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Experts help: Softshell turtle dying!


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Softshell Turtle Forum ]

Posted by turtlesteve on November 20, 2002 at 21:51:09:

I currently have two spiny softshells (one 2 1/2" and one 4") that have been doing great for over a year, all of a sudden one of them (the small one) has started to act strange.

Two days ago i was checking on everything and he wasn't buried like he usually is, but floating at the surface. He was very lethargic, but so were all of the other turtles (it was cold outside) so i didn't think much of it at first. However he has gotten consistently worse over the past 2 days. yesterday he stayed at the water's edge all day and wouldn't move unless you touched him. Today i slowly warmed him up and brought him inside to another tank, but it doesn't look like he's going to make it. He will sit motionless for a minute or so then start thrashing his head around with his mouth open. I currently have him out of the water so he won't drown.

The strange part is that I had another softshell (also a 1 year+ captive) die with the exact same symptoms a few years ago.

What's going on? Has anyone ever heard of this before?


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