Alligaror snapping turtle won't eat?!

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J

joachimbertrands

Feeder Fish
Aug 14, 2011
3
0
0
Genk, Belgium
Dear,

I got myself an Alligator snapping turtle (Macroclemys), he's about 50 cm's tall (without tail). He's in a big tank with a filtration system and with amazonlike objects (pieces of driftwood, ...) in it.
I used to feed him pieces of fish (trout, salmon,...) a few times a week, and normally he is extremely quick and can't wait to eat, but the last 3 weeks he hasn't eaten anything?! One possible reason I can think off, is that we went on holidays a month ago. Two weeks later, when we returned, it turned out that the filtration system had broken down. The water was quite dirty with a lot of remained pieces of food (the person who had to take care of the animal didn't notice this, unbelievable...) and the smell also wasn't really good (not a rotting mess, but it sure wasn't extremely lovely) . Could this have had an influence on my animal, and do you know what I have tot do now? The temperature is quite good i guess (26 degrees Celcius), and I have installed a new filtration system, the water is clear now for a week.

Thank you very much for your help, and excuse me for my bad English, I'm from Belgium :-).
Joachim
 
Hi Joachim and welcome to Monster Fish Keepers!

I'm sorry to hear about your turtle. Hopefully we can help figured out what's wrong but if you're really worried you might want to contact a veterinarian. For starters I'm a little confused by the size reference that you gave. Turtles are measured by SCL (Straight Carapace Length). If that's what you're giving me then it's a pretty large individual which is good thing since we're not dealing with a hatchling. How long have you had this turtle? Snappers are hardy turtles and can be found in some pretty dirty, stagnant water in the wild. I'm not sure if 2 weeks is enough to make one sick in captivity but it is possible. Another thing to think about is that it's not unusual for turtles to fast at certain times of the year. Water temperature and light cycles can do this. Your water temperature is about as warm as you would want for this species. I suppose you could lower it a few degrees and see what happens. You could also spark it's interest by adding a few feeder fish like guppies, platies, convict cichlids or danios and see what happens. The movement might stimulate it's appetite. You could also try to feed your turtle earth worms and crickets.
 
Thank you very much for your reply!

The turtle indeed isn't a hatchling, the SCL is indeed about 50 cm's, so it's already quite a big animal. I have him for 3 years now, got him from a help centre that had taken him away because he was neglected. Although, he always looked very healthy and I didn't had problems with him before.

I'm gonna try the things you have said, hope they'll help, otherwise I'll search a vet.

Thanks a lot!
 
About now is when they start slowing down on eating in the wild, could just be instinctive.
 
I wouldn't worry about it being in dirty water for a couple weeks. Wild snappers have been known to thrive in heavily polluted waters for entire lifespans.

I tend to agree with the other poster, I think it's appetite probably just isn't what it used to be since it's well into adulthood already and it's growth rate has likely slowed quite significantly (as it should).

One other thing to note, it would take a LOOOONG time for a snapper that large to starve. Months, maybe even longer. Try a more varied diet w/live food to stimulate it some.
 
I have found few turtles will turn down live crayfish. I wouldn't be worried to much yet. As stated before they can go loooong periods without eaing, depending on temps, a year or more. What sized tank is he in?
 
Clean the tank and try to get it to eat some prepared turtle foods, so it can get some nutrients it is probably deficient in.
 
Time for a new update!

I went with him to the vet last week, and he took some samples from his mouth (there was a little bit of mucus around his tongue, but he hadn't a lung disease said the vet, so he examined the bit of mucus and discovered my turtle has a bacterial infection!!!:(

I now have some really heavy antibiotics, I hope this will work. Does anyone have experiance with the bacteria? It's called 'Aeromonas' and is quite common in the sector of water-inhabiting reptiles like alligators/agama's/...

But for now, I'm quite happy the vet really discovered something and I can treat my snapping turtle...

Grtz
 
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