General Care Discussion :: Turtle isn't good a swimmer

[YelTango]

I adopted a turtle recently from a garage sale, he was in a tiny little box with water a few inches high and rocks, apparently he'd lived there for four years, and now that we've moved him into a 20 gallon we had the water level nice and high for him so he could freely swim, but he couldn't get up to the surface to breath because of how weak his muscles are, for now we lowered it to something more bearable because we didn't want a dead turtle in the morning. What should we do?

[mukyo]

How high do you think he can swim before?
Are u sure he is not shy or lazy to surface? Rather than drowned i mean.
I would suggest to create resting steps. So by two steps he can climb up to get air.

[Nighthawk11]

put some tall plants in there that he can step on, maybe logs.. stuff he can climb to get higher.. slowly raise the level as you feel comfortable.. make sure he can easily get up!

[YelTango]

In the tank there actually are steps heading up to the basking area, I raised the water level some yesterday and he seems to be doing well with the increase in level, he was actually using the steps today when I was watching him so that's good, and he's been climbing on top of the larger rocks. I think I'll raise it again today an see how he does. Thanks for all the help

[steve]

Can you post a pic of your setup?

[sincebirth]

What kind of turtle did you adopt, pictures will be appreciate..