Urgent Care :: Turtle in distress?

[gilrstein]

Hi,

I have a new friend and came over to his place to find a 10 year old RST in a tank with room temp water. I moved him to the bathtub a few times and yesterday thought the water might be a bit cold and did some reading, turns out that the current conditions are far from ideal and a drastic change is needed. A few facts on the current conditions and a few questions:
Current conditions (for past 10 years, pic attached) -
Size: Tank ~3 times the length of the body of the turtle, about 8 times as deep as the turtle's height
Temp: The water temp is and has been room temp for 10 years (room temp ranges from comfy to chilly here)
Platform: There is a plastic platform which floats and is attached to the wall, the turtle is able to rest an arm or two on it and hover half in the water / half on top and sometimes makes it all the way on the platform, but it's not very stable as it sinks down and to the side when there is weight on it and there's a good chance she'll slide off to the side back in the water.

Questions
1 - Is it ok to put her in a warm bathtub of water now or would the difference be too shocking? Should we increase the water temp gradualy over minutes/hours/days/weeeks?
2 - Is the platform described/in the picture sufficient? If I make it more stable so it's easier to climb on enough or she needs something more substantial?
4 - Is it important to have some walking around room or is the water tank and the platform sufficient? Should the turtle be left to walk around the apartment a little now and again (there are no dangers that I'm aware of like falling anywhere or any accessible wires to chew)? How often?
5 - Do we need to get a bigger tank?
6 - I see a film like substance in her 'armpits' and tail when her legs are extended, is this a bad sign (ignore the crap in the water, no longer relevant and changed more regularly)? Can be seen here towards the end of the vid - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itafNIWfNgI
7 - Is the basking light important if we get a water heater and keep the water at good temps? Should the water be kept warm 24/7?
8 - Her sole source of food is wardley reptile sticks, is that ok or should more effort be put in a varied diet?

Any other thoughts?

Thank you for your time/help on our and Mr Turtle's behalf! I'm travelling and here temporarily, that's why the load of questions here and am hoping I can hand off a thread to the owner that will contain all the important changes that need to be considered.

-Gil

[steve]

The turtle looks healthy and young, but you are right that you do need to make some changes.

First is his tank... for a male, you can give him a forever home in a 75 gallon. 55 gallon tanks are probably the cheapest you can get new when they're on sale but 75, 100 gallons are pretty cheap when you look for used tanks.

Temperatures... you need a very good submersible water heater like and Ebo Jager and a thermometer. For the tank, you can use one of those sticky kinds but also pick up a more accurate one to regularly double check it and to check the basking temperature. They both need to be fairly consistent.

When you upgrade, you will have a lot of choices for a basking area. There are also many options to make one yourself and it's rather inexpensive.

So some answers:
1 - It might not be shocking, but invest in a good submersible water heater.
2 - There are a lot of people that use those and a lot of people unhappy with them. I'd try a different one.
3 -
4 - It's not necessary to take the turtle out but there's no real harm taking the turtle out. You do need to be extra carefully, especially if there are no doors, little kids or other pets around.
5 - Yes.
6 - It's mostly shedding skin which is normal. You'll also need to invest in an appropriate filter.
7- Both are important and serve different functions. For older RES water should be around 75F and the basking area 85F. You also need a UVB light.
8 - Get more variety in pellets but you can also introduce some veggies and freshwater aquatic plants. And you have a boy.

[gilrstein]

lol, a boy eh? Good to know

Thank you for your invested response Steve, much appreciated!

Two followup questions without without sounding too harsh - what is the smallest tank that you would still consider humane for the turtle? Size is a big factor in the small apartment but we'll make sure that above all, the little guy gets a comfy home. He's happy (we hope) in the bathtub for now.

For the heat unit - turns out my friend has one (picture attached) - is it ok or can the turtle come too close and get too hot or anything like that? I guess it's intended for the purpose, just seems a little scary to me. Would be happy to hear an ok before setting it up (in the meantime am using hot water from the tap).

Thank you!

[ljapa]

The heater should be fine, especially if the turtle has been around it. I've not ever heard of a turtle being burned by a heater. Some turtles will smash int their heaters. People will create a heater guard in that instance by drilling holes in a PVC pipe and sliding that over the heater as a guard.

As to tank size, how big is your new turtle, measured front to back on just the shell?

The recommendation here is 10 gallons for every inch, but you may be able to get by with less. You have a male, which means it won't grow as large as a female. If you build an above tank basking area (atba), you increase the water volume, which means you can go with a smaller tank then you'd need if the basking area was in the tank, which means the tank is not full of water.

[steve]

I agree with ljapa. You can use a 55 gallon or 40 gallon breeder tank and do a lot with it.

As for the heater, I'd invest in a better one. The one pictured is usually for fish only and not as durable. Ebo Jager and Tronic make very tough heaters. You can make a guard as described above and your other (more expensive) options would be a heater w/built-in guard, an inline heater attached to a canister filter or a filter with a built-in heater.