# fly river turtle help



## sakurachan1 (Mar 12, 2012)

So, just last week I wake up finding my FRT's shell was pretty torn. There were bunch of scratches and skin peeling, what appears to be injury on the shell. I'm thinking maybe he was caught in some rock and had a good scrape at the shells as he attempts to get loose. Anyway, I added some salt to the water to prevent any type of infection as well as taking him out and gave him some melafix (tea tree oil) on his shells. It's been like around 4 days now and I'm not too sure if it's getting any better(it's not getting any worse either, i think). I'm starting to think whether if its what they call a self cracking or some fungal disease. It literally happened over night and I'm not too sure what might be the cause. The water quality should be fine, not much has changed, I still do 50% water change every week. He still has his appetite, and appears to be okay in behaviour. I'm also not sure if it could be fungal, although I did add some new fish in the tank and the worst part of the shell is actually the center tip (which is why I think he got stuck in some rock), but since the shell is peeling small skin all over the place it's hard for me to be 100% sure if they're just loose skin or actual fungal growth. Any tip or advice for ppl who had experience with these turtles? Any type of medicine I should try?, since melafix does have anti-fungal elements but it is afterall a very mild treatment.


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## blurry (May 10, 2010)

What fishes do you have in the tank and do you have any pictures you can show?


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

Fly River Turtles prefer harder water, are you buffering the water? We have used Sulfa meds in the past with great success but medications can be toxic in very soft water if that is the case. What is your GH and KH levels?


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

Grant is right. You need hard water and even added calcium in your tank. What fish is there? There are some fish that don't do well with FRT.


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## sakurachan1 (Mar 12, 2012)

I will retest them water when I get home as well as a picture.It should be kh 9, GH 12 at 8.2 PH. Although I've been using mainly baking soda and epsom salt since added the turtle in my cichlid tank I've been incorporating some seachem cichlid salt. For the sulpha meds did you just applied on his externally? or did u dose the water? If it's any type of harsher treatment I'd probably move him in another tank , don't want my fish to suffer in it.(or die)


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

sakurachan1 said:


> I will retest them water when I get home as well as a picture.It should be kh 9, GH 12 at 8.2 PH. Although I've been using mainly baking soda and epsom salt since added the turtle in my cichlid tank I've been incorporating some seachem cichlid salt. For the sulpha meds did you just applied on his externally? or did u dose the water? If it's any type of harsher treatment I'd probably move him in another tank , don't want my fish to suffer in it.(or die)


Commonly what happens is FRT will scratch themselves and smaller fish will pick at the wound causing it to worsen. If you try meds best to isolate the FRT until healed completely, then return to the main aquarium. Yes the Sulfa was added to the water in the separate aquarium.


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## sakurachan1 (Mar 12, 2012)

Rastapus said:


> Commonly what happens is FRT will scratch themselves and smaller fish will pick at the wound causing it to worsen. If you try meds best to isolate the FRT until healed completely, then return to the main aquarium. Yes the Sulfa was added to the water in the separate aquarium.


so do you think the frt scratched himself? can even fungal or self crack even occur all the sudden in 1 night without any previous signs?

Also as for the fish picking at the wound, not saying it isnt possible, but i havn't seen that kind of action "yet". In the morning he's sleeping almost all the time, hiding under the sand, so the area that could be picked at it somewhat limited..and well at night, he's the one thats awake and all the fish sleeping.

None the less, I will get them picture up later. Thanks for the help so far!


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## sakurachan1 (Mar 12, 2012)

Ok, so I tested the hardness, it seems appeared to be higher than what I thought, 10-11 KH, 16-17GH but that should still be relatively within the safe zone. However you were totally right Rastapus about fish nibbing at the wound. 
I came home today seeing my FRT up and swimming, which was not normal , not at this time anyway. Then I saw 1 of my fish nibbling at it's shell which I can imagine causing him a great pain hence continously swimming around trying to leave the tank. If any of my fish were to do that, that fish would've been my first guess. It was my tank boss, which is a full grown red zebra cichlid who would even nibble at my fingers for food. Anyway, I've temporarily removed that fish atm, I'm thinking if I should just take the turtle out and put him in my spare 20G tank (thats only size i have atm) and treat him in there till he heals, would that be okay? he's about 6" from head to tail. Anyway I've took some photo, he's definitely mass peeling skin.


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

sakurachan1 said:


> Ok, so I tested the hardness, it seems appeared to be higher than what I thought, 10-11 KH, 16-17GH but that should still be relatively within the safe zone. However you were totally right Rastapus about fish nibbing at the wound.
> I came home today seeing my FRT up and swimming, which was not normal , not at this time anyway. Then I saw 1 of my fish nibbling at it's shell which I can imagine causing him a great pain hence continously swimming around trying to leave the tank. If any of my fish were to do that, that fish would've been my first guess. It was my tank boss, which is a full grown red zebra cichlid who would even nibble at my fingers for food. Anyway, I've temporarily removed that fish atm, I'm thinking if I should just take the turtle out and put him in my spare 20G tank (thats only size i have atm) and treat him in there till he heals, would that be okay? he's about 6" from head to tail. Anyway I've took some photo, he's definitely mass peeling skin.
> View attachment 11377
> View attachment 11378


Yup, I have seen those symptoms a few times. This is usually caused by other fish, IMO the FRT is sloughing off skin to repair damage from other fish. Africans and FRT not a good combo really, they will pick on the algae on the turtles back and drive him nuts. The peeling can also be caused by your water parameters being out of whack but sounds like that is not the case. Usually soft water gives them great discomfort. You can treat him in a smaller tank with seasoned filtration and if he goes into a different display he will likely immediately scratch all his old shed off himself.


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## sakurachan1 (Mar 12, 2012)

Rastapus said:


> Yup, I have seen those symptoms a few times. This is usually caused by other fish, IMO the FRT is sloughing off skin to repair damage from other fish. Africans and FRT not a good combo really, they will pick on the algae on the turtles back and drive him nuts. The peeling can also be caused by your water parameters being out of whack but sounds like that is not the case. Usually soft water gives them great discomfort. You can treat him in a smaller tank with seasoned filtration and if he goes into a different display he will likely immediately scratch all his old shed off himself.


Nice input. I am thinking the mass skin shedding is prolli like u said because he's trying to repair the damage on his shell. However, I still dont think the damage was done by the fish, at least the initial one, cuz they damages literally look like him landing on a rock with his shell cuz it had alot of little pin hole damage and perfect straight edge damage on the shell. Another reason why I think it wasnt from the fish, was because I also seen him chasing after a piece of floating lettuce I gave him, and forgot about the filter output and got blasted away landing on rock with his shell. ( I tie the food down now, to avoid this) but ur right about the reasoning for him to take so long to heal was probably the cichlids picking at him. I've never seen any of my other fish touch my FRT other than the red zebra tho when his shell wasn't injured (on a daily basis). I think algae will prolli encourage the fish to nibble off him, but the lights I'm running, I can barley grow algae even on rocks lol let alone a turtle that will borrow into the sand.

But does the shell look like some sort of fungal infection? or simply just cause of injury and attempting to heal up?

Again, thanks for the advices Rastapus!


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

sakurachan1 said:


> Nice input. I am thinking the mass skin shedding is prolli like u said because he's trying to repair the damage on his shell. However, I still dont think the damage was done by the fish, at least the initial one, cuz they damages literally look like him landing on a rock with his shell cuz it had alot of little pin hole damage and perfect straight edge damage on the shell. Another reason why I think it wasnt from the fish, was because I also seen him chasing after a piece of floating lettuce I gave him, and forgot about the filter output and got blasted away landing on rock with his shell. ( I tie the food down now, to avoid this) but ur right about the reasoning for him to take so long to heal was probably that specific red zebra picking at him. I've never seen any of my other fish touch my FRT other than the red zebra tho (on a daily basis). I think algae will prolli encourage the fish to nibble off him, but the lights I'm running, I can barley grow algae even on rocks lol let alone a turtle that will borrow into the sand.
> 
> But does the shell look like some sort of fungal infection? or simply just cause of injury and attempting to heal up? If it's just injury I'm thinking instead of stressing the FRT in a 20G, mebe i will just keep the red zebra away from the main tank, n watch till end of this week to see how it goes. If not better, I will prolli just isolate the FRT and just give him stronger meds than melafix.
> 
> Again, thanks for the advices Rastapus!


Bacterial infection looks worse then the photos but it can depend on if it is in early stages. Looks mostly like over abundance of skin ATM. IMO if you remove the Cichlid in question another will step up to the plate. The shedding is appealing to many fish as is an open sore if there is any. Yes the injury could have started with the turtle rubbing onto something sharp for sure. They usually heal quickly on their own but not with smaller fish picking at them.


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## sakurachan1 (Mar 12, 2012)

Yeah, i think I will just remove him into a 20G, and hope that won't stress him too much while healing up.


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## sakurachan1 (Mar 12, 2012)

It's been a week and i think his shell is SLIGHTLY better, but its so small I don't even know if its getting any better tbh. I've been putting him in a 20G tank, with a new spongefilter but with some seeded filter stuff, doing at 25-50% water change daily. Water is buffered with baking soda/epsom salt with some cichlid salt from seachem. Water also has recommend salt dosage for treatment. Am I just inpatient or am i doing something wrong? What are you guys buffering the water with and to what, and what do you guys feed your frt? could it be diet? calcium? any help would be awesome!


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## sakurachan1 (Mar 12, 2012)

Update: So the peeling has stopped and the shell looks alot better now, thankfully. However after the clear up, I see some white spots, or rather white dots which may look like some sort of white spot fungus, at least that's what I think they're. 

What are some good medication for that?(something not too aggressive, as the spots don't look very severe) I've heard of people using betamine, and acriflavine but I've also heard some mixed results.


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