1) He is eating Zoo-med hatchling formula and krill for treats. There is also water lettuce in his tank and I offer green leaf lettuce but I don't think he eats any of either.
2) Good!
3) His shell has looked weird ever since I got him, it has a brownish color and the scutes aren't really flat like they're supposed to be. Some of them are kinda sunken looking in the middle and some of them look like they're peeling up a little around the edges. The peeling does not look like shedding though, other than that I don't really know how to describe it. I'll put up the pics I have but they aren't very good.
The thing about the lack of growth is that I know it's not just me being impatient or paranoid. I got another hatchling at the same time from the same place, it had what I think was a broken leg - it's leg was just flopping around whenever it tried to swim. They were almost exactly the same size when I got them. I have kept them together in a 55 gallon tank under the same conditions, with the same food, the other turt's leg has healed and he is in great shape, he is now 4 or 5x bigger than Tripod, and his shell is darkening like they do when they grow up. The appearance of Tripod's shell seems exactly the same, it hasn't appeared to grow at all and it still has the designs (all the concentric circles and stuff) that hatchling shells do. Plus his tankmates shell doesn't feel soft at all.
The edges of his shell are more than slightly pliable, they're almost floppy. It's worrisome. Could dry-docking help with the softness? My intuition says it might. I've been giving him some extra outside basking time the last few days while the temps are a little lower than usual here, hopefully that might help too.
By the way, when Tripod's shell is dry it is a dull brown color and you can't see the designs unless you look really close. It is totally matte, without any of the glossiness that most turtles have. That may be another symptom of whatever is wrong with his shell. It had always been like that though.
