Can turtles get diarrhoea?

okatied

Hi,
I did a total clean out of my turtles tank on Saturday and by Tuesday it was stinking again. Can turtles get diarrohea and how do I know if they do? Our filter is making a bit of a noise but the water coming out looks clean enough and the foam filters aren't filthy. Any one have any suggestions. We have a male and a female painted turtle around 3 yrs old.
Katie

Our man in Havana

Turtles do stink I am afraid - not sure about the diarrohea but you need a super duper blooming expensive filter when you have turtles - how big is the tank??

Beacuse turtles eat meat the poops do stink to high heaven! How often are you cleaning the tank??

dbrock

if you feed them to much fruit the can def get it ,,, or to many tomatoes,,

Jimkel

Get yourself 2 Fluval 4 underwater filters or an external filter thats designed for 2 or 3 times your tank capacity and the problems solved. Frequent partial water changes are the key. Wouldnt bother with filter wool, carbon or the like with Turtles. They use it up so fast it would cost you a small fortune buying new wool etc. Just go for the big classic power house filters with a good old sponge and it'll be great.;) Wash them babys out regularly in tank water and you will have rosy smelling turtles. The smell comes when you go killing all your bacteria by washing under the tap and filling untreated tap water. Use Reptisafe tap water conditioner before you add water to the tank and get that bacteria growing and munching that waste. squeeky clean filter sponges = smelly tank and vice versa. What you see as greeny/brown gunk is actually the good stuff, it breaks down the toxins and thats the trick. Look up the Nitrogen Cycle on Wiki to get the full picture. Oh and yes..They can get diarrhoea!