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Me and my boyfriend have noticed fruit flies and their larvae in our turtles tank. Will they hurt our turtle? Should we get a new filter, incase the larvae are embedded in the filter? Will the fish eat them? Any advice on this would be great

Sara -9 -- Clean your tank. Fruit flies have a hard time surviving in a clean environment. If your turtles could get to them, they would eat them. Clean your tank.

we clean the tank with a bleach/water solution every two weeks. maybe we should increase the washings?

we also do partial water changes between the cleanings.

maybe this week we just put something in the tank without washing it off first...though the only things newly introduced were his everyday lettuce and a new pleco.

ah well - cleaning again for tonight! and a new filter to boot!

What kind of filter are you using? How many gallons is your tank and how many inches of water do you have in it?

i have 30gal whisper filter in a 20gal tank with the water filled nearly to the top.

Your filter is way too small. The filter needs to be rated at least 2 times the size of your tank and bleaching your tank that often is not necessary.

well, to be frank, the 30gal whisper is going to have to suffice and it seems to be filtering the water just fine considering it's crystal clear right now...

aside from that, it seems like anything else would be too big considering we're working with an internal filter. once we upgrade to our 55gallon in a month we'll be getting the proper equipment.

what would you recommend?

If you are going to get a 55-gallon I would recommend a canister filter/pump with no less than 300 gph. There several that will pump between 300 and 350 on the market. If you put it together properly I can assure you that fruit flies will not be congregating on the top of the water. b

Bascomb wrote:If you are going to get a 55-gallon I would recommend a canister filter/pump with no less than 300 gph. There several that will pump between 300 and 350 on the market. If you put it together properly I can assure you that fruit flies will not be congregating on the top of the water. b

yeah, I was thinking of a canister filter as well.

currently, I see nothing in the tank but we'll see how that plays out!

What are you feeding them?
I had the same problem because i fed them brussel sprouts. They float on the top of the water but because tey were not eaten quickly enough fruit flys would emerge... so now i just toss one in after 2 days remove and replace what they haven't eaten.

wezeles wrote:What are you feeding them?
I had the same problem because i fed them brussel sprouts. They float on the top of the water but because tey were not eaten quickly enough fruit flys would emerge... so now i just toss one in after 2 days remove and replace what they haven't eaten.

see, here is where it gets a bit complicated...

I feed my turtle 3 reptomin pellets when the lights go on and feed him some lettuce at night before bedtimes. I think the lettuce staying overnight is what caused the fruit flies to be honest...

also, a little bit of fish food goes in because the tank also houses seven rosy red minnows that the turtle doesn't even bother with. they are getting huge in comparison to when i got them, but i know i don't overfeed these bad boys.

also, we have a pleco who resides in the tank, who my turtle is afraid of except for the one time he stepped on it's head, lol, but we feed him one algae wafer at night when the lights are out.

i know because of how much is going on in the tank we need a better filter in the long run, but we're going to spend quite a bit of money on better, high end equipment when we actually settle on a tank. the 55 gal will last us a good year and a half, i assume so we want to prepare our funds for that.