Okay, My RES who is only 3 inches and a male (because they guy who gave him to us said he was constantly trying to mate with his female) ate two baby turtles. The first, a redbelly he lived with for a year and a half who was about 1 1/2 - 2 inches big. I came home one day and he was half gone (I assumed he died first as he was sleeping a lot more and stopped eating for that week). The second was given to me at work from a coworker who did not care for him. he was doing great in my tank and my RES did not seem to care that he was there. I saw him in the moring and when I got home from work, he too, was half gone after two weeks of living together. Could I attempt to put a turtle of the same size in with my RES or will he most likely attack anything? By the way, he gets fed plenty and even has aquatic plants in with im and there is one RosY red fish in there as well. So it isn't like there was no food for him at that moment. I also fed him that morning.
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My RES is a maniac
Replies (2)
Hey, that happened to me a few years back between 2 baby turtles. A baby red-ear actually munched on a baby painted that lived with him for quite some time. I don't know, red-ears and relatives seem to be more aggressive than other aquatics in my opinion.
Turtles of similar sizes should be able to defend themselves more easily relative to a bigger and a smaller one, but one might bully another one anyway. Try putting them together for now, increase the enclosure area, add hiding places, and see what happens.
I never put babies together with adults, semi-adults, or even larger juveniles. Small ones seem to have a higher chance of hurting each other while the older ones are better fighters and survivers.
Johnny
Although many people mistakenly consider turtles of the genus Trachemys (including the RES) as benign tankmates, they, especially the males, are among the most aggressive species in the world. Our premier collector in the U.S., who prides himself on many rare and exotic species, flatly refuses to include Trachemys in his huge setup. I know I have had to isolate more Trachemys males for bad behavior than perhaps any other genus. From your description of conditions, however, I believe your other turtle probably died of repiratory disease or sepsis from an undiagnosed bite wound and was eaten by the RES post-mortem.
