Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all, and Happy Holidays!
It has been a really long time since I last posted, so I hope you are all well.

Anyway, last night I completed my new project: a 110 Gallon Deep tank, and my 2 RESes love it. It's got a few rocks, a few fake plants, a bunch of guppies, and there "were" 2 goldfish, but now there is one...

So my RESes have been in a tank together for 2 years now. One is huge... about 10 in long by 5 in wide... he's also older. I estimate about 1-2 years older. The smaller one is about 6 in long. They get along great, and have never had any problems.

Today, however, I noticed some VERY odd behavior. It was as if they were cuddling under water - face to face - CLEARLY not confrontational or aggressively. In fact, when they were nose to nose, the smaller one put his front paws out in front of him really close to his face with his "palms" facing outward, and started pulsating them in and out almost rubbing the big one's face.

Does anyone have a clue what they are doing?

Here are some pics!

BTW - The other goldfish is gone too.

Happy holiday!

Nice tank by the way! And some pretty cute turtles! 2 weeks ago I put two cobalt blue gouramies in my turtle's home. Guess what? He ate them both!!! I did not think he would, seriously...because I put two feeder goldfish in there (left over from the feeding), and he didn't bother to try to eat them. I even go so far as to put fresh water aquatic plants in there for the fish to hide! I'm still very angry at myself...and I lost two beautiful fish! And the irony of this is, the two feeder goldfish is still well and alive! I'm kindda developing feelings for them though! Funny, huh?

It sounds like a courtship to me. He probably just needs some love!

Can I ask what size it is and the size of your turtles?

I have been kicking around the idea of a tank for my
painted turtles. Right now they share a 160 gallon
pond with my 2 sliders but the sliders are getting so
big it may be time to separate them.

Thanks
Linda

I have him in one of those large see through orange storage box with overhanging pump filter and clamp heat lamp for him to bask. I tried one of those medium small plastic pool that you can buy at Walmart, but he doen't like it for some reason. I guess it's too big for him, and he probably feels insecured. I'm planning to get a 29 gallon once he is fully grown. He's a juvy right now. That's my guess because his front claws haven't fully grown out yet, and he has just started to develop bumps on his shell like you would see on the older sliders. Sometimes he does the mating pulsing movement with his front legs when I'm feeding him while he is starring at me! [laugh!] Weird, huh?