Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had a western painted (about 3.5" for several months. I have just purchase a RES (2.5" and am having a problem intorducing them. The painted is agressive and tries to bite the new guy. I even tried feeding the painted turtle first thinking that might help. I have them in seperate tanks right now. Any suggetions would be appriciated. I just don't want any injuries but would like them in the same tank (30 gal half full) I figured she would like a little company.

Hey,

Ok, I'm probably going to get ripped on for telling you this, but I've had moderate success helping turtles....uh, "get revenge." When I was younger and saw two turtles not gettin along, (especially if one bullied another to the point the victim always swam away if it saw the bully coming or went to hide)I would occasionally hold the bullied turtle and manually make it chase the bully! Sometimes, the bullied turtle would instinctively open its mouth and bite in aggression so the bully turtle would become afraid whenever it saw the former victim. I repeated this process couple of times and often the turtles stopped fighting...weird. When I was young, I liked to experiment more.

Hahhaha...this was probably not the best advice or method to treat this problem, but hey it worked for me and many of the turtles are doing fine now, together or alone. Don't risk it however; because it might be stressful for the turtles. Instead, watch them closely and perhaps provide more hiding spots. Sometimes, the behavior subsides once the bullied turtle gets used to its new home. If you want to skimp on the tank costs, you can always substitute by getting a large, cheap rubbermaid container. =P

Johnny

Oh whups,

I forgot to add aquatic turtles don't really need more company, if at all. They get together when breeding and basking (which is more like just happening to share the same log, etc) but that's about it. They're not categorized as social animals and would do well, if not better, being housed alone (less chance of fighting, transmission of diseases, etc). If you can keep them in separate tanks, not a bad idea to do so because the painted obviously doesn't like the RES very much...plus, each turtle gets more room.

Johnny

If your turtles are small then a 30 gal should be enough right now but I suggest raising the water level. Also when they get bigger (and they will) you will need a bigger tank because the RES will get much bigger than the painted he will need a much bigger tank than the painted. The painted is probably fighting the RES because there is not enough room. They like their space. Those are just my thoughts.

Wow,
I had the same thing happen to me before. I even posted it. I don't think there is anything you can do to stop or prevent it. Turtles are just aggressive and fight for their homes.
Michael Fedzen
P.S.- especially if they have been in there homes for a long time, in my turlte's case>5 years.
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