General Care Discussion :: Opening his mouth under water?

[color-me-envious]

Ridiculously stupid question, and the last one I'll ask, I swear.

My baby RES has been opening his mouth while swimming under water lately. It's something I've never noticed before, although I may just not have had a good opportunity to notice it before. He doesn't open it above water, he's swimming great (in fact I woke up to him exploring his new sand substrate, what a cute surprise~!), he basks, he eats RAVENOUSLY (you'd think his shell were hollow!), he's perfectly fine in all regards, he just.....opens his mouth under water.

I notice it the most when I'm sitting by his tank. He'll swim up to the glass and stare at me and open his mouth over and over again. Is he drinking? Is he begging? What's he doing?

[vic021]

my res do it but as long as no bubbles come out of his nose its ok since they can open there mouths in water as long as they dont try to breath threw there nose

[color-me-envious]

But I want to know WHY he's doing it...

Sometimes he breathes out of his noise when he comes up for air but I think that's unrelated. XP

[roseK]

he could be trying to bite through the glass.

[color-me-envious]

he could be trying to bite through the glass.

It doesn't seem that vicious. I wouldn't call it a slow opening, but it's not nearly like when he's biting at something. I guess he could be leisurely trying to chew at it, but...

[tidaboy9]

Myne sort of does this when i use to feed him skin color food nutofin so he throught my finger was food when i use to put it on the glass but now i feed him tetra food but i think he thibks that your face is food correct me if im wrong!!!!!!!

[color-me-envious]

Myne sort of does this when i use to feed him skin color food nutofin so he throught my finger was food when i use to put it on the glass but now i feed him tetra food but i think he thibks that your face is food correct me if im wrong!!!!!!!

I hope he doesn't think my face is food!

[blackforces get you]

does your turtle do it like every like second or is it wide open?

if it looks like he swims and hes "munching" then it shouldn't be nothing

[color-me-envious]

It does look like he's munching, but he doesn't swim up. He just....floats there underwater.

It's hard to really study him when he does this because he's kinda skittish still.

[blackforces get you]

oh so while he swims he opens and closes his mouth slightly?

while he swims and when he's underwater. right?

[color-me-envious]

Yes, while he's swimming underwater he does it. But I don't know if he does it constantly; I can't get a good look at him at a distance because my substrate is still settling and my water is kinda cloudy. I only get to look at him if he swims up to the glass for me.

[blackforces get you]

ohhh i think i know what your talking about. turtles do it all the time

i read somwhere that the reason why they do that is so they taste the water to see if theres any change to it. its normal. and you shouldn't worry about that