Habitat - Indoor :: Turtles attacking each other - how to separate!!

[chelsealou002]

Hello! I got 2 RES before I knew anything about them. Now after a year they have started to attack each other. So much so that one has bruises all under her arm. I know they need to be separated but I'm at a loss of how to do it because I have very very limited space and exactly no money. #poorcollegekid. What should I do? Do you think maybe keeping them together in a bigger tank will help?!! Should I just get rid of one of them? If so how should I do that?? Thanks.

[Samuel T Jackson]

I'd say they need to be separated. Years ago, one of my turtles started bullying the other, and I thought I could keep the peace by feeding them separately and upgrading their tank, but it wasn't enough (but to be fair, the tank was still small--a huge upgrade might have turned out differently, but I doubt it). Eventually, the bullied one attacked the bully and drew blood, much more vicious than the bully had ever been (but for understandable reasons); after that, I re-homed one to a friend's koi pond. (That turned out to be a bad idea--the family member that maintained the pond somehow didn't realize that the turtle was small enough to get caught in the filter, and he died. That doesn't mean you shouldn't re-home one turtle, but it DOES mean you should check their setup thoroughly, and don't take for granted that they will know how to keep your turtle safe! I still feel guilty about that today.)

While you save up for a much larger tank or make other arrangements, perhaps you should get a small new setup going, and then rotate them: one turtle could be in the permanent tank one day, and then the other could be in the permanent tank the next day. That second temporary tank would still have to be adequately filled, filtered, temperature-regulated, escape-proof, all that stuff--but depending on the size of your turtles, you might be able to get away with a more affordable setup and keep them safe. Maybe some handy people on here have ideas about building partitions; that would also have to be a temporary situation I imagine.

Long story short, if they're already fighting enough to injure each other, it's time to separate; and it can get much worse in a split second.

[spork]

To answer your question: I agree with Mr Jackson. Yes, you should separate them as soon as possible.
If that means giving one up, that may be your best bet. It would be better than having one die in your care. I have seen plenty on craigslist up for adoption and many on these forums who have adopted/rescued them.

Out of curiosity, how big are they? If you got them small, I would guess they are about 3"-4" by now?

While certainly not the ideal setup, a cheap option I can think of is to separate them in their current tank, this would be ideal in a pretty large tank, you still want to shoot for roughly 10 gallons per inch of shell, but on a budget you may not have many options. Even if it is a little cramped, you could probably do this for a few days until you figure out a long term solution. I think something like cork bark or acrylic with holes in it wedged in the middle of the tank would allow the current filter(s) and heater(s) to do their job still. You could move the lights back and forth for them to each get some basking time.

[steve]

So you have a male and female? Separation / rehoming are the only solutions. What year are you in?