# Fly River Turtle - Shedding Skin or Fungus?



## FSK (Sep 11, 2018)

Hi,

I registered here because i need some help.

This turtle have been here for 10 days. So far it have been eating "Hikari Sinking Cichlid Excel", banana, and pear. Three days ago i noticed something that to me looks like patches/shreds of tissue on its shell. The turtle have been eating and swimming around alot, sleeping now and then. Seems to me like it has been thriving.
But today it is a bitt less active.

I have searched the internet and read a lot, looked at so many pictures, and spesificly tried to find pictures of other fly river turtles with simular looking problem (if it is a problem). Going through tons of info, but i am having a hard time figuring out what to do exactly, since im not sure what it is.

I have set the temperature to about 28 celsius (82-83 fahrenheit). The pH is at 7,2 - 7,5. No ammonia or nitrite (been checking it two times daily for these last three days). The water is pretty soft here, so i have added crushed limestone and bit of crushed corall in a "air canister", and a larger piece of limestone. The turtle get about 4 hours of sunlight every day (goes through a window, and in addition though the aquarium glass (good enough?)). It have a good and pretty dark hiding spot behind the main filter (a pretty big piece of swamp with a power head on it, with a air diffusor). I have also added an extra airstone recently.

Today i have added a total of 4 tablespoons of salt (topped) for this 115 liter (about 30 gallons) aquarium. Also added a bit of Aqua Safe. I have used this method for stingrays and other species of fish countless times earlier, to kill off fungus. Is there a chanse that this would work for a fly river turtle?

See the picture of the whole setup further down here.

I am very scared of the feedback i will get (if i get any), because I am very scared of loosing the turtle.
*I really hope that it is just a normal cycle of skin-shedding..?*

Take a look at the pictures:

In the first picture you can see a large white/gray spot on the shell, a bit to the left of the tail. It is not actually on the shell, it is just something stuck on the aquarium glass.



Focus on the top of the shell. There you can see these patches/shreds.




Picture of the aquarium where the turtle is kept. In case anyone wonder: the thing in the center of the aquarium is a piece of banana attached to a stainless fork. The black wire leads to a temperature gauge.


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## Reptilony (Sep 11, 2018)

Have you tried removing it with a toothbrush?


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## FSK (Sep 11, 2018)

Thank you for your reply. 

I have not tried that. I have been thinking of trying toothbrush, a soft swamp or something like that (after reading about other people mentioning it too). But i have been holding back because i am unsure if i should start doing to many things with the turtle - in case i just make it worse.


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## FSK (Sep 11, 2018)

Actually i think i will give it a go and gently remove some of it tomorrow. I have some sterile plastic gloves that i can use while handling it, and if i am very carefull i guess it wont harm the turtle anyway.


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## Maro2Bear (Sep 11, 2018)

Greetings, that actually looks like Angel hair algae - i just watched some YouTube aquarium videos on this type of algae yesterday.

Check this out -


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## Yvonne G (Sep 11, 2018)

The shell is supposed to be smooth, not fuzzy like what I see in your pictures. Is it possible it may be algae?

@Markw84


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## Yvonne G (Sep 11, 2018)

Ah, we posted at the same time!


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## Maro2Bear (Sep 11, 2018)

Yvonne G said:


> Ah, we posted at the same time!



Great minds i guess


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## FSK (Sep 11, 2018)

Since you guys mention algae it came to my mind that i have seen something that looks almost exactly like it - earlier when i had stingray pups in that tank. Most of it was growing on the silicone tube that leads down to the airstone. And in the video you posted the guy mention that these algae seem to be thriving at areas in the aquarium where there is a stronger water flow - obviously the water flow is relatively high around an airstone.

Also as i mentioned the aquarium is partialy exposed to sunlight for a few hours every day, and i guess those algaes might like that too..

I actually went ahead and brushed the shell of the turtle just now.

Here is a picture of the swamp i was using, and you can see what came off the shell. There was even more on it but i washed some off while i was working my way around the shell.




This picture was taken before i brushed the shell. Might be hard to see the algae/fungus/skin for some, but if you look real close you can see some of it at the ridge of the shell, towards the back-end, and you can see how it covers the left part of the shell. All those small white/olive brown dots are just sand that is stuck on it (from what i see).




So lets say that this is just algae on it`s shell at the moment,- could that possibly be a bad thing for the turtle to carry around? Would it make it more prone to let's say fungus?


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## Toddrickfl1 (Sep 11, 2018)

I believe that's just algae. Not an issue it happens in the wild. You can clean it off from time to time if you want but it won't hurt anything if you don't.


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## wellington (Sep 11, 2018)

It is hair algae for sure. Scrub it off carefully. I would then get a bigger tank, this one looks too small and add some plants to the tank. How long are you leaving lights on?


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## wellington (Sep 11, 2018)

A better bigger filter is also needed which should help too.


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## Maro2Bear (Sep 11, 2018)

Was wondering if you can get some Amano shrimp and have them in there with your turtle.

*Amano Shrimp Diet*
Fortunately, Amano Shrimp feeding is relatively easy. Often referred to as algae eating shrimp, Caridina Multidentata have a reputation for being industrious aquarium cleaners. They enjoy feeding on some forms of soft algae.

In addition to aquarium algae, Amano Shrimp feeding can include food sources that occur naturally in a planted tank. Live aquarium plants continuously shed edible matter. Caridina Multidentata will eat the dead plant matter that would otherwise accumulate on the bottom. So its best not to keep Amano Shrimp in a tank that is “too clean”. Aquariums that are “too clean” may not have enough natural food sources to support the shrimp. Amano Shrimp feeding can also include: shrimp pellets, fish pellets, fish food flakes, algae wafers, raw green zucchini and blanched spinach.

Source x https://www.aquariumcarebasics.com/freshwater-shrimp/amano-shrimp/


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## FSK (Sep 11, 2018)

Thanks for the feedback and i hope you are right.

Want to mention that half an hour after i handled the turtle it came to the front glass and looked up towards where i feed it. So i dropped in some veggie pellets and it started eating, seemingly enjoying life. Thats good to see.

*Wellington: *The tank is very small yes. I am in the final stages of finishing a 1700 liter (about 450 gallon) plywood tank, and i have a 300 liter (about 80 gallon) tank that i have made into a sump. As for now i do have a 250 liter (66 gallon) up and running that i am planning to move it over to as soon as i can.

I do not have any lighting unit over this tank at the moment. The only light it gets is from the sun (4 hours a day where it is very bright, but there is still a corner where there is shadow all the time), and from inside the room where the tank is placed.

About adding plants; I read that many fly river turtles like _vallisneria, _so i am going to order a bunch of them today, hopefully get them on friday.
I think it would be nice to grow vallisneria in the sump of the plywood tank - make it grow so that i can feed with it without constantly having to buy it. If the turtle even likes it.. will see.

*Maro2Bear: *Seems like that could be a good idea. Shrimps would work in the aquarium i am keeping it in now, since i am using a powerhead with a decent sized blue swamp attached to it (shrimps wont get sucked in). But in the 250 liter (66 gallon) tank that i am going to move it into soon it will not work. There i am running a Fluval fx6 (i dont got any filter swamp to put on the intake there) and two Eheim Powerline XL with 3 filter cases on eatch... the shrimps would get sucked in to the filters.


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## Maro2Bear (Sep 11, 2018)

FSK said:


> Thanks for the feedback and i hope you are right.
> 
> Want to mention that half an hour after i handled the turtle it came to the front glass and looked up towards where i feed it. So i dropped in some veggie pellets and it started eating, seemingly enjoying life. Thats good to see.
> 
> ...



I’m sure the 4 hours of sunlight is also really contributing to your algae issue. Thats one thing about keeping aquariums with fish - sunlight equals algae issues. Personally, id get some artificial light, and cut the sunlight out if u want to rid the algae.
Good luck!


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## FSK (Sep 11, 2018)

When i have kept stingray pups in that tank i have been covering most of it with a towel (the part facing the sun), but since i know these turtles benefit from sunlight i thought it might be a good idea to remove it so that it would have the opertunity to swim around in the light if it wanted to (it does not seem to care for that anyway...). I will go and cover the tank again, and see if i can dig out a small lighting fixture. Should i hook it up with some UV light, or maybe just normal light? I got several types of both.


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