General Care Discussion :: Aggressiveness showing

[3crazyturtles]

So I have 3 RES that are around 7 months old and iv begun to notice some behavior I don't usually see. 2 of the 3 will put their front arms up above their head and stare at each other while kind of flickering their feet...iv never seen them do it but my wife has so today I was watching them for about 30 minutes and saw one of them do it to another...I really don't want them fighting and hurting one another so if anyone has any advice id love to hear it thanks a lot

[steve]

It's called fluttering. Males and females do it to warn each other to back off. Males will also do it as part of courtship. There's really nothing to stop aggression from happening. Males are almost 100% aggressive, and a good deal of females are.

[redfalcon]

Steve... is it okay to just leave them like that or should i separate them? My male will occasionally flutter at my female but thats about it, they will then swim together, bask together, even sleep nect to each other...

[steve]

It will escalate. They are OK temporarily, but you need to start making separation decisions now. My male RES will make a beeline straight for my female and bite her if they are in the same enclosure (in water or land). It's an aggressive bite and it could be pretty dangerous since he, as an adult, he has the strength to do some damage.

[redfalcon]

Ah... so sad, i was hoping they can stay together, it will be quite hard to keep them apart since theyve been together since hatchling

[steve]

I know how you feel, the same happened to me. I was totally unprepared and had to learn a lot and spend a lot. Better safe than sorry. An entire 2nd setup will be cheaper than any accumulated vet bills.

[SINI5T3R]

I have rescued turtles that people kept in the tanks together like this after they started fluttering at each other and it can get pretty serious. I had one that had a huge chunk taken out the back of its neck right behind its head and had to dry dock it for like a month and put medication on the wound every day. it ended up healing but was a lot of effort and time and not to mention its hard to get a turtle to keep its head out of its shell to put meds on the back of a open wound lol