Urgent Care :: Please help, baby RES shell problem?

[ObiWan]

Greetings all,

Got our Obi2 approximately 1.5 months ago, currently about 1" SCL. Ever since we got her, she's had quite a few visible black spots of various sizes on her shell. It has not reduce either in number nor intensity, but thankfully it hasn't increased either.

Could someone help identify if this is a health problem with her shell, or just natural markings that we wouldn't have to worry about? If it's the former, any recommendation as to what we can do to help her get better?

FYI, she's on a steady turtle pellet diet, so far hasn't acquired a taste for dried krill nor veggies yet. She also does get a healthy dose of UVB and basks incessantly whenever she can.

Any insight or help is appreciated! Thanks!

[azazeal]

can't say what it really has, but it's to small for any real treatment, you can try putting it in water with betadine for 10 min every day, maby some dry docking, but not to much, hope this helps. they are very fragile at this size

[steve]

Is she basking? How's the water quality? Is the water filtered?

[ObiWan]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Steve, yes she's indeed basking as much as she can (whenever she thinks nobody's around) under UVB and heat at about 90F (32 C). The water in the 20G tank is also adequately filtered.

Obi2 also had a bit of fungus infection on her hind leg, which managed to clear away a few days after we applied Acriflavine in her tank.

I should add that we picked her up from a pet store where the owner had 15-20 baby RESes in a plastic bucket with a quarter inch of water in it. He also had the bucket tucked away in a dark and damp corner as it's illegal to sell RES here. Obi2 was the smallest of the clutch when we picked her.

[steve]

I'd just keep an eye on the area and make sure the shell is firm and without any odors. Make sure he gets his UVB and calcium too.

[ObiWan]

Thanks again for the feedback Steve. I forgot to mention that she also has a chunk of cuttlebone in the tank with her at all times, but so far I haven't seen her nibble at it. We'll keep an eye on her.

[steve]

Also make sure you're using a reputable pellet, hatchlings are sometimes sold with cheap (even fake) pellets.