General Care Discussion :: Turtle doing weird stuff

[Gianni989]

Ok so i recently put in some piece of wood and some plastic plants in my tank. I have recently noticed that Doug positions himself above the wood between the plants and with one of his faces in the plastic plant he raises his two front feet near his eyes and pushes the feet out. He repeats this, goes up for air, and then goes back to it after catching his breath. He does this when the lights go out. What the heck is he doing? (His eyes aren't puffy and he is not showing any signs of RI other than a squeek that he has had for 4 months now).

[Justin3344]

Could it be that he trying to tell the plant that he is the boss here? I know sometime they do that when you put new stuff in the tank..

[steve]

I'm not sure... did you get a pic of this?

[Gianni989]

Ok, so, i watched him some more and what he seems to be doing is bracing his back feet on the red plant (pic below) and then moving his arms above his head (he's not really rubbing his eyes) and he just does this repeatedly. Notice how his arms are placed RIGHT next to his face in this odd position.

[marisa]

From the pic, it looks like he's fluttering. My RES will do this to certain objects (mainly rocks) in the tank. It can, however, be done at anything----a thermometer, human finger, another turtle to show dominance, or, if sexually mature and there's a female in the tank, to the female as the start of a courtship ritual.

[kittyclover]

Yep looks like he is just fluttering (making out) with the plant. Mine likes to make out with a castle, he mounts it and flutters I actually seen his male parts come out, very disturbing and funny at the same time.