Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have one res that measures 3.5 inches, one river cooter, 2.5 inches, and a painted, 2 inches. I've had them for about a year and a half and they get along fine.
Two months ago, i brought home 2 new res. One male and one female. Male is 6.5 inchs, and female is 4 inches. I have them all in a 10 gallon tank, and they all got along perfectly. Last month the male started to court with the female,(was swimming in front of her tapping his nails on the sides of her face.) And the female, started to bite him. This went on for about a week. The male was sitting on the dock, when out of nowhere, my female came out of the water and grabbed the male by his tail and started to fling him around the tank. It took about 5 minutes for me to get her off him. I took him out of the tank and seperated him. (He is ok, no wounds)
The other four were then getting along fine, untill last night. My female, attacked my river cooter. Holding it by it's tail and again flinging it around the tank. I seperated the female now too. But when i took her out, she started to make a hissing noise, almost like a pissed off snake, and kept trying to bite me.
Why are they doing this all of a sudden, what was that noise, and can they ever be in the same tank together again. Help me, what can i do.

email - Dumblond81@aol.com

Please help me!!

this is by no means an answer to your problem... but i figure it can't hurt.

turtles are VERY territorial, and if those many turtles are encased in a 'small' environment, they can very easily fight. i am not trying to tell you that your tank is too small, though that is A LOT of turtles to have in one tank. it seems that only the female has a problem, so my suggestion to you is that if your tank isn't too small, then just keep the female seperated. it seems like she's the only one that had a problem! though many people think that turtles like companionship, they really dont because this provides for a 'race for food'. my suggestion to you is just to keep the female separated from the rest of the turtles. just make sure that the tank you have all of those turtles housed in has PLENTY of room for each. (the rule of 'thumb' is 10 gallons of water PER inch of turtle, but many people house their turtles in less water than that)
hope this helps
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~ Evie

Pets:
0.1.0 German Shepherd {Dusty}
0.1.0 German Shepherd/Collie mix {Shadoe}
0.0.2 RES turtles {Booger and Snot}
1.0.0 African Clawed Frog {Bingo}
0.0.1 Snail {Gary}

A 10 gal tank is not big enough for one turtle let alone the 5 that you have in there now. You need bigger tanks or a huge pond. When they all start to grow they will all start fighting and it won't be pretty. If kept in a small tank they won't be able to grow properly and they will start having health problems. Their insides will get too big for their shell and they could die. Maybe you can take the two new turtles back to the store you got them from and get bigger tanks for the 3 original ones that you have. Good luck.

i DEFINITELY missed the part about you having ALL of those turtles in a 10 gallon tank.. that is WAYYYY too many turtles in a 10 gallon tank. no wonder they were fighting!! you definitely need to either find a larger tank for them or find them new homes! they need much more space than that....
-----
~ Evie

Pets:
0.1.0 German Shepherd {Dusty}
0.1.0 German Shepherd/Collie mix {Shadoe}
0.0.2 RES turtles {Booger and Snot}
1.0.0 African Clawed Frog {Bingo}
0.0.1 Snail {Gary}

the turtles were only in the 10 gallon tank for 2 or 3 days. They were normally in a 125, but that broke and i was upgrading to a 210 gallon

oh ok... i thought maybe you actually housed these 2 turtles in only a 10 gallon tank.

just wondering for my own benefit, what kind of tank was it? how did it break? or why did it break?
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~ Evie

Pets:
0.1.0 German Shepherd {Dusty}
0.1.0 German Shepherd/Collie mix {Shadoe}
0.0.2 RES turtles {Booger and Snot}
1.0.0 African Clawed Frog {Bingo}
0.0.1 Snail {Gary}

im not sure exactly, i bought it in my boyfriend's pet shop that he works in. It juat said all glass aquarium. So maybe that was the brand. It broke when i was cleaning. My dog ran into me, and i tripped, and the vaccum handle slamed into the tank. It cracked it a little, but i bought a new one anyway. It was time for a bigger tank.

Now that they are in a bigger tank (not the 10 gal for those short couple days) are they still fighting? If they are getting along now that they are in the bigger tank then we can assume the fighting was caused by the cramped space.

You can't really have all of these turtles in a 10 gallon
aquarium. If you do, you need to do some serious searching
for care and set-up.

A 10 gallon is not even big enough for your 3.5" turtle much
less all of them together.

You are going to have to get huge set-ups for these and
separate the smaller turtles from the bigger ones or they
may end of killing them.

As a reference, I have my two female 5" RES in a 165 gallon
indoor pond. I keep my Painted turtles separate now as the
RES where attacking them.

Linda