So I have read about this happening before and I never in a million years thought it would happen to me but sure enough... my turtle climbed out of his tank and fell about 5 feet onto the floor behind his stand.
Over the last few months I have been slowly raising the water level to higher than I initially had it because of evaporation, I figured if I could keep the water higher then I wouldn’t have to scrape the tank as often to address the water stains due to evaporation. My son who had been home 30 minutes prior had seen the turtle doing what he always does. Basking joyfully on his dock and then splashing back into the water once someone got home. This time when I got home I looked in the tank and didn't see a turtle in the tank. I asked my wife "Please tell me you see a turtle in that tank" No turtle to be found. And then I hear this "bump" and I think OMG he is under the stand! So I grab my flashlight and look under the front of the stand and all I see is the support beam. So I scramble around to the back side and sure enough there he is stuck in between the wall and the support beam under the tank and he cant go anywhere because the top of his shell keeps hitting the underneath side of the stand. I manage to get him out from under the stand and then I spend the next few minutes scanning his shell looking for cracks or chips or any bleeding or break. Of course I can’t tell if he has any injuries to his skin yet because he is sealed up tighter than a submarine. So my wife suggests we put him back in the water to see if he is favoring any limbs and after I get him in the water and he scrambles around the bottom of the tank for a minute he starts to swim and with she same fluid motion and merriment as before the fall. Not a thing wrong with him....
Its been over a week, no appetite issues. No abnormal behavior and no signs of any injury or trauma... I GOT LUCKY
So why am I telling everyone this? Well first of all just to share my story but second to let you know that YES it can happen to you. If you water level is high you NEED to have some kind of protective guard up or an ATBA. It's not just so your turtle can have more room to swim but for their safety too.
