What are the little brown bugs in my tank with my turtles?

Question

I change my water often, and i notice these little bugs all gathered up in the corners of the tank, they float on the water and comes back up onto the corner of the tank. What are those??? Will it harm my turtles?? Are they able to come out of the tank to bite me??? How to I get rid of them??? What should i do to ensure that it doesn'tt come back?? How do I ensure that my turtles wont get affected by it????

Answer 1

Sounds like mites - if it is mites they harm your turtle and have the potential to infest you and your house as well. To get rid of them you need to do a COMPLETE clean of everything in your turtles tank, treat it with a solution to kill mites, and treat your turtle for them.

Answer 2

I agree, I think that they might be mites.  Clean your tank out immediately, or your turtle might get sick.

Answer 3

can you get us pictures.

What ever it is its not good.

Any bumps or cuts or softshell issues , rubbing his eyes, how is his p**p?

  Clean the tank and check out your turtle reallly well.

What are you feeding it?  Do youhave dirt in his tank or gravel?  Not dirt.

Contact the “www.anapsid.org/societies, for a turtle VET/ RESCUE in your city and state

The bigger the environment the bigger the healthier the turtle. Remember 10 gallons for every inch of turtle. I have used kiddy pools and plastic pond liners from most nurseries and worked great.

Did you know that they need to bask under a reptile light UVA/UVB for 8 to 10 hrs a day for the vitamin D that they need to grow. So that means getting a turtle dock also.

Leave the heater on 75 to 78 degrees always. These turtles in captivity do not hibernate their eating may slow down some but they will not hibernate.

Their water needs to be clean otherwise they get sick easily from dirty water cause they p**p allot.

Total Body length: 5-8" average, up to 12 inches max. Life span: 15-25+ years

Males have the longer front nails and are used in mating. And are considered mature at about 5 yrs old. You can’t start sexing till about  3” across.

You need a good filter system! Gravel larger than they can swallow.

You need to feed them feeder guppies, goldfish or minnows for protein and calcium daily drop 20 or so in the tanks and watch them disappear in a few days! When I got these two 36 yrs ago all we had in back then  were goldfish to feed , so after 36 yrs and still going strong. They can eat goldfish! I spend about 175.00 a month on fish ,goldfish and minnows. An Extra  75.00 on leafy greens and dried cubed tubiflex worms.

This way when they swim for their dinner they get exercise also!

They sleep at the bottom of rivers, streams. lakes or ponds or your tank to avoid predators like coyotes,  foxes, owls, hawks, possums, raccoons and even some wide mouth bass.

TOSS in a bird cuttle bone in the water for calcium. it will dissolve real slow and if they eat it that’s fine!!

They can have garden worms, meal worms, snails, crickets, flies, crayfish small frogs, dragon flies and  anything that moves, but only as a treat.

They need leafy greens Romaine, Butter lettuce. (Iceberg and cabbage are bad for them, any other leafy greens will do) for vitamin A that they need at least 3 to 4 times a week.

You probably already know that they get sick easily, shell rot, respiratory sickness, lopsided swimming, coughing, blowing bubbles from their nose.

**Swollen cloudy eyes means lacking in Vitamin A. Which we all need for good eyes. Google ‘vegetables with Vitamin A.

Contact the “www.anapsid.org/societies, for a turtle vet /  rescue in your city and state.

I wish you luck.

Answer 4

may be larvae's. give your tank a 100% water change. clean out the filters and everything. they can be water fleas. if so do the same.

Answer 5

larvae maybe?