Need some guidance for strange terp behavior
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I have a male northern DBT, about 7 years old, who lives in a community tank with 8 other Terps. I’ve had him since a hatchling, and he’s been healthy the whole time until recently. In the last few days (can’t be exactly sure when it started, since I just had knee surgery and passed most of the feeding and care responsibilities off to my wife while I’ve been recovering), we noticed that he has basically stopped using his rear legs for swimming, swimming only with his front feet and often looking near frantic as he tries to surface, say, after a nap or after being put back into the water. The rear legs are responsive to stimulus (when I touch them, he pulls them in fairly tightly), and I’ve been able to check them out enough to know they aren’t broken. He’ll use them a little for positioning and turning when out of the water, but he seems very lethargic, and whatever is going on seems to be affecting his appetite as well. I’ve moved him into a smaller, shallow tank and given him a perch up out of the water that he pretty much stays on now all the time unless someone comes near, which invoke they typical “Oh God! Strangers!” response I’m sure many of you are familiar with. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? I’m starting to get pretty concerned, especially with the way he’s been turning down food the last couple of feedings. I gave him a pretty good lookover, and there don’t appear to be any other physical signs that anything is wrong. We were having some problems with one of my other terps biting, and he does show some very minor scarring on the neck, but it’s not nearly recent enough for me to think it related. Does anyone have any thoughts as to what might be going on, or have something similar happen to them?
It’s a 240 gallon tank with 9 terps including the sick one, 5 males and 4 females. If it is bacterial, wouldn’t other terps be showing similar signs? In either case, if it were bacterial, is there a good way to clear it up short of wholesale water changes?
thats a lot of terps in one tank. rule of thumb(not always correct but a good guidline at best) is 90 gals for first female and 65 for first male then each additional turt 30 gals. in any case, i am assuming you keep your water parameters in range (wow, lots of poop going on with that many turts!)each turts immune system works differently. ive read to clean up a bacterial stint, clean out all the filter media(soak in room temp distilled water only) and decorations in tank with a diluted white vinegar and water solution, and add charcoal to the media for two weeks and change out and add again for two weeks.do you keep them brackish?
Apshai, Without seeing the terrapin it is very hard to diagnose what is going on, however, with the symptoms you describe, I would immediately separate the ill terrapin….Keep him warm in dry-dock and altering with warm extended baths during the day and immediately get him on a course of baytril at least 5 injections…One every 48 hours. Obviously, it is critical to make sure the injections are properly dispensed according to the terrapins weight. While under the treatment the stress of the injections will probably ruin his appetite. However I would get some silversides which can be purchased at a salt water tropical fish store and gut load one a day with vitamin C and vitamin B-12 to strengthen his immune system. The silversides (small bait fish) are really good sources of protein and do not have the problem of thiaminase which creates vitamin deficiency in Terrapins. Once thawed using a toothpick you pry open their mouth and put in a small amount of vitamin C powder and equal amount of B-12. The terrapin won’t know the fish is gut loaded and will love them. I would be willing to bet provided you can start the therapy immediately and he hasn’t sufficiently deteriorated, with the combination of the Baytril and vitamin enhancement, in one week your terrapin will recover and be fine. Best of Luck Rich Hollander
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