General Care Discussion :: Holy Geeze!!!

[KatieSmeltzer]

So... I almost killed my turtle last night. I cleaned his tank, and I was slightly impatient waiting for the water to heat up. When it hit about 50, I put him in. I looked over a few minutes later, and he was flopping on his back at the bottom of the tank, and couldn't swim!!! I immediately pulled him out and put him back in his "vacation house" (a shoe-box sized Tupperware container). He seemed fine. I slowly added more water to see if he would swim. He was sorta sitting there. So when the water hit just below 60, I put him in again. And he was fine.

So... does cold water temp normally do that to turtles????

[SINI5T3R]

Turtles are like Fish. What you were experiencing is your turtle going into Shock. It does the same thing to fish. If you put a fish in a tank that is even 5-10 degrees off the water there in normally, it will almost always kill the fish, they will swim all weird and within like 30 seconds they just float to the top dead...very dangerous especially for turtles. 50 degrees is WAY too cold for a turtle. put him in there when it hits about 70 degrees and he should be okay till it gets higher.

[mike hill]

Turtles are temp driven and are very, very sensitve to quick temps changes. It is a cold blooded reptile and the word "shock" comes to mind. My tank water is 78 degrees, I wash them in 78 degree water, when I feed them in a smaller tank it is 78 degrees. Unless I dry dock them in a heated and lighted box they are at 78 degrees.

[SINI5T3R]

Turtles are temp driven and are very, very sensitve to quick temps changes. It is a cold blooded reptile and the word "shock" comes to mind. My tank water is 78 degrees, I wash them in 78 degree water, when I feed them in a smaller tank it is 78 degrees. Unless I dry dock them in a heated and lighted box they are at 78 degrees.

Do you just turn your heater all the way up? I got a okay heater and mine all the way up makes it about 82 degrees ide say it says on the therm. Just woundering...

[Seroster]

Normally mid-high 70s is where you want it instead of 80+, so you might lower the temp some, unless they're tiny tiny.

[mike hill]

sin-ter - The the temp for an adult turtle should be between 74 to 78 degrees. You have to have a good thermometer to check that.
Adjust the thremostate accordingly. I work my temps up from 74 to where I want it. A good thermometer is an important tool when dealing with turltes.