering if its a result of them climbing out of their aquarium and falling to the floor when they were about 3 months. I really hadn't expected the 2 month old to be able to climb vertically several times their body length and sneak through a small hole where filter plumbing pipes through.

Any other thoughts on what it could be or what long term implications are?

They have one of the UV LED bulbs that @Markw84 had been looking at for a time. Last I saw, he wasn't a fan of those any more.

I'm looking to swap them to the T5 or T8 UV bulbs at some point in the future, but havn't gotten around to it yet.

Cheers!

 

[wellington]

You didn't notice anything when they did fall? I wonder if it was damaged under the shell in the fall, making it then grow this way.
Most likely it won't cause any problems as far as the shell. But whatever may have gone on inside to possibly cause this might. Then again, it all could just be because.
I would keep an eye on him being with the others. He may not be able to swim as fast, as straight, etc as the others and then not get the best treatment, food, basking, etc. if that happens house him alone.

 

[Paschendale52]

You didn't notice anything when they did fall? I wonder if it was damaged under the shell in the fall, making it then grow this way.
Most likely it won't cause any problems as far as the shell. But whatever may have gone on inside to possibly cause this might. Then again, it all could just be because.
I would keep an eye on him being with the others. He may not be able to swim as fast, as straight, etc as the others and then not get the best treatment, food, basking, etc. if that happens house him alone.

I didn't notice anything when they fell. Its possible that it was because I was so surprised to see a 1" long turtle in the middle of the floor with my 1 year old running around I didn't take the time I normally would to do a full inspection. But I've never noticed anything before in terms of swimming abilities or diet or anything like that. And especially with said 1 year old, we spend a lot of time sitting and watching them swim. They're just never still enough for me to have noticed.

I'll definitely be keeping a closer eye on them to see if I can spot anything. They're one of the two smaller turtles of the 4. But like I posted the other day, the two smaller ones also have a noticeably more concave carapace. I'm not suggesting its size due to sex given they're ~6 months old at this point, but I'm not too worried about just size yet.

 

[TammyJ]

Is it possible that maybe your one year old that was running around knows more about what happened than you do?

 

[Paschendale52]

Is it possible that maybe your one year old that was running around knows more about what happened than you do?

Luckily no. He was in a different part of the house and had been since we got home and I saw the 4 turtles in the tank.