redearslider.com

So I have a question for you turtle experts out there. I have a RES and a painted turtle in the same tank.

Short and simple issue:

My painted turtle wouldn't eat when the bubbles were on, can the bubbles actually be a bad for the turtles behavioral health? Can the constant bubbles from an air stone be a distraction and an irritant causing your turtle to lose normal behavioral patterns?


More detailed explanation:

They were both just fine, active and healthy about 4 months ago until I noticed that my painted turtle became very inactive, always basking and NEVER eating. This change had occurred about a month after I installed the air stone for air bubbles and oxygenating the water. I just assumed the turtle was sick and raised the water temp a bit and tried to entice eating while keeping the water extra clean and stocked with beneficial bacteria. Still he never ate anything except live crickets when I would rarely feed them that. He was never really ambitious in eating those also; I had to remove the RES during the feeding to remove competition and allow my painted to have time to slowly nibble at the crickets. It wasn't until my air tube became unplugged and I just turned the thing off. After about a week or two of no bubbles, the turtle finally started eating, now, after a month of no air bubbles, he's crazy, eating everything he can find, and swimming around like crazy! The whole time the RES was just fine, and the Painted was suffering. Could this be caused by the air bubbles or was it just coincidence that he happened to get sick during the time the bubbles were installed. I would like to turn on the bubbles again, but I don't want a repeat of the same issue.

I doubt the bubbles were the cause of his not eating. If not eating were the only symptom, he may have not really been ill. Painteds can suddenly stop eating for 2 - 3 weeks at a time and then suddenly start eating again.

If you really think the bubbles were involved, plug in the air stone again and you'll have your answer.

I don't think it was the bubbles were the reason either.

I don't know, I had my filter output set up to bubble the water a bit, and my turtle started acting weird. She didn't stop eating, but her behavior worried me enough to set it back up normally, so it was only set up with the bubbles for a few days. I wouldn't doubt that her weird behavior would have continued if I had left it. I'd say that if your turtle is better now, just don't put the air stone back in. Or you can set the stone to put out little bubbles, we did that with our betta tank, it has just a few bubbles every second instead of the tons that it would produce normally. You just buy these little regulator dials.

Thank you guys for your input. I just went ahead and plugged the bubbles in. I'm hoping that it won't cause the turtle to not eat. Last time his anorexia lasted for about 2-3 months. TheComputerGremin, so you had an experience with the air bubbles changing their behavior as well it looks like.