Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have many (50-60) RES's that are around 5 months old. Some are getting bigger than others and I suspect the bigger ones have been biting others, mostly their necks. What kind of medication could I put in the water to help prevent these wounds from becoming infected?

I am not sure why you have so many but my concern is that
all of them are in the SAME enclosure. I would separate
them into several different enclosures.

Some turtles are more dominant than others and you
shouldn't allow them to pick on the others. Put them
in enclosures so they don't have to complete with each
other.

Linda

I actually have them in three tanks. A 100gal. and two 30gal.
I've separated them by size but I still have biters. These turtles are well fed and in clean water filtered by two fluval 3's and a fluval 4 plus in the 100gal. Do you know of any medication I could put in the water?

The rule of thumb when dealing with PROPERLY housing RES is to allocate ten gallons of water for every one square inch of turtle. Haveing 50 or 60 in a 100 gallon tank is not a good idea. They will get territorial under this kind of stress and start attacking eachother. Even if every turtle is only one inch, the most that should be in there is ten. And when they grow to two inches, only five should be in there.

It would be like putting you in a jail cell with twenty other people and expecting everyone to get along. I don't think they make a filter that can properly handle the poop of 60 turtles. This is just inhumane to keep them under these conditions.

Are you selling these? There are a few fungal meds(most for fish but safe for herps) out there you can try. You will have to get rtid of many of those turtles or put them in a huge pond for them to grow out. They are going to nip each other until they have room to escape each other. Bottom line you have to many in the tank.

OK, for whatever reason you have them:

I would avoid putting medication in the water, as you can develop drug-resistant bacteria over time, and you can destroy healthy gut flora in the turtles, resulting in digestive problems.

Keep the water as clean as you can.

Also, consider adding more hiding spots - under water caves and artificial silk plants (cheaper than plastic plants). I get the plants at some dollar stores. A simple cave can be made with a Gladware container - use hot knife to cut out one side, and add a rock to the top.

Katrina
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0.1 Iguana - Tiffel
1.2 Eastern Mud Turtles - Fred, Ethel, Edith
0.0.1 Giant Mex. Musk Turtle
Foster turtles: More than I'd like the husband to know about.