General Care Discussion :: Do your turtles hit each other?

[wang7130]

Hi, we're new to this site but think it's great! We have 2 turtles and we find that our smaller one (Michelangelo) keeps slapping the face of our larger turtle (Donatello). I think one time Michelangelo did it so hard that he/she scratched Donatello's eye!

Why are they doing this? If anyone has any answers, please help us out. Thanks!

[steve]

Welcome. It's called fluttering and is either one of two reasons:
1) territorial - males and females will do this when there are space/aggression issues. more room helps but not always. some RES are just plain aggressive
2) courtship - males, with their long claws, do this to females. it can escalate into problems with an unwilling female and can lead to injuries

[industrial_girl_2000]

How big are the turtles? How big is the aquarium you are keeping them in?

[wang7130]

Hi,

Thanks for the information! As we're not sure if the turtles we have are female/male, that might explain something. Though they've been in the family for years and never mated - which I hope they don't.

We recently inherited these turtles recently. I never saw them do it in their previous tank, which was much smaller.

Michelangelo is about 4 1/2", while Donatello is about 5-6" big. They reside in a 20 gallon tank together (which we just found out is way too small for them both!). They use to live in an even smaller tank together and never exhibited these behaviours.

We tried separating them a couple of weeks ago when we noticed this behaviour. When we did separated them, they both stopped eating! So after a couple of days, we finally put them back together and they started eating again. But the little one (Michelangelo) is constantly fluttering the larger one (Donatello).

I feel like we should separate them, but then they stop eating if we do, like they miss each other or something!

[Hoooneylynn]

If you post pics, we can sex Donatello for you. Michelangelo is still a bit small to be sexed. 20 gallon tank is not enough. You need 10 gallons per inch per turtle. So you need 110 gallons by now! I think you need to separate them. The problem probably is that they dont have enough space! A 20 gallon is barely sufficient for a 2 inch turt, let alone two 4-6 inch ones!!! You need to get two brand new sets up now. Michelangelo needs to be in a 50 gallon, and Donatello needs to be in about a 60, AT LEAST.