Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Bought two very small RES....the size of half dollar. Have had them 5 for days and one is very aggressive to the point of pushing the other out of the way...walking on the other to get to food. Meanwhile the other stopped eating and just sits in her/his shell....either on a basking rock or in the water. Water temp 82...basking light and uva/uvb light...and filter. Have light on for about 12 hours a day. Problem is the one that is in the shell. the first day or two it ate fine...and then it stopped and has been in its shell. I tried to feed it outside of the tank away from the aggressive turtle but it stayed in its shell. I put it back in the tank on a fake floating island and it stayed there in its shell all night...thought it was dead....but my son and husband dripped a small amount of warm water from the tank on the turtle this morning and she/he got off the island and swam, but then held onto a real rock and just floated. He swam about two hours ago...got pushed out of the way by the aggressive turtle turned upside down..did not right him/herself..so i gently picked the turtle up and put it on the basking rock where it is right now.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

thank you to anyone who might have wanted to respond to this question. the res did pass away...we did not even name it..i did not want it to turn out this way.

melissa

Hi-
Just checked this site now and saw your post. Sorry about your loss but I am quite confident that your turtle was ill when you got it. Sometimes little ones can be sick and not express it until it is too late. The stress of being brought home to a new environment was enough to bring out whatever problem the animal had. The actions of the other turtle were not the cause of this situtaion. Sometimes hatchlings are just too delicate and will start out fine then take a turn for the worse and die. Just keep an eye on the other one and make sure that he continues to behave normally. You should probably break down the tank, clean everything up and start from the tank fresh again just to be safe. It may have been anything from a congenital problem to a respiratory infection but it wouldn't hurt to do this for just to make sure that your other turtle does not come down with the same problem.

Steve

Sorry to here that it died but what u should have done is put the turtle in a different cage. the aggesive one would have kept being agressive. i have had this problem in the past and the only thing that will work is puting it in a different cage the turtle might not have come out of its shell becouse it was so scared of the other one in the future if this happens put the other turtles in a different cage as quickly as possible

I agree with honuman. All turtles swim eagerly for food to the point of pushing each other out of the way. Healthy turtles also climb on each other, even basking on top of each other. Seperating those turtles would not have saved the little one.

Sorry about your loss! Nancy