RES basking/sleeping/lazy

marisa · 12-15-03, 05:37 PM

Hi guys!

Well the two turtles I picked up have now been here for almost a week.

The larger one (about 3-4 inches) is very scared, but he has been eating almost everything offered, and he basks a good amount of time as well. His fungus is also already less than it was.

The smaller one (1-2 inches) was doing excellent on day 1&2, he had turtle pellets, a couple worms and some veggies. He was swimming, basking, etc.

Over the past couple days he has refused food. He also spends about 90-95% of his time basking. I know RES are aggresive baskers, but this is like ALL the time. And its not "healthy" basking either in my eyes. Instead of basking with legs out, head up and awake, he gets on the rock and lays his head down and sleeps. For hours. I have thought he was dead twice now. He will wake up and jump in the water if scared sometimes, but he just has an overall "drowzy" behaviour right now.

Anyone know whats going on here? Suggestions? Ideas?

Marisa

gfisher2002 · 12-15-03, 08:17 PM

He could be enjoying the lights. Were they rescues from a bad home? I know we we adopted a large female she was on her basking area like 90% of the time, She just seemed to like it. And she layed her head down on the rocks too. Or she may be ill. Any signs of sickness, mucus bubbles, trouble breathing, excessive yawning, etc.?

marisa · 12-17-03, 09:52 PM

Hi!

Well things got bad, but now things are better. After writing the above post the little guy was basically floating lifeless all the time, stopped basking ,etc. I removed him from the large tank and placed him into a ten gallon hospital tank.

I raised his water temp to 80 degrees constant. His basking site is also up around 95, with a side spot that is around 84 in case he doesn't want the heat. But basically I wanted to get him up at 80 all the time.

So anyways, literally 12 hours or less after sitting in this nice warm water, in a smaller more private tank the little fella perked up BIG TIME!

He has started eating again with a huge appetite, basking, etc. I am going to be keeping him in this hospital tank for about a month most likely just to be on the safe side.

Marisa