chinese soft shell

[saxon]

I'm picking up my son's chinese soft shelled turtle tomorrow.
He has moved house and can't take it with him so I've said it can come here.
He says it isn't eating live food other than mealworm. He is giving it pellets but it doesn't eat them very much.
I've a good idea what it needs but when I have it here, and I know what condition it's in, I'll come on and get some more advice.
I know it's kept in a mainly aquatic tank with a turtle bay and sand in the bottom. It has a basking lamp and a water heater with a fluval 1 to clean the water. It also has a uvb and a uva light.
One thing he said is that the shell is 'peeling' I take this to mean it is shedding and growing? It is only about 4-5inches across.

[Graham]

I don't know a great deal about softie diets, all I can suggest is that you read up some caresheets and try a variety of foods, I know they're mainly carnivorous so try crustaceans, snails, worms, bloodworm, that sort of thing. It may not even recognise pellets as food which is probably why it won't eat them.

A Fluval 1 is nowhere near adequate, it will do little more than circulate the water and remove some of the solids, while the water may look clear it won't be clean. An external canister filter is what you need, get the biggest you can afford then you won't need to upgrade when you go to a bigger tank, what size is the tank BTW?

[Evolution]

don't forget soft shells need shallow water so they can bury their shells in the sand and still be able to put their nose out of the water.

[saxon]

Thanks,

Just got it home. It has a fluval 4 in the tank.
It doesn't have a uvb light it is just a regular aquarium tube. Although it has an exo-terra turtle basking light bulb.
The water was too deep for it but it has a turtle dock that it could climb onto. I know they are predominantly aquatic.
I've only got aobut 3 inches of water in the bottom of the tank now with sand as a substrate 'cos that's what it's used to.
I'm concerned aobut it's shell. It is peeling, I understand they shed, am I right? There were tow small spots of blood on the shell. I think some idiot, my son, has been picking at it.It also has a yellowish line across the back of it's neck that wasn't there a few weeks ago when I last saw it.
When I get back from work I'll get a pic on.
Should I be giving D3 and calcium??

[Graham]

OK this doesn't sound good, you need to get it to a specialist vet asap, the shell needs proper attention by a vet who understands turtles.
I suspect it's suffering from D3 deficiency caused by lack of UVB and little or no D3 in its diet.
The filter is certainly better than a Fluval 1 but still inadequate, an external canister is the only thing that really works with turtles, and while it has this shell problem pristine water quality is absolutely essential to prevent infection setting in, that means regular partial water changes every day in addition to running the filter.
You can try administering D3 and calcium yourself, but it probably needs it by injection at this point which only the vet can do.
Personally I'd ditch the turtle dock as the turt is probably too big for it, replace it with a shallow sloping piece of slate that it can crawl out onto and bask.
A UVB lamp of at least 5% output is essential, preferably 7-8%.

[Evolution]

That does sound bad, they are very delicate. The water needs to be very clean for these, I think a better filter would help loads. Uv is also very important as Graham says.

Have you used any vitamin powders on the food?

Get it to the vet asap

Keeping and Breeding Freshwater Turtles is the only book that really goes into any detail, It will explain about water quality, very important for softshells.

[saxon]

Right I've got an appointment for Friday.
I've given it D3, I put earthworms in some D3 and calcium powder for 10 minutes so they would eat it, then fed it to the turtle. I have used the liquid D3 that Jack gave me, he insists he's been using it. The shell is looking a bit better today although there's still quite a bit of peeling.

It's only a little guy the dock is more than adequate for it to get out of the water onto. It's a 3ft tank. The turtle is only about 3inches long.

Here are a couple of pics they are the best I could get.

This shows the line on his head and the peeling on the shell.



THis one just shows how small he is on his dock.



Another a bit closer.



Here's one of the tank.



Here's a link to Melissa Kaplins site where it says he doesn't need UVB. I have a UVB tube, 8%, I have put it in.


Softshell Turtles

[Graham]

Hmm, I'm a bit doubtful of that UVB recommendation, I can't see why he wouldn't need it as he is a basker after all and would be getting UVB in the wild. It certainly can't do any harm to give him something he'd get naturally, whether he needs it or not.
Not having seen a softie peel I can't say whether that looks normal or not, but the welt on his neck and the bit on the front edge of the carapace don't look good, I'm sure that can't be right, hopefully the vet will know.

[saxon]

I could only get an appointment for Friday as the rep vet isn't in any other day this week.
Hopefully it's just a normal shed but i doubt it somehow.
He's happy enough eating and swimming around.
I was led to beleive they stay in the water 90% of the time and that's why they didn't need UVB. He has an 8% 24" tube now so that's covered anyway.

[Evolution]

That looks horrible, poor guy.

Don't forget UV doesn't travel very far from the tube, Max 12" so mount it closer than this to the water level.

If you think why some animals need UV and others don't you will realise that softshells do.