More turtle troubles...

[Dogmatix]

Hey all.

I come to you today with another problem.
My 5 year old, male false map turtle is behaving rather funny


Recently, hes rarely basking, and seems to spend his time in the bottom corner of his tank.
It looks like hes going off his food too, although, I sit right next to his tank, and see the food floating there for a while, sometimes it disappres, not sure if its getting sucked up by the filter or not though.

Hes got a 5% UV tube, which is fairly new, approx 3 months old, and a 60w tight beam basking lamp, his water is a stable 24C or 76F. Filtration is a Ehiem Classic 2217 and a Ehiem Aquaball. Water has been tested and is "normal" Ph7.

I don't know whats wrong with him, he just seems down, unhappy? hes always swimming agaist the side of the back of the tank.

He lives in a 36x12x18 tank, with around 10ish inchs of water - loads of room.

I feed him, King British Dryed foods, frozen turtle food blocks, blood worm, and meal worms... admittingly, its been mainly the frozen food. I put a drop of turltevit additive in his water every other day - have been since he was only 6 months old.


Any ideas as to why hes not basking? or even being himself?

Cheers

[AnythingWithAShell]

Is your basking temp okay? I can't think of anything other than that!

[Dogmatix]

I think so, what should it be?

[AnythingWithAShell]

Well you should aim for a difference of about 10 degrees between water and basking, so if your water is 24, I'd aim for 32-35 ish.

[Dogmatix]

ahh I see, well its 28c atm.


He just doesn't seem right, he almost "hides" himself in the corner...

[AnythingWithAShell]

If it's only 28, then there's less incentive for him to bask, as he won't heat up much more than he does in the water. Try moving the lamp closer if you safely can, or if not, you can try a higher wattage bulb.

[Dogmatix]

Okies, moved it closer, can see the temp going up already.

Lets hope this helps him, hes never been like this before.

[AnythingWithAShell]

That's good, hopefully it was just a case of the basking area not being warm enough. I'm not sure what else it could be, but at least your basking temp will be better now, so if he continues behaving the same, that's one thing eliminated

[Graham]

28°C is definitely rather low for the basking area, raising it may help, keep a close eye on him for any other symptoms, although I guess I don't really need to tell you that.

[Dogmatix]

haha, Thanks guys.

I am monitoring him, hence this thread really, I guess since losing a muskie thanks to the filter, I'm a little more paranoid about them.

Hes swimming round ok, just seems to retreat to the corner, and hasn't basked for weeks.