Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I have five RES for about three years in a 125 gallon tank. From my best estimation, the largest one is a female which is close to having a 4" shell, and the other four are males and they are all smaller at about 2/5" - 3" shell. They've been cohabitating fine for all this time. Just recently in the past three weeks, I notice that the largest RES consistently would bite the feet and the tail of the smaller RES. This happens whenever the large one swims near the smaller ones or if the smaller ones swim right over the large one. Now all of my smaller turtles swim with their feet and tails closed...its kinda funny when you see them swim with just the two front arms, but I am getting worried. Why is the large one becoming so aggressive and what should i do?

vege

Turtles are territorial animals, in the wild they're generally loner animals except during mating season and except for when they need to share basking space.
It's normal for those raised together to grow up then start fighting & biting.
You need to separate them because bitten off tails, toes, & heads isn't what you want.
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PHRatz

You are going to have to separate this one from the others

Linda