swimming
I have two RES in a 120 gallon tank now. Each is ~5 inches in length.
One of them swims all the time, stopping only to sleep or bask. The other one swims only to breathe or eat. Other than that she just sits at the bottom of the tank. Even when she does swim, she seems to struggle with it more than my other turtle. My active turtle will float at the top of the water while eating, while my inactive turtle will sink quite a bit to eat a piece of food. Also, she constantly has to tread water while taking a breather, while my active turtle can float effortlessly at the top of the water while breathing. I have noticed that the turtles seem to have different proportions on their rear feet, my active turtles feet are much larger proportionately. I wonder if that has anything to do with her lack of activity?
BTW, this behavior has been going on for at least a year.
One of them swims all the time, stopping only to sleep or bask. The other one swims only to breathe or eat. Other than that she just sits at the bottom of the tank. Even when she does swim, she seems to struggle with it more than my other turtle. My active turtle will float at the top of the water while eating, while my inactive turtle will sink quite a bit to eat a piece of food. Also, she constantly has to tread water while taking a breather, while my active turtle can float effortlessly at the top of the water while breathing. I have noticed that the turtles seem to have different proportions on their rear feet, my active turtles feet are much larger proportionately. I wonder if that has anything to do with her lack of activity?
BTW, this behavior has been going on for at least a year.