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After reading other forums, I am still left with strong a curiosity of my two sweetie's well-being. I have an 8inch female, and a 5 1/2 inch male. They both were in there own set up previously until the tanks got cracked and destroyed in a move. I purchased a 65 gallon tank, filters ect. They are now combined and were doing ok for about a month. I thought that they would be thriving with the new set-up, I hooked it up. Everything was fine accept for the fact that my larger female is biting the little guy pretty bad. She bites away at his feet and shell like she is really pissed. I had to reach in, grab her and poke at her to get her to release his back leg . I put a very temporary devider in for now until the morning. Although the outcome seems obvious, I was really hoping that someone could tell me that I don't have to buy another set-up (as I can't afford it right now).
Is there a solution to my problem? Will I be able to make use of my current set-up?

In most cases, a larger tank would be recommended. Also, more plants and objects that will cause a distraction and break up their line of view would help. However, some RES are just aggressive and would require a different setup.

Sorry, I know that's not what you wanted to read.

Your right, I didn't want to hear that. But I can afford plant and objects. That is a little drop of hope, I'll take it! I will do anything I can right now. Thanks.

...I purchased a 65 gallon tank...

This could be a large part of the problem. The 65 gallon tank would be ok for your smallest turtle alone, but it's definitely not big enough for the both of them. Too small a space almost always will lead to aggression if the turtles are confined to it. The larger turtle needs a separate tank to accommodate her when fully grown (10-12inches= 100-120gallon tank) If you want to keep them together you will have to upgrade to a much larger habitat such as a stock tank, etc for them to have the room both of them need.

You might can temporarily fix the problem now, but for the health and safety of your turtles you will need a more permanent solution, either bigger tank/habitat for both and separate tanks.

Sonja, I agree 100% but for some reason I think some RES are bullies. Mine aren't, but I have read many posts about them. Normally, its the male that harasses the female, and if its the female attacking, then I would suspect that it is a territorial/threat situation.

I would also suggest feeding out of the tank and don't let the more aggressive turtle see you feed the other. Maybe I'm putting a psychological spin to it, but my RES are very observant when it comes to food

steve wrote:Sonja, I agree 100% but for some reason I think some RES are bullies. Mine aren't, but I have read many posts about them. Normally, its the male that harasses the female, and if its the female attacking, then I would suspect that it is a territorial/threat situation.

I would also suggest feeding out of the tank and don't let the more aggressive turtle see you feed the other. Maybe I'm putting a psychological spin to it, but my RES are very observant when it comes to food

I also believe that some turtles are just born aggressive in nature. There isn't anything you can do with those turtles except setting up a seperate enclosure for them to live in complete solitude. My two baby RES seems to have that issue when it comes to feeding time ONLY. Monster, the larger baby RES, becomes overly aggressive when it comes to feeding. I've seen twice where it attacked poor Rocky. I am planning to feed them separately now but in the same enclosure. Rocky shys away when I feed him or her out of the tank. Monster is vice-versa. Complete opposite of Rocky. Rocky would remain calm most of the time when I walk by during his basking hours while Monster would be pulling 9.5 dives like in the Olympics. But when it comes to food, Monster becomes a Monster. I hope by feeding them that there would be less aggressiveness. Either that or I should give offer them a bit more food. I only give them about a Reptomin pellet a day. The reason is it seems that Monster has a bit of pyramiding. I could be wrong but it's better safe than sorry. I might have to take a picture of him/her and let you guys judge. However, I do tend to favor Rocky more and usually offer him 2 pellets. The reasons are simple. My little sister likes him since I let her name him (so if something happens to Rocky, I'm responsible in telling the news to her), he's much smaller compare to Monster, and because Rocky has been victimize sort of speak .

what size are your turtles Brooklyn? one pellet a day seems rather extreme and sounds like they may be starving.. which could cause aggression at feeding time too. I feed my 2 turtles at opposite ends of the tank, Oddly, they both know which end is theirs and will eat their food. Of course, if the other doesn't get theirs done fast enough it's up for grabs

cam722 wrote:what size are your turtles Brooklyn? one pellet a day seems rather extreme and sounds like they may be starving.. which could cause aggression at feeding time too. I feed my 2 turtles at opposite ends of the tank, Oddly, they both know which end is theirs and will eat their food. Of course, if the other doesn't get theirs done fast enough it's up for grabs

Hi Carol. I also started to wonder if feeding a pellet a day would be too little. I didn't mention that I leave fresh carrots lying around everyday in case the pellets don't cut it. The main reason why I'm feeding a pellet a day is because I recently started following the guideline (head-size amount) everytime I feed them except Survivor. Monster is a little under two inches and Rocky is only about 1 1/2 inches (give or take). A Reptomin pellet (not Reptomin Baby) seems more than enough to fit that guideline. But at times, I do give in and offer another pellet. Another reason why I started using this guideline is because during the first two weeks of having them, they didn't adjust well. I had to offer tuna to get them started and I offered more mealworms to them than I should have. I wind up throwing majority of the mealworms away because most died and it stank up the place. I think that might have been a reason for the bit of pyramiding I see in Monster. I am not home right now so I would take some pictures of him later for members to judge.

How long have you had them? It doesn't seem like they are growing all that fast to me. What makes you think they have pyramiding?? Do you offer them any other types of veggies, like leafy greens? Still seems that 1 pellet is way too little. That "as much as can fit in their head" guideline always bothers me, it's so subjective.

cam722 wrote:How long have you had them? It doesn't seem like they are growing all that fast to me. What makes you think they have pyramiding?? Do you offer them any other types of veggies, like leafy greens? Still seems that 1 pellet is way too little. That "as much as can fit in their head" guideline always bothers me, it's so subjective.

I got them around Christmas time so I say about a month since I got Monster, Rocky, and late Cotton ( ) . I feed them carrots and romaine lettuce (although they don't show much interest in the lettuce). Monster has definitely grown a bit and I saw some skin shedding around his neck area for the past week. Rocky didn't grow much at all if I can remember but he's a lot more active compare to when I first got him. The temperatures are at average around 77.5 so I know the temperature is just about right which isn't the reason for the skin shedding. The reason why I believe Monster is pyramiding is because of his shell. It's still in an early stage because the scutes are still smooth but the vertebral seems to slightly point up a bit forming a pyramid shape. I only started feeding them a pellet a day for about a week or so. I left about 10 guppies during the 3rd week I had them and the guppies were emptied out basically within hours. This might have been another reason for his pyramiding which I'm assuming. I appreciate the concern and if I am wrong about his pyramding (pictures I'll be adding later on), I will jump into adding a bit more into their diets.

I can't imagine you'd see signs of pyramiding that quickly. Are you talking about the spine being pyramid shape? if so that's normal. Pyramiding is when the individual scutes are raised and bumpy. So it sounds to me from what you're saying .. that if their shells are smooth then they're just fine

As a turtle gets older the verebral scutes flatten out and their shell gets a more rounded appearance.. yours are still babies

cam722 wrote:I can't imagine you'd see signs of pyramiding that quickly. Are you talking about the spine being pyramid shape? if so that's normal. Pyramiding is when the individual scutes are raised and bumpy. So it sounds to me from what you're saying .. that if their shells are smooth then they're just fine

As a turtle gets older the verebral scutes flatten out and their shell gets a more rounded appearance.. yours are still babies

You could be right Carol. I haven't had any new turtles since when I was 6 or 7 and now I am almost 20. And yes, I am talking just around the spine (vertebral). I thought that Monster might have been chopping down all those mealworms, guppies, tuna, vegetables, and pellets that he was over eating. I guess I was just concerned so I tried varying their diet a bit . I'll still post the pictures of Monster and probably Rocky too just in case. But I think I'll have to leave out Survivor since I have to celebrate my grandma's birthday right soon after I get off work.

Thank you for your advise, I do realize now that I will have to seperate them to another tank. Joy. I will do anything to make them thrive though.

Brooklyn, a pellet a day of which food? If your turtles are hatchlings (I'm assuming they are) this is really too little. I've got a 3.5 month old painted baby, that's getting about 3 Reptomin Baby pellets a day (one less if combined with other foods). It's not good to feed too much protein, but it's also not good to feed too little, especially with hatchlings that need protein for growth.

Turteywordy, consider a stock tank--you can get them far more cheaply than glass tanks and you can get big sizes. On the other hand, keep an eye out in the classifieds. In today's Hartford Courant, someone was advertising a 6-foot long 125-gallon tank....for free.

marisa wrote:Brooklyn, a pellet a day of which food? If your turtles are hatchlings (I'm assuming they are) this is really too little. I've got a 3.5 month old painted baby, that's getting about 3 Reptomin Baby pellets a day (one less if combined with other foods). It's not good to feed too much protein, but it's also not good to feed too little, especially with hatchlings that need protein for growth.

Turteywordy, consider a stock tank--you can get them far more cheaply than glass tanks and you can get big sizes. On the other hand, keep an eye out in the classifieds. In today's Hartford Courant, someone was advertising a 6-foot long 125-gallon tank....for free.

I haven't been on lately to reply back to people's post. I've been busy with recent moving. Yeah, I'd fed Monster a pellet + veggies a day for about a week because I thought I saw signs of pyramiding and I fed Rocky about two pellets a day. I took a look @ Monster after Carol's comment and it seems that Monster might not have been showing signs of pyramiding. Now I feed them about three pellets a day and leave fresh carrots/lettuce lying around. I'm planning to move all three of my turtles to the new apartment. I'm still waiting on the Penn Plax stand I bought online @ Petco to arrive before I move everything. The stand should be here by tomorrow since I missed the attempted delivery today. That's when the work load is going to begin.