General Care Discussion :: Is this normal?

[TheSmallestWolf]

My RES, Raphael, has recently been biting at the thermometer in his tank as well as the sealant holding the tank together. Is there anything I can do to make him stop?

I feed him and Michelangelo around the same time, but put them in separate tanks. This week I've been giving them zucchini as their veggie. Aside from a different veggie weekly, I also give them Nutrafin Max pellets, 4 for Mikey and 6 for Raph. Mikey isn't biting at anything, just Raph.

[steve]

It's done occasionally be most RES, though some will do it very aggressively. Consider using a stick-on style LCD thermometer (not as accurate but very reliable). As for the sealant... it can cause a leak. It happened to my tank and I had to reseal it. If the seals are clean, it shouldn't occur very often. Ralph might be generally aggressive in which case you will have to separate them.

[tomster]

Has the behavior stopped at this point? I've never kept two turtles in the same tank, so I cannot say I have any experience with turt on turt aggression, but about a year ago our RES started fluttering his tanks walls/heater/etc. and we found the aggression was solved when we updated him to a larger tank.

[steve]

Just to clarify, I was only referring to the sealant. After the reseal and no algae on the seams, the biting has stopped. You can also trim excess "bulges", though with great care. Most professional tanks shouldn't have that anyway.