u/Conscious_conifer

One of my trapdoor snails is a male and he has always been active whenever I see him. But today I saw him let go of his grip on the surface and "laid down" twice. The first time he was originally on the inner side of the container. After he fell to the bottom of the water, he was back on his foot again within about ten seconds . I removed poop and some water from the bottom of his container with a turkey dripper. Then added in more water. Then I added some frozen lettuce. After a while I went back to check on him. This time he was already at the bottom but lost his grip and fell to one side. He then gradually closed his trapdoor and remained in side his shell. I saw a white dot at the center of his trapdoor. Should I be concerned with that? Was that caused by a bacteria? What should I do to help him?

One of my trapdoor snails is a male and he has always been active whenever I see him. But today I saw him let go of his grip on the surface and "laid down" twice. The first time he was originally on the inner side of the container. After he fell to the bottom of the water, he was back on his foot again within about ten seconds . I removed poop and some water from the bottom of his container with a turkey dripper. Then added in more water. Then I added some frozen lettuce. After a while I went back to check on him. This time he was already at the bottom but lost his grip and fell to one side. He then gradually closed his trapdoor and remained in side his shell. I saw a white dot at the center of his trapdoor. Should I be concerned with that? Was that caused by a bacteria? What should I do to help him?

I've been having my snails for a month but did not realize that they are actually trapdoor snails until a few days ago. 😢

have tried chopped up cucumbers and snail food which I ordered. wondering if I should try zucchini and lettuce next, but not sure if they should be cooked. have been seeing different views online. I'm wondering which information is more accurate, does anyone know? I guess there is an element of putting foods in and seeing how they react, but I'm also kind of worry that I might be feeding them something wrong and then they end up dying because of my mistake.

have been trying to find some good recipes for snail cookies and snellos for them. I saw someone on YouTube adding rocks. Should I be feeding them rocks?

they do have cuttlebones. but I'm not sure if they were put in the right way. Was I supposed to do something to it before placing them into the water? Is it okay if the cuttlebones float?

ordered snail food online, but some of them float at the surface of the water and snails ate only very little of them. The bottle says add 3-5 pieces each time, and to take left overs out after only five minutes. But it seems like the snails were eating very slowly. I left them in for over an hour but only one out of the three pieces disappeared. They look a bit like fish food but each piece is way tinier. I'm not sure if that's the right kind. Should I try to get something else or should I just give it more time?

I read that trapdoor snails like dead leaves. Does anyone know what types of dead leaves trapdoor snails might like?

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I still do not have a proper UVB. Before I bought the lamp that I have now they said that it was full spectrum but turned out that UVB isn't there. I'm currently unable to buy a lamp immediately it's a bit complicated. I thought about getting a solar meter first but not sure which kind is good. I use a UVB test card, it told me that the lamp that I have doesn't have UVB. My mom wants to buy a lamp cheaper than Zoomed. She wants something produced by my country. But honestly I don't know if I can just trust any brand so I went and asked people who bought those brands if they have a picture of solar meter under their lamps but received no response. I don't want to buy a lamp that doesn't have UVB again. My mom said she wants me to figure out how to attach the lamp to the tank first, then she might consider helping me with affording the UVB lamps. Now I use plastic tanks for them. And I've heard that people drill holes in their plastic tank in order to secure their lamps.

Yesterday I took the turtle out to get sunlight. It was trying to escape, went into a narrow, dark and muddy space. After I got it out of there I placed it into a small plastic bowl to remove dirt before placing it back into the tank. But as I was observing I realized that it was floating asymmetrically. I wanted to take it to the vet immediately. My mom said it is just stressed and that I should leave it alone and it should be fine. We waited but today he isn't eating. I had noticed that yesterday (even before I had taken him out) he wasn't eating all of the pellets. He usually eats veggies but today I didn't see him eat veggies. Actually I had not see him at all because he had been hiding. Finally I lifted up the object that it uses to hide under and saw it swimming but still asymmetrically. Saw a large bubble as he was taking a breath. I think I should take it to the vet soon. I had suspected that it was floating asymmetrically one or two weeks ago before it was moved into the tank it is in now (it used to be in a very small tank). But at that point my mom said no he was just holding something while swimming. I heard that sometimes when baby turtles get stressed they float like that. Might have been triggered by me taking it outdoor. But it has been over 24 hours of floating asymmetrically and not eating. I think I have to take it to the vet.

What do people usually do to secure their lamps to a plastic tank? Should I take it to the vet as soon as possible?

I got some snails I'm not sure exactly what kind. the shell kind of look like an online picture of Japanese trapdoor but their tentacles and mouth area look a bit like online pictures of mystery snails (?) Any ways today I realized that one of them has been on the bottom of the tank for a few times, shell side down, with part of the body outside of the shell. I looked at the snail, the tentacles were slightly moving. I smelled the snail and the smell was fine. I guessed that it was lethargic or sleeping (?) I did some research and realized that people mentioned air bath. So I was getting ready for the air bath. Then I went to check on the snail and realized that it was on its foot again. But after a few hours I observed the tank and saw the snail doing the same thing again. I realized that other snails in the same tank are staying pretty close to the water line. So I'm suspecting that the oxygen level might be low and I worry that the snail at the bottom of the tank hasn't been getting enough oxygen.
I don't have a filter so I try to compensate by doing a water change daily. When I change water I remove half to thirty percent of the tank water and add in fresh water. I use filtered water. The water in my area is know for being hard. I had placed a cuttlebone in the tank. I had ordered and airstone and water test kit but still waiting for them to arrive. In the meantime, are there other things that I should/can do?

Hi I've been struggling with keeping the water temperature around/lower than 28 degrees celsius (82.4 degrees Fahrenheit) recently. Right now the water can get to around 29 C (84.2 F) in the afternoon and I'm afraid that it will keep rising if I do nothing. I usually turn the basking lamp in the morning and like to keep it on for about 12 hours each day. I live in the northern hemisphere, it's currently the summer time.

I read some advice online, some people say turn off the basking lamp but I had realized that the temperature at the basking spot is usually not high enough (usually basking spot can only get to around 27 C which is 80.6 F). So when I turn off the basking light, the water temp is in deed lowering but it's also making the basking spot temp can get even lower, too low for them to bask. I tried placing a small desk fan on the edge of the tank and after a while that seems to lower the water temp 0.1 degrees celsius. I realized that the room temp was about 30 degrees celsius so turned the AC set to 27 degrees celsius, but I'm afraid that it will lower the basking temp too much. I got some filtered water from the sink, added into the tank but it only lowered the water temp by 0.1 degrees celsius with each large bowl of it, and then the temp got back up soon. I think I might get more desk fans, and potentially some air stones.

Any advice on lowering the water temp during summer without lowering the basking temp too much?

Hi so I had ordered several freshwater snails a few days ago. When the snails had arrived about three days ago, I had noticed one dead snail, as the dead body was outside of the shell visibly decomposing. So removed the dead body right away but had allowed the shell to remain with the rest until today. I transferred all of them (the ones that were still alive as well as the shell of the dead one but without the dead body) into a bottle (around 660ml) in the afternoon after they had arrived (used room temperature filtered water).

Today I placed them inside a tank with algae and some plants in it. But before I did so, I could smell a foul odor as soon as I place my nose above the bottle. The tank that they are currently in is roughly 4 liters with 3 liters of water in it now. (I'm not sure about the exact size but did some rough measurement with a ruler.) When I was switching their environment from the bottle to the tank today, I threw the dead snail's shell away.

But there is one snail who was climbing and attached to the side of the bottle earlier yesterday, just like the rest of them. I had realized that the sun was coming through the window to where their bottle was, so the water temperature might be too high. So I removed the bottle from the table to the floor where there was less sunlight so less heat. At one point, all of the live ones were attached to the side of the bottle and right below the water line. (I'm guessing the water in the bottle was lacking oxygen. ) But at some point in the afternoon, I had noticed that the one snail had started to climb down the side of the bottle. Eventually, it got to the bottom of the bottle. The trap door has been since then, closed neatly, kept inside the shell.

So today after transferring them into the lager tank. I smelled the one snail with a closed trap door. It had a bad smell, like morning breath but a more awful version of that. So I thought O no it must be dead. And as soon as I placed my nose above the tank, I could smell a mild version of that. But other snails seemed obviously alive. I looked back at the one snail, the trap door was still shut quite neatly. As I was holding the snail, I touched its trap door and the snail retracted immediately after 1-2 pokes. So I don't think that the snail was dead. But why did it still smell so bad though? I'm planning to just wait for the snail. Perhaps the snail is still just getting used to the new environment, or sleeping?

Update: I decided to quarantine the snail that I'm not sure of. Plastic cup with partial tank water partial mineral water. I also added a small piece of plant to the quarantine cup just in case the snail might need it.

This is my first reddit post/question and my first time being a turtle mom.

My Dad bought four red eared sliders baby last month without telling us. Each of them has around 4 cm shell length. Initially they didn't have enough water. Recently I've learned that they should be kept in water deep enough for them, because otherwise it leads to diseases. So today I switched one of them from a tank where it couldn't swim to a water depth twice of its shell.
But now I'm not sure if it knows how to swim. Instead of swimming in the water, it started to try to climb unto one of the rocks as soon as I placed it into the new tank. And now it's just staying in the part of the tank where there is shallow water.
I'm wondering if it's because the turtle might bee feeling sick and if the water is shallow it helps it to not choke on water. Yesterday when I brought another turtle that came with him to the vet, and that turtle was given antibiotics and was recommended to be kept in shallow water to avoid choking will healing from respiratory diseases. They have been kept in separate tanks but I'm wondering if they have the same diseases because both of their living conditions weren't great.

I'm not sure if the basking area is set up in the right way. I read that rocks are better than other materials because of heat efficiency. I placed a plant there because I want there to be shade in the basking area too. But right now to me it looks like the turtle is avoiding the depth of water because I saw online that normally when turtles bask they do so at a spot where their whole body won't touch water. Right now he is not basking on the rock but is still near the basking area because water is shallow.

I accidentally damaged the only thermometer that I have the other day. So I had just ordered some more thermometers. The vet said that I should make sure the basking area is 35 degrees celsius. I currently don't know the temperature of the basking area. The heating panel in the water is set to be 28 degrees celsius.
Also before I placed him inside the deep water, I saw him rubbing his eyes with his forelimbs/claws when in his old tank. I'm not sure if this meant eye problems or infections? I know that another turtle who came with him has respiratory problems and that was what I went to the vet for yesterday. And I think that their previous living condition might have contributed to their illnesses. I'm not sure if this one is sick too. Should I bring him to the vet? He is no longer doing that here in the new tank. But it's only been a few hours since he has moved here. So I'm not sure what to do.
The photo has the set up. I haven't figured out how to set up the filter yet because the user's manual came with a language that I'm not familiar with. And it also looks quite complicated. I probably should reach out to the consumer services.

Yesterday the vet warned me that another baby turtle that came with him may not survive even if I try because he is so small and that turtles his age has weak immune system. I feel sad after hearing that but I think she was being honest. Still I'm super grateful to happen to be living closer to where a turtle vet is. I think I will still try my best to do what I can.

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