General Care Discussion :: Can two males be kept in the same pond?

[aal]

Hey all, recently I rescued a male and a female RES. Both are adults. Now I have 4 adult females and 2 adult males. The males seem to avoid each other and compete for females. I can't seperate them as they are in a pond, 500 gallons. Right now they aren't biting but will there be aggression? Also is it bad for over breeding? The purpose of the new male was so I could breed my females faster but is overbreeding going to be a problem?

[ESG4Life]

I keep my two male RES together and they get a long fine... Breeding can be a problem since RES are already so overpopulated... I wouldn't breed if I didn't plan on keeping the babies...

[mikee]

al- If you can't catch them you may too late if they do get aggressive. Some times the avoiding of each other is pre dominance dance seeing who is the boss. Good Luck!

[aal]

Thanks! I've been breeding for a while already. It used to be 1 male 4 females and I had 6 hatchlings. 4 died unfortunately... Thing is, I now have 4 females and 4 males. All adults. And if they keep, you know, mating, is it bad? One more thing everytime they do the courtship dance with the claws, they seem to poke the females eyes. The females seem rather irritated. Will they bite the male's toes? And will the female's eyes get injured or something?

[steve]

Aside from the issue over overpopulation, do the females have a nesting area? When you keep turtles in an outdoor pond, you have much less of chance to observe and intervene. So if there is concern about the number of turtles in there, you need to change the way they are kept. As for eye injury, I suppose minor injuries will heal without concern and I can't recall any serious scratched eye posts at the moment.