Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I put my little babys in there freshly cleaned tank and all they started doing is rubbing their eyes and freaking out. I thought it was maybe because the chemicals in the tap water are bad for them or something like that. If anyone else has this problem or knows what to do about it, please let me know. Thanks,

Ryan

Um - you may want to try a product called AmQuel which removes chlorine and ammonia and other chemicals from the water. There are many products like this at pet stores. Chlorine is not harmful to turtles, but it does make their eyes uncomfortable. You can use this product as you are adding new water, just squeeze some into the water following the directions on the package. This will make it more comfortable for your turtle. Oh yes, chlorine will kill fish, so if you have guppies or anything, they will die from the chlorine.

yeh, its the chlorine, and if you dont want to go to the store to buy products that will help filter out the chlorine, you can always leave the new water out for 1 day, this way the chlorine evaporates

several years ago there was a paper about chlorine killing bacteria in the intestines of reptiles and casuing them to be less able to absorb nutrientss from their food. And in some places it definitely stings their eyes. By all means USE a dechlorinator.

If you set out the water for a few days will that get rid of all the chlorine? I usually set it out for a couple and then heat it up a bit.

depends where you live....many cities use chloramines in the municipal water and these do NOT evaporate at room temp.

Use stress coat or ammo lock or soemthing like that.