General Care Discussion :: Chasing and Biting...Help Please! Quickly!

[Jubileejlk]

I've given my turtles an above tank basking area in the past couple of days. They both use it, but one of them really stayed up there most of the time and the other seemed to stay in the water.

Today when I woke up and went to their tank to turn on the light, they both jumped in the water. I fed them and went to take a shower.

Now, one of them is chasing the other around and biting him. His tail or his neck or even his shell.

I'm so scared they used to be such good friends! They used to sit on top of each other and they never ever acted like this before!

What's going on? What can I do???

Any info ppl could give me would be so greatly appreciated.

[rsour24]

if your tank is too small it could be because they do not have enough space and are getting territorial, if its not id keep a close eye and if it does not stop separate them

[Jubileejlk]

I think I might start looking into a bigger tank, since I'd rather not separate them. Things have calmed down, Mikey's back on the basking area and Yoshi's in the water. I don't think Yoshi acts so aggressively when they both bask.

is that weird?

[BullDog]

Usually once aggression starts, it'll never stop. One turtle could seriously injure or kill the other. Your best course of action would be to separate them before one gets injured.

[bradmeisel]

Usually once aggression starts, it'll never stop. One turtle could seriously injure or kill the other. Your best course of action would be to separate them before one gets injured.

Bulldog is 100% correct. I know you want to keep them together but if you really care about them you will separate them. I posted a thread on this topic. I hope it helps.

The thread is called "To separate or not to separate...."

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewt ... highlight=

[LuvDoc204]

We are having the same problem.

Yesterday our male was chasing our female. He seemed to be trying to bite
her head off. He is a lot bigger than she is and we became very concerned
for her so much that we separated them for the night.

I don't know if it was the night he spent in the sink or the time they spent
together in the swimming pool today but today everything seems to be OK.

When we put them back in their tank, together, the male started doing the
mating dance.

This may be the season.

[mike hill]

Jub-lee -- A much larger tank is a maybe. Separation is for sure. Once they start the fighting it usually continues.

[SliderGirl]

This might be a glimmer of hope or it might be an anomaly. When our Coco started biting Splat's leg, we separated them immediately by inserting a divider in the tank. But every once in a while we removed the divider to see if Coco would behave. The second Coco started going for Splat's leg - wham - back came the divider. This went on for months and eventually Coco stopped biting. Is it possible that we were able to train Coco? Or, could it be that Coco stopped biting because Splat started getting bigger than Coco? Not sure, but eventually we no longer had to use the divider and they shared the tank peacefully.

[bradmeisel]

I would keep a close eye out. It will be a split second between life and death. There have been many many threads of the same thing turning very bad. It is very sad.

I thought my turtles liked being together. But after separating them the "shy" one is not shy but was being dominated by the other. I compare it to two little kids. Both are happier with their own rooms.

My turtles are much happier being able to bask, sleep, or just swim around in thier own space. I always try to have a fish or two around to keep them busy. You will be surprised how each personality comes out more when they are separated. Of course it is more expensive and difficult to do. I wish you and your turtles the best.

[corey7144]

This happened to me with Izzy and Zippy, and in the longrun I had to get rid of zippy because anytime i put him back in the tank,he started fighting again. so if it doesnt stop you may have to seperate them.

[bigG]

My female RES very rarely nips at the male RES. She usually only does this when he physically gets in her face and bothers her. However, I have noticed that they can learn different things. My female RES used to come up and splash a lot of water when I approached the tank. Then, one time she got too excited, splashed some water, and the hot bulb blew. I carefully removed the pieces and "scolded" her. For a few days, she was rather timid and slowly came up when I fed them. Now, she will come up regularly but not splash. She has learned to control her excitement.

[Spike 7.62]

I would say that reptiles will not learn from scolding or punishment. It is more likely your turtle remembers the scolding and was timid out of fear.

Jubilee, look into dividing the tank in half. You can use any kind of wire to create a fence. Make sure it's still escape proof so that one turtle can't invade the other one's space, that will only make the problem worse. Just keep in mind that their swimming space will be cut in half, so it really depends on the size of your tank.

-spike

[bradmeisel]

I used what people call eggcrate. (it is the white plastic cover for flourescent fixtures) It allows water to flow thru but keeps them apart. Good luck.