General Care Discussion :: TURTLE ATTACK

[Heinzbar]

my 2 year old female is attacking my 1.5 year old male and has already eaten two of his toes. i had to seperate them, but why is she being so mean to him?

[vic021]

wait did you say eaten!!!??? or bit

[Spike 7.62]

You will need to keep them seperated forever.

If you paired two people in a limited, enclosed space where they competed for everything, they would fight too. Turtles come together to mate and, if space is limited, to bask, but otherwise they live solitary lives.

-Spike

[untsmurf]

Turtles, especially RES, are an aggressive species. They bite and flutter at each other as a way of showing dominance. Aggression is usually brought out due to territoriality due to too small of a tank. Like Spike said, limited space leads to competition. Turtles will also restrict the less dominant turtles eating, which can eventually lead to death.

Since your turtles have already shown signs of extreme aggression, you need to separate them permanently. There is no way to stop it other than that. You can either get a large tank and divide it up, or keep them in two separate tanks, but they need to be separated before the weaker turtle is killed.

Read up on the main site to learn more about aggressive behavior.