RES question

[DAC8671]

Our res WILL NOT get on her basking shelf at night when the red heat lamp is on. She will sleep (?) in the water stretched out with her feet on a rock and nose above water. For a good portion of the day she will bask in the white heat lamp I have, but also swim around.

She is very active day/night. Eats heartily. Pretty healthy for the most part (I think she may have shell rot and am taking her in on Monday).

The shell rot thing.....we rescued her and she didn't look right. I couldn't place my finger on it, but just didn't look very vibrant in color. I thought maybe she needed a change of environment. Then part of the shell started to scale off. I thought it was new growth. She still didn't look very vibrant, but was acting/feeding normally. It's still scaling off and she still isn't vibrant. When we got her she was in a 1 foot long rubbermaid tub with about 3 inches of water in it. Not enough to completely sumberge, not rocks for basking, no heat, no lamp, no nothing. They kept her on the back patio in this container. (Now she has a 60 gal tank, heat, food, and water about 10 inches deep to swim in).

So any thoughts on the night red lamp?

The night lamp is 60w, the basking lamp (white daytime) is 75w.

 

[egyptiandan]

Hi Debbie,
Most water turtles won't sleep out of the water at night. They feel safer sleeping in the water, so thats nothing to worrry about.
I can't see any shell rot from the pictures you posted, but there is a build up of unshed scute material. Your finding this out with her constantly shedding scutes. She may do this for a while. You could post pictures of the spots you think she might have shell rot. Should help us figure out whats going on. Are there any spots on her shell that feel spongy?

Danny

 

[DAC8671]

I will try to get some good/better pictures of her today. The very outer edge of her shell seems a bit soft. Not so much spongy, but soft. Hard to explain.

Thanks for the info!