Frt skin shedding?

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Thekid

Goliath Tigerfish
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Sep 18, 2014
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I’ve got a 5.5” fly river turtle that I bought last November. I keep the tank at 83-84 degrees with a ph of 8.4-8.5 and I do add salt with every water change. I’m doing 80% water changes once a week. I maintain 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and usually max out nitrate at 20-40 ppm. He’s been in a 40 breeder for the time being. It’s been smooth sailing up until two days ago when I noticed his shell was beginning to lighten slightly. He’s still super interested in food and hasn’t had any changes in behavior. Tonight I noticed a flap of skin was loose and when I pulled him out of the water it came off easily when I touched it. Everything online talks about fungus and bacterial infections but this seems different. I found one thread talking about it shell shedding here: http://www.turtleforum.com/forum/up...pic/99022-does-pig-nose-turtle-frt-shed-skin/


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milkman407 milkman407 may have some suggestions. I believe he was helping someone awhile ago with a frt issue.
 
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james99 said:
milkman407 milkman407 may have some suggestions. I believe he was helping someone awhile ago with a frt issue.
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Indeed I have, I need to check in on his turtle actually.

This is perfecty fine, your turtle is just shedding from the looks of it. I usually give my smaler ones a (brush? not the correct word) every 2-3 weeks, but that's because the amount of algae they get from the water paramaters and natural lighting. If it bothers you, it can be removed by adding a sand substrate to your tank. When the turtle burries itself, the skin will eventually fall off.
 
milkman407 said:
Indeed I have, I need to check in on his turtle actually.

This is perfecty fine, your turtle is just shedding from the looks of it. I usually give my smaler ones a (brush? not the correct word) every 2-3 weeks, but that's because the amount of algae they get from the water paramaters and natural lighting. If it bothers you, it can be removed by adding a sand substrate to your tank. When the turtle burries itself, the skin will eventually fall off.
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Gotcha. That makes sense. I was a little confused by the appearance and lack of chnages. But it made me nervous because it doesn’t seem like there’s much out there about shedding and when you google frt shell all you get is fungus and soft water. He’s got a layer of the torpedo beach sand that he’ll sometimes bury himself in so I’m guessing he’ll probably work it off naturally.
 
I agree. There's not a lot of information about them in general, besides fungus and water conditions. I've noticed they tend to almost molt when moved to a new environment, eventually, it clears up. Most of mine have algae on them, but when the little ones are inside or like the new batch I got a few months back, I see it often where there "skin" will get weird looking. I usually leave it be, but sometimes when the algae builds up a lot, i'll give them a soft ittle brush ( with a very very soft micro fiber cloth)
 
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