Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 12:39 am
Exactly the same thing happened when I moved my Spot into a nice new big tank recently. He really freaked for several days. Also, he got very snappy. He's always been an energetic type but not hostile. He tolerated being picked up and handeled. But when he moved into his new tank he started snapping at everything he saw - including my fingers!
I thought at the time that he was seeing his reflection in the glass and thought he was surrounded by snapping male turtles! No wonder he freaked!
Another thing that occured to me was that the water quality might have been bothering him. In the new tank with new filter the water quality very quickly got awful - cloudy and high ammonia. After three days I moved Spot back out to his pond for about ten days while the new filter "cycled" and the ammonia level dropped. Now the water is crystal clear and the ammonia level is zero so I moved him back in about three days ago. This time he is much much calmer, and nicer, even though the nitrite level is still pretty high (but dropping). He doesn't seem to be bothered by all the male turtles in the glass this time.
He still won't bask in his new tank, so I've "dry docked" him tonight to allow his shell to dry out completely. I hope within a day or two he'll start basking again. He used to be a real good basker.
The turtles are pretty sensitive creatures.
SpotsMama
