diff --git a/plugins/outputs/opentsdb/opentsdb.go b/plugins/outputs/opentsdb/opentsdb.go
index 5e94ca340076edb86018b1006c71949e5dbae50b..4675dfffe6891de52f765535102bb86020caffc7 100644
--- a/plugins/outputs/opentsdb/opentsdb.go
+++ b/plugins/outputs/opentsdb/opentsdb.go
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ type OpenTSDB struct {
 }
 
 var sanitizedChars = strings.NewReplacer("@", "-", "*", "-", " ", "_",
-	`%`, "-", "#", "-", "$", "-")
+	`%`, "-", "#", "-", "$", "-", ":", "_")
 
 var sampleConfig = `
   ## prefix for metrics keys