Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I don't know if this has been mentioned here or not, but has anyone else seen noticable agression from their adult and sub-adult painted turtles? No one mentions it in any of the literature, but I get in lots of calls and e-mails about male painted harrassing females and other turtles. It's getting to where I'm recommneding people not add male easterns with anything else unless they have a VERY large set-up with lots of hide spots and/or visual breaks.

Katrina

I had to get rid of my male for this very reason, despite the fact he and the female are still small, and in a 55 gallon tank, with nearly 45 gallons of water.

No more male painteds for me thanks, but the females are fine

I have 2 adult painted that I took in 6 years ago. They
were adults when I got them and they have lived together
with no problems what so ever. They are so personable and
are even friendly.

Now, my male RES is a completely different story.

Linda

Linda, what size tank do you keep them in?

in a 165 preformed pond in my home. Before they were in a
much smaller cattle trough. I felt it was time as my RES
was biting my Painted turtles tails. The painteds lived
alone in a small trough and never fought.

Their new pond is 5 1/2 feet by 5 1/2 feet and the main body
of the pond is about 2 feet deep. This really has helped
with aggression so far.

Linda

Yeah, the reason I asked is because aggression usually occurs because the tank is not big enough for all the turtles. Most people don't realize this, so are shocked when their turtles start fighting. Most of the time, if you can get a big enough set up, there will be little to no aggression. Having hiding spots always helps as well.
I have heard people complain about their turtle’s aggression "problem" and then find out that they have 2-3 RES in a 10-20 gal tank! Now an experienced turtle person would know the reason for the aggression and get them a bigger tank. A non experienced turtle owner has aggression problems because they don't know how the set up should be, or they don't know what to do if the aggression occurs. This is why Katrina has so many calls about aggression. Katrina, the next time someone comes to you with this problem, you just tell them they need 10 gals of water per inch of turtle.

Thanks, but I've been doing adoptions for almost six years now - almost EVERYTHING I get a call on is in too small a tank. It's just that when agression is the reason for the contact, it's almost always an adult female RES beating up a tank mate, or a subadult or adult male eastern painted turtle beating up a tank mate. I have yet to get a call about two male sliders beating the crap out of each other. And, as more painteds are finding their way into the pet trade, I'm starting to get more calls on them.

Katrina