i've noticed recently that my turtle has bags behind his legs and arms, at first i thought we were over feeding, i was recommended to feed him 2 prawns every other day with calcium once a week? but now after giving him 1 a week they seemed to clear up and have now come back. he is about 2-3 years old, and lives with some fish in a 36x16x18 tank with external filtration(fluval205) at 26'C and it has sand as substrate with various live plants. Also he seems to be basking more, but that could be just the fact im watching him now. He used to have a stone bedding which he would swim around biting then choose a few stones to swallow and eventually discharge. I have seen the same cycle with sand so thought it was a digestive aid?

any info would be really appreciated

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Blakey
2 f Leos (Mindy, Hussy) Bell albino leo (Doobie)
Moorish Gecko (Cyril)
3 Crested Gecko (hopper, coco, honey)
mossy gecko (stirling)
Bosc monitor (BB) Yemen Chameleon (Norbert)
Fire Salamander (sly)
2 Reeves turtle (Munch + plop) R.I.P little Jimi

Are you sure it's a male? This can be a sign that a female is gravid (carrying eggs) but that's unlikely if it's as young as you say.
Personally I don't use any kind of substrate because of the danger of them swallowing gravel leading to impaction, and sand can wreck filters if it gets into the bearings.

The diet you have it on is inadequate, it can't survive on prawns and calcium as they won't give it any of the essential vitamins and other minerals it needs, also unless you soak them in fresh water first the prawns may contain high levels of salt which isn't good, you should be feeding a good brand turtle pellet in addition to freshwater shrimps, pond snails, aquatic plants such as duckweed, watercress etc...

A Fluval 205 is rather small, it would be enough for the fish but not for a turtle, most keepers use something at least the size of a 405.

What about basking lamps, you say he basks but is there a UVB source?

__________________
2.3.0 Southern Painted Turtles
1.0.0 Florida Red Belly
2.1.1 Common Musks
1.0.0 Classic Cornsnake
0.0.2 GALS + infinite babies
0.1.0 Tibetan Spaniel
1.2.0 Brahma Chickens

it is amazing that people will happily give you information about something they must know they know nothing about! and run petshops!

Ive changed to a terrapin food from king british, Do i need to give him some sort of supplement as he has potentially missed out on these vitamins etc for a while?

Has there been much of a debate about substrate? most of the images/videos i have seen have them on substrate? i only ask cos if they do eat the substrate and suffer impaction how do they survive in the wild?

at the moment he has a silvania gro tube light, what level uv does a reeves need?

my water checks have all been good? filter seems to be working, and i change 25% water with RO water + minerals every two weeks.

i think its a male because ive seen images of males and females next to each other and the females are about twice the size!

thanks for your help

__________________
Blakey
2 f Leos (Mindy, Hussy) Bell albino leo (Doobie)
Moorish Gecko (Cyril)
3 Crested Gecko (hopper, coco, honey)
mossy gecko (stirling)
Bosc monitor (BB) Yemen Chameleon (Norbert)
Fire Salamander (sly)
2 Reeves turtle (Munch + plop) R.I.P little Jimi

__________________
Blakey
2 f Leos (Mindy, Hussy) Bell albino leo (Doobie)
Moorish Gecko (Cyril)
3 Crested Gecko (hopper, coco, honey)
mossy gecko (stirling)
Bosc monitor (BB) Yemen Chameleon (Norbert)
Fire Salamander (sly)
2 Reeves turtle (Munch + plop) R.I.P little Jimi

King British is pretty good, I use T-Rex at the moment and buy freshwater prawns seperately, you can get very good prices on turt food on eBay especially if you bulk buy.

Regarding quantity, you should feed every other day and feed as much as would fit in his head, if that makes sense! If he wants to help himself to veg between feeds he can eat as much as he likes.

The pellets should give him pretty much all he needs in the way of vits, he may need more calcium which he can get from eating pond snails (they eat the whole shell of small snails), duckweed, cuttlefish etc...

I don't think a Gro-Tube lamp gives any UVB does it? If it does it's almost certainly nowhere near enough as it's intended for plants, which don't need UVB!

You need a minimum 5% UVB bulb, preferably more, without UVB he can't make use of the calcium and will suffer from shell and bone problems.

There definitely have been problems with turts ingesting gravel and sand, you see it reported quite a lot on turt forums, and it can be fatal as in bad cases it causes an irreversible prolapse. How this affects wild turts I don't know, maybe those that eat too much gravel die?

What do you test for when you do your water checks?

__________________
2.3.0 Southern Painted Turtles
1.0.0 Florida Red Belly
2.1.1 Common Musks
1.0.0 Classic Cornsnake
0.0.2 GALS + infinite babies
0.1.0 Tibetan Spaniel
1.2.0 Brahma Chickens