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Hi, I'm new here. I have owned my two RES's since they were babies, for the last 8 months. I think one is a female and the other is a male but these are my first turtles to ever own so I'm guessing based off of what all I've read on the internet. I still haven't chosen names for them because they technically belong to my son and I keep waiting for him to name them, but I'm only giving him until they are 1 year old before I name them.

My question that brought me here today is this....The one I think is the female is doing everything I would expect. She swims, she basks, she eats, she plays, she grows. She started off with a shell approximately 1 inch in diameter and now her shell is about 4 inches across and 5 inches long. She has grown SO much in just 8 months! The other one, however, the one I think is a male....he doesn't act the way I expect or the way she acts at all. He sleeps a lot, he swims some, he never basks, he eats a little, and he started off the same size with a shell approximately 1 inch in diameter and now has a shell about 2 inches long and maybe 2 1/2 long.

Why is he not growing? Should I be concerned? Do I need to separate them? The tank is 40 gallons and they have always lived together in this tank. There are also 4 tiny fish and 1 large plecka with them and they all live in harmony with each other. Is the tank just too small for him to grow? I don't understand why she would keep growing at such a rapid rate but he is stunted. Can someone tell me if I'm overreacting or if I should be concerned and if I should be concerned what I should do? Thanks for any and all help.

Kat

I'm a newbie too, but I'm wondering if the growth rate is different for the different genders? Also, do you keep the water super clean? I know fish keeping quite well and sometimes all it takes to "cure" an ailing fish is water changes. Try doing daily water changes of say 10% if you aren't doing weekely water maintence; 25-50% daily changes if you are already keeping the water clean. Do daily changes for a week or so (try to keep the nitrates under 20ppm) and then keep a really regular schedule of 1-2/week water changes. Let the nitrates drive your cleaning routine. Do as much and many as you need to keep that water pristine (<20ppm nitrates)

That seems like a huge amount of growth for just 8 months. What kind of diet do they have? If she is growing more, she is probably eating a disproportionate amount of the food. Tank size doesn't affect growth, although 40 gallons will become too small for two turtles rather quickly. Females do grow larger, but I wouldn't think 8 months should lead to that significant of a difference. You also cannot tell what their gender is until they're about 4 inches long, so they other one may be a female as well.

Texasreb: Thank you for the advice about the nitrates. I will definitely keep a closer eye on how clean their water is. I've been trusting my husband to do that and I don't think he's been keeping quite that close of an eye on it, although I do know he tests the nitrates weekly.

Kurtni: I also thought that this was a huge amount of growth in such a short period of time! We did decide that this was ridiculous though that we were still referring to them as little one and big one just because we don't know the gender of little one, so we gave them names tonight. Little one is Pat and big one is Tiny. Their diet mostly consists of dry turtle food called floating food sticks for turtles. We put about 6 of these little food sticks on their floating basking area, just touching the water (so Pat will also come up to get food because Pat only every so very rarely comes up to bask) and we do this 4 days out of every 7 days. 1 out of every 7 days they also receive a few treats of a variety of earthworms, crickets, and other little bugs, all dried of course, not fresh. Sometimes they also eat the fish food which is goldfish flakes. The plants are all gone because Tiny kept digging them up no matter how many times we kept "replanting" them, so we finally just took them out. Tiny likes to ride the bubbles, swim, and bask and likes to play with Pat. Pat just likes to sleep a lot and be left alone.
So what do you think? Is Tiny just an overachiever? Or are we feeding her too much? Tiny is definitely a female, Pat I'm not sure about. Is it possible for turtles to be anorexic? I know that sounds ridiculous, but after watching Pat tonight in the other bucket outside of the tank with crickets floating up his/her snout I started to really wonder if Pat is just flat not interested in food. We took Pat out and put a full amount of food in the bucket with her and waited for 30 minutes and at one point I walked in the room and saw a cricket floating up her snout and she moved to smell it but then turned her snout away. I don't understand why this turtle refuses to eat. We finally gave up and put Pat back in the tank. Tomorrow we will take Tiny out of the tank and put her in the bucket to eat and see if Pat will eat inside the tank since that is her habitat where she is comfortable. Obviously Tiny isn't missing any meals and we assume that she'll eat anywhere, bucket or not. I also don't understand why Pat refuses to bask. All Pat wants to do is sleep in one corner of the tank all day long. I'm a stay at home mom so I'm in view of the tank almost all day every day and I watch them full time, so I see how often Pat comes up to breathe or to bask and it is not very often. Should this be concerning? How often do they need to breathe or bask? I feel so lost because Tiny is doing everything I expect from everything I've read but Pat is the complete opposite and is beginning to worry me into thinking she's sick, especially since she's still under a year old.

Kat

I replied to the other post and I agree with the info above. What's the basking area like?