I have just been doing my weekly maintenace and noticed one of my Reeves turtles not being as reactive as normal, I then noticed his eyes had gone very dark ( normally light around the outside) and when I took him out to have a look found that he stinks like a bad fish smell!

Any ideas on what could be going on?

My local reptile vet is closed until Monday.

Cheers

Whats his shell like.Does he have a wound.Is your water bad.Does he swim ok.

hmm, I have just done a water test and found low Ph and a massive amonia spike, have done a filter change and 3/4 water change, never had this happen before but just shows poor maintenance for a couple of weeks and things happen fast.

I will follow up with another water change tommorrow and see how he looks.

hopefully this is the cause and he will come right.

I was just going to suggest that too Remember that for every turtle poo they do about 4 to 5 x the amount of wee. Even tho the water may look clean, it really needs some changed every week. I tend to do about 1/3 to 1/2 tank every 7 to 10 days depending on how many turtles in tank. If he's still not too good, try uping the temp a little for awhile as well.

I added a turtle to a tank of 4 others three days ago and suddenly found overnight the water had got quite smelly and needed a thorough change immediately. 24hrs earlier it had been fine and had water change only 5 days ago, so things can quickly alter in a turtle tank! (I just nearly killed the cat-fish in there tho as changed water quickly and she got too cold..)...all sorted now :lol: Good luck and I hope he's fine now.

give him a saltbath as well or clean shell to remove as much bad smell as possible

probably find the ammonia has burnt skin and allowed secondary infection,

a bit of iodine in the salt bath won't hurt either

Water quality is very important for turtles as they deposit alot of wast.Poor quality water can lead to fungus,infections and can make your turtle very sick.Then you can face very expensive vet bills.They depend on you,just like fish for their care.

i'll do that tommorrow Mark.

And yes guys I know about changing water etc, I keep quite a few turtles inside and out, just let things get on top of me with new job and baby due any day.

All the other turtles seem fine in the same tank, he just must have been a little weaker so it effected him faster.

how much salt do you put in per litre of water for a salt bath?

I just put 1 table spoon to twenty litres for mine,same as fish.

if you are doing a clean up on the turtle you can go stronger

i use sea water on mine, or just mix till it tastes fairly salty

i don't leave in the water for too long, maybe 10 mins max

deep enough to allow turtle to get head above water

as mumzy said for general water in tank

reeves seem to be more susceptible to water quality

ok maybe a silly question :oops: but does anyone know how much salt in say 20 litres of seawater?

ok, thought i would update, I have got the water back to normal amonia levels and also been dosing with salt, the reeves seems nore lively but eyes still dark, I had a look tonight and he smells again, the original smell disapeared after the first couple of days, is it time to take to the vet or is there something else I can try?

is his shell hard

and any signs of skin problems

i would like to sniff your turtle

what is the smell like

only if I can smell yours

shell fine, no skin problem, just dark eyes and the smell

hard to explain, but smells "off"

I would not muck around if he smell off.Some thing is wrong he should not have that smell.His eyes dull is another indicator he is sick.It could be internal.

Reeve's males that I've seen in NZ go jet black, including their eye balls. They also emit an unpleasant odor from scent glands when handled if they aren't used handling or just want to be left alone. Please note that this is my experience only.

Nice to see you here hot house About time

Reeve's males that I've seen in NZ go jet black, including their eye balls. They also emit an unpleasant odor from scent glands when handled if they aren't used handling or just want to be left alone. Please note that this is my experience only.

:oops: hadn't thought of that as same experience here too

Snake-necks are the worst for emitting the odor!!

Too true about the snake necks...tho only 3 of my 6 seem to do it. The others can be handled heaps and love having their necks stroked and don't 'smell'...

Do all Reeves do the 'odour thing?' Be good if thats what it was and not an illness eh broms2

Reeve's males that I've seen in NZ go jet black, including their eye balls. They also emit an unpleasant odor from scent glands when handled if they aren't used handling or just want to be left alone. Please note that this is my experience only.

well you should know!

This has just taken me by surprise as happened over a couple of days, he is the dominant male of two in the tank and was always after the female before I "lost" her.

How would you describe the smell?

musty in a not nice way

yep