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I have been noticing that my turtles at times flick their front claws in the face of the other turtle. They don't actually claw at one another. What does that mean when they do that?

This means they are either fighting over space or there mating. Most likely it's fighting over space, How big are your turtles? and what size of a tank do you have them in?

Yeah, I agree with the post above me, fluttering at another turtle's face is very common, especially in smaller environments where territory comes into play.

Unless you have an outdoor pond of thousands of gallons of water, turtles are actually very solitary and can go their whole lifetimes alone without being lonely, it's recommended that you keep one turtle per indoor enclosure.

Chances of Fluttering because of agression: 85%
Chances of Fluttering because of mating: 15% (reminder you need both a mature male and mature female, even so, many times they flutter to fight, not to mate anyways).

The percentages above are not proven, but from what I have witnessed through numerous cases and my own experience of mature turtles of both sexes, I think it's fairly accurate.

From what I've read young turtles will do this to practice flirting. It doesn't always necessarily mean aggression. If it's juvenile turtles it's very possible that they could just be doing it out of instinct.

I have had my turtles for 6 months, they are both about 3 inches each in length and are in a fully filled 55g aquarium with a large above tank basking area. I see them fluttering at each other all the time. When I asked about it on other forums I was told not to be concerned by it, that they are just like teenagers practicing their 'flirting'.

Currently I have two turtles. One is definately a male the other may be a female, but I think its too small to really tell right now. I am saving up to buy a 30-45 gallon tank for them, I feel horrible that the only available tank I have right now is a 20 gallon. Does anyone have any suggestions as to the type of filter I should use. I have one now but I dont like it very much. Thanks.

Well for your current 20 Gallon, and even 30-45 gallon tanks, a good hang-on filter that many people use here with confidence is the Aquaclear 110.

If you ever get something like 55+ Gallon tanks, then consider a high capacity external Canister Filter, such as the Rena FilStar xP3 or xP4, or the Fluval line of filters.

delvaga in the end you will be spending alot of money. If I were you I would think it would be best if you got an aquarium about 100gallons then at least you won't have to upgrade for so long.

An Aquaclear 110 is too powerful for a 20-gallon tank. If you want to use an Aquaclear in your 20-gallon, try the Aquaclear 70 (if you don't like the waterfall noise, you'll have to use a piece of plexiglass to make it more quiet).

We just put a plastic fish in our T-2's tank to entertain him he is putting his front feet togeter tops/backs sides and fluttering them on the plastic fish. is this the fluttering you are speaking of in this thread? if so is he fighting it? he is not an agressive turtle, he has never bit anyone and is very social, he gets on his floating dock as soon as he knows someone is in the room and we let him out. he walks all over the house. he even follows us around.
is he in love with the plastic fish or trying to fight it?? what ya think/

Welcome. Turtles will flutter at objects in the tank (my RES spends a lot of time fluttering at certain rocks every day). Your RES could see the object as an intruder or just be enamored with it, who knows which. As long as he can"t bite and swallow pieces of the the plastic fish, it sounds like it's giving him something to do.

ydelavega, you might be wiser to save the money you would be putting towards the replacement filter for the 20gal into simply buying the larger tank. With 2 turtles in a 20 gallon, it would be impossible for any filter to do a really good job of keeping up with the waste given how small the water volume is.

Buy "fluttering' do you mean where a turtle curls up his front feet a little and then vibrates them a little above his head? Do only males do this?

Today I went to the pet store and got 2 snails. One is very small, smaller then Boris' head and is currently stuck to the side of a rock. For the past hour or so Boris has been doing this vibrating thing with his front feet. He hasn't tried to eat it or anything but every minute or so he'll swim away only to come back and vibrate at it. Is this some kinda weird snail love?