Chun-Ming Chew
To all, Anyone else have any suggestions? Candace, my opinion from reading your post is that several of the symptoms you mentioned may not be of any consequence. The fact that Tex poops a lot is a good sign, as is large and gray fecal matter. The clear fecal might be an issue though. Sometimes, some of my dbts do the same thing when reintroduced to water after basking – rubbing their eyes. Its appetite decrease may be due to a drop in temperature, whether ambient or even the temperature of the feeding tank water. In the past, I have sometimes been unduly worried when a hatchling loses its appetite, only to find the appetite regained with a vengeance weeks later. The only symptom that does elicit some concern in my opinion is the fact that he basks so much. That could possibly be an indication of a respiratory infection. Is the 75F temp maintained in its environment through the night? I would not worry about trying to decrease the pH of Tex’s tank. The pH in brackish environments is always on the alkaline side anyway. Sounds like you have hard water and whatever you are using can’t break the hardness buffer of the water. — In diamondbackterrapins@egroups.com, “Candace Metcalf”