General Care Discussion :: Urgent warning about filters

[TJ]

We had a turtle tragedy this morning. I run an XP3 filter in my tank. I came home from work and found Buddha with his arm trapped in the intake. The intake is a tube made of several smaller tubes pushed together to get the length you need. It seems at some point in his daily pushing everything in the tank around he seperated the bottom portion of the intake tube (the portion with the grill to prevent large objects from being sucked in) from the rest of it and got his front arm sucked into it. I got him before he drowned, but his front arm is a mess. I'm not sure if we will be able to save it or not or if he will even survive.

Please, if you use this style of filter, superglue the tubes together and allow ample time to dry before using them. Thats something I wish I would have done. If anyone has a better idea than the superglue, please let me know.

[N4784N R4613]

Wow, I think you are the third case in the past six months that has had this happen to a turtle. You definitely need to secure the grill on somehow. IT IS A MUST!!

I am sorry this has happened, but thank you for posting the warning for other turtle keepers that use the XP3. I hope he gets well soon!!!!

[TJ]

Thank you. I just wish I would have heard about the other cases or would have thought of it earlier.

Is superglue the option most XP3 owners around here use?

[octpusgirl8]

Oh wow that's scary. How big is your turtle? I have an XP3 and haven't secured the intake tubes together, it looks like that's going to be my after xmas project I'm so sorry about your turtle, have you taken him to the vet? I hope he makes it ok!

[emma]

Sorry to hear about your turtle. I just got a xp3 and my turtles are just babies. Hopefully they wont be able to do anything like this. I will defiantly seal the tubes up when i get the chance. Thanks for warning us about it.

[marisa]

Not superglue, but aquarium silicone should work.

I never had the strainer fall off the intake tube, but I would always push it on really firmly, though.

[SpotsMama]

This could happen with other types of filters too, not just an XP3. Any filter that has an intake tube that's circulating water at a pretty good clip (as they are supposed to) could catch a turtle if the strainer falls off and the turtle is small. Fastening on the strainer of any filter with aquarium silicon sounds like a very good idea.

[TJ]

Buddah is about five years old and about seven inches long. I have those tubes pushed together as firm as I could, and I'm not a small man, but Buddah is enough turtle to move darn near anything he wants. He is big enough to bang stuff around and big enough that his arm shouldn't have fit in that tube. That filter must have some good suction to force it in there. It tore his poor little hand up real good.

I didn't mean to pick on the XP3, SpotsMama is right it could happen with any filter that doesn't have the strainer permantly attached. I'll get some aquarium silicone after the holiday and the tank is just not going to have a filter until then.

[megcornell]

How sad! I'm glad you got to him before he drowned though.
How is the arm doing? Keep the cuts as clean as possible to avoid infection on top of the injury. You can use neosporin or Nolvasan on the cuts- dry dock him for a while after applying it. You may also want to raise the water temps and basking temps as Buddah is more susceptible to RI infections after nearly drowning.
If he's having trouble swimming you may want to lower the water or dry dock him until you can see a vet.

[thegrandpoohbah]

I don't know about superglue but Krazy glue is safe for aquariums. Reefers use it to glue frags onto rocks.