Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm only kidding, i could never hate him, but im seriously getting annoyed. I have 2 res's, a red belly, and a map turtle in a 55 gallon tank. They are all used to me, they swim/follow me around the room which ever way i walk. They are not shy at all, as they stay on their basking spot even if i am looking into the tank.

To cut a long story short, my map turtle is a spaz. Whenever he sees me come in the room he swims like a maniac towards the top of the tank waiting for me to drop food in. He does this so much that the splashing water pops my heat lightbulb at least once a week. Its getting annoying and expensive. When he is hungry he just gets overly excited. The spaz splashing as i like to call it has got to stop!! My other turtles do the same thing when they are hungry but they don't splash...they just get a little excited because they think they are going to get fed.

anyone else have this problem?

My yellow-belly slider does the same thing! She has never splashed a bulb though. I don't think there is any advice I can give you to stop the turtle from splashing, but you will have to probly move your light bulb.

Try switching to a ceramic heater because they can withstand splashing.
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...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

Hi, lower the water level a couple inches and or, feed more often. Good luck FR

Hi, I have this problem with several of my turtles, but I have found they are always hungry, even after eating, I have actually had one turtle eat so much that he could no swallow any more as he was completely full and had a piece of fish hanging out of his mouth that did not have room to go down and when i pulled the piece from his mouth he saw it and went crazy trying to get it like he hadn't eaten in a month LOL

about all you can do is arrange the light so it over the basking area were water won't splash it or lower the water level some to be down far enough from the light to avoid splashing.