Urgent Care :: swimming lopsided ?

[Jessica313]

Today I decided to clean the tank; it took me about 2 hours, as I had to remove everything but the gravel, add and remove water several times until it got completely clean. Also I removed and cleaned the filter.

amazing iceman, one possibility i can think of is that your turtle may have ingested gravel. you should take the gravel out.. its possible that turtles can eat the gravel and it can cause problems if they cant pass it.. my turtle was eating gravel for a while before i had any idea, so i immediately took it all out.

ts just a thought i dont know if this has anything to do with it or not

also one thought.. you said you didnt take the gravel out when u cleaned the tank.. but honestly the gravel is the most important part to clean in my opinion, as the gravel is where all the waste gets trapped and no matter how good a filter you have.. once its down there its not comin up unless you clean it yourself..
this is just my opinion as i had to deal with the gravel a lot for a while in my turtles tank before i removed it.

[Amazing Iceman]

Today I decided to clean the tank; it took me about 2 hours, as I had to remove everything but the gravel, add and remove water several times until it got completely clean. Also I removed and cleaned the filter.

amazing iceman, one possibility i can think of is that your turtle may have ingested gravel. you should take the gravel out.. its possible that turtles can eat the gravel and it can cause problems if they cant pass it.. my turtle was eating gravel for a while before i had any idea, so i immediately took it all out.

ts just a thought i dont know if this has anything to do with it or not

also one thought.. you said you didnt take the gravel out when u cleaned the tank.. but honestly the gravel is the most important part to clean in my opinion, as the gravel is where all the waste gets trapped and no matter how good a filter you have.. once its down there its not comin up unless you clean it yourself..
this is just my opinion as i had to deal with the gravel a lot for a while in my turtles tank before i removed it.

Thanks! I didn't remove the gravel from the tank, but I did cleaned it inside the tank using the python, I rinsed the tanks several times with clean water and stirred all until it finally looked clean.

The gravel I have may be too big for them to ingest, but I guess they could still try and get injured. I'm going to get some large rocks at the Home Depot to use instead of gravel, and I may even add an under gravel filter for better cleaning.

[marisa]

If you see wispy, white tissue hanging off them while they're in the water, it's most likely shedding skin. I'd skip the Reptoguard---it's questionable what, if anything it would help. Normal shedding doesn't need anything like that to help it.

Finding a good herp vet, even before you need one, is always good. Let us know what happens.

[Amazing Iceman]

If you see wispy, white tissue hanging off them while they're in the water, it's most likely shedding skin. I'd skip the Reptoguard---it's questionable what, if anything it would help. Normal shedding doesn't need anything like that to help it.

Finding a good herp vet, even before you need one, is always good. Let us know what happens.

Thanks, I was worried it could have been bacteria related.

About the sneezing, I have my doubts now... I think there's a surge protector in my closet making the noise, as I just heard it at the same time a white light flashed inside the closet where I keep my server and home network equipment.

I'm going to setup a netcam, so I could see their tank from anywhere in the world

[Amazing Iceman]

Hello people!
I know it has been a while. I ended up taking both Hoshi and Akira to the Exotic Pet Hospital, and the Dr. found that Hoshi had a respiratory infection and that was why it was swimming lobsided. Also, the problem with the shell was nothing to worry about; just shedding. Also found out that both had no parasites (I brought a feces sample for the Dr. to analyze).
As a solution for the respiratory infection, the Dr. prescribed injecting antibiotics on Hoshi's front legs. He injected the first dose, and gave me a bag with 6 more to inject myself every other day. Of course he showed me how; I had some difficulty the first couple of times, but the rest were much easier, and Hoshi only felt pain when the actual liquid started to get injected.
It was sad to see her cry, but only 3 days later she was swimming better, and now she's fully recover.
The Dr. said that I brought her at an early stage, that's why she recovered from the infection quickly.

One thing I keep noticing is that Akira is growing faster than Hoshi. He's at 2" now. and has much bigger legs an claws.

I feed them some ReptoMin food sticks by hand as a snack, besides their regular hatchling food. The Dr. said I could start feeding them live food, but I haven't done it yet. I had two black snails and two blue snails in the tank doing housekeeping, but Akira discovered the blue ones and ate them one by one; the first one he ate just half, the second one he ate it completely; I found the shell totally empty. they don't mess around with the black snails, so I guess I'll get some more to help keep the tank clean.

I also got some test strips that test for everything, and my water quality improved dramatically after I started to apply Biotize.

I returned the Phyton kit, and got a nice 3 gallon bucket and a regular hose with a gravel vacuum in it (the cheap ones). The phyton is useless, as the water needs to be treated first before putting it in the tank.

And finally, I bought a battery operated hand vacuum cleaner to clean the gravel from any excess crap. It works great for only $15.00.

So everybody is happy now, I hope it continues that way forever. I work from home so I see them almost all day long, and play with them several times during the day. When they see me approach the tank, they come closer to see me and follow me when I move from side to side... it's a lot of fun.

Well, that's all I had to say, worth over a month of experiences; I think I pretty much catched up to current events..

Cya!!!!

[missibsu]

Glad to hear all is going better!

Introducing live foods is fine, but be aware that veggies are a more important part of the overall diet. In regards to the turt who is growing faster, is he getting more than his share of food? Are both getting the same amount?

What kind of gravel do you have in your tank? I find it easier just to keep minimal things on the bottom of the tank, that way it's easier to clean. Too much work for me, lol. I have enough to keep up with just maintaining the tank.

[Amazing Iceman]

Glad to hear all is going better!

Introducing live foods is fine, but be aware that veggies are a more important part of the overall diet. In regards to the turt who is growing faster, is he getting more than his share of food? Are both getting the same amount?

What kind of gravel do you have in your tank? I find it easier just to keep minimal things on the bottom of the tank, that way it's easier to clean. Too much work for me, lol. I have enough to keep up with just maintaining the tank.

They are eating well, maybe in the begining Akira was eating more. Now I pay attention to make sure they eat about the same. I give them small portions several times during the day, so it's more like their natural habitat.

I have alot of gravel in the tank, but I'm planning to remove it, and leave only the largest sized gravel, and put some larger rocks. And maybe an under gravel filter to suck all the waste out from the bottom.

[missibsu]

If the gravel is small enough that they can eat, I would be getting it out of there ASAP. Even if you haven't seen them eating it, you could be in for a surprise. Just not something I would want to risk.