Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My husband has had 5 turtles for 7 years. One just died. We don't know why. Do we need to do anything to keep the other turtles safe? Should we change the water or give them a different food or vitamins or something? There didn't appear to be anything wrong with the other one. Thanks.

I have no specific experience with this, but logically I would decide to:

Take the turtles out and give them a nice place to dry off and warm up. Drain the tank, and clean it thoroughly with a very mild bleach solution, then rinse excessively. Odds are, it was nothing that the other turtles could fall ill from, but it never hurts to be sure.

Now, if you have fish in there, you may have to do some other things to accomodate them while keeping some of your bioligical colonies going.

thanks for the advise. No fish so we don't have to worry about that.

Well cleaning out the tank and starting from fresh is a good idea. However - The only way to really know for sure if you have anything to worry about would be to have a necropsy done on the dead animal. This way you see if it had some contagious disease and be able to treat your living animals accordingly. Of course this could be costly and finding a vet who can send off all the samples from the dead animal to the lab might be a problem too. Also -- there is the possibility that after you do this and pay all the money the results might be inconclusive.

Again it is your call (also if the animal has been dead and unrefrigerated for 24 hours forget about having it necropsied).

If you decide not to do this - just start the tank from scratch and keep an eye on everyone. If someone else mysteriously dies for no reason though I would strongly consider having it done. You may be looking at a serious problem that could take out all your animals.

Good luck
Steve

What is the set-up like? Tank size, size of turtles, filters, type of lights, basking spot, food, ect?

Katrina