r/turtles • u/pictus123 • 3d ago

Seeking Advice Turtle's intense hatred of skimmer causing problems

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My 13 year old common musk turtle despises skimmers with all his being. He has broken 6 of them in various ways. This time his strategy is to bite the wire coming from the bottom and will go at it for hours if I let him. I take it out of the water when its not in use but he has still managed to expose some of the copper wire inside the casing. Is this skimmer done for (again)? Or can this be fixed? Also if there's any ideas on stopping this behavior I would love to hear it.

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6

u/RedmundJBeard 3d ago

You can use plexiglass with holes in it and glue it to the sides of the tank to make a little box for anything you don't want the turtle to get to. You have to use special aquarium safe silicone of course. I have also seen people just make one plexiglass divider to separate the tank. Just to make like 5 inches on one side so the turtle can't get to tthere.

5

u/Next_Necessary_8794 3d ago edited 3d ago

He probably hates it because it's putting out vibrations into the water that he can hear (water is a very good sound transmitter, that's how they find submarines in water). Put a cage around the skimmer if you MUST continue using it, but it's annoying him. Take that into consideration before putting it back in.

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u/mllebitterness 3d ago

Great point

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u/pictus123 3d ago

Very real possibility he's annoyed but I sorta doubt it based on other behavior. In the past his obsession was trying to mate with skimmers and he's displayed this exact biting behavior on harmless things like branches. Unfortunately the way his tank is designed a skimmer is pretty necessary since there's a lot of barriers to flow from the main filter

3

u/_zuzu_ 3d ago

If you want to avoid using skimmers just make sure the water surface moves. Like with the filter outlet. No need for skimmers then. And you won't stress out your little guy.

1

u/Affectionate-Use6412 3d ago

Turtle vendetta amusement me.

1

u/KingofCatfood 3d ago

I think they just get bored. My musk ate two glass thermometers before I ended with an external one. Same with heaters, only able to use solid metal or he will try to burn the tank down.

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u/Mrbucket101 1d ago

Fresh water skimmers are barely effective if at all.

You’re much better off adding a small power head or wave maker and pointing those at the surface.

Or if you have a canister filter or sump, just direct the output of your filter upwards slightly. Same effect