Urgent Care :: turtle behavior odd, lethargic

[marisa]

I may be missing it, but I don't see anything about how big a tank you have them in...Maybe the behavioral change is somehow due to the move, but if there in a tank that's too small for them, it can cause problems as well. (Separation would be the ultimate solution if they are in an adequate size tank and the behavior continues.)

Did the one that was attacked receive an open wound?

[swimlib]

I let the little guy wander around a lot yesterday, and paid him a lot of attention. Today, I tried to introduce him back. Things were a little hostile but ok at first. Lots of sniffing each other, and circling around. A couple of faceoffs, and the little guy tried doing that weird flipper thing in the big ones face, but the big one wasn't impressed - he kind of snapped at him once, and it ended. I thought things were looking ok - then the big one started harassing the little guy and biting his shell. So I had to separate them again. This time I put the big guy in the back-up tank since he was the one being bad.

Ugh...

[DavidY]

hmmm, I was thinking of doing the attention thing over the course of several days. But either way, there sounds like there's some serious hostility going on there on both sides. They will probably need to be kept separated. How big are your tanks?

[swimlib]

not big enough in any way. I am in the process of acquiring a much larger tank(hopefully 130 gal) and the medium sized turtle can stay in the tank I have. They just grew more quickly then I expected and now I am scrambling to get a bigger tank for them.

[DavidY]

Yea, I know what you mean. A 130gal would be nice! Just keep them separated for now and after you get the big one set up you can try introducing them both in there together and see how it goes. If they still fight...well, you'll have to maintain two separate turtle tanks.

[swimlib]

ok I'll try that and let you know how it goes. Thanks for all the advice!