Urgent Care :: Help Me Please... for my turtles :/

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Post Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 2:59 am   Help Me Please... for my turtles :/

Napoleon: Female / had for 6 months/ maybe 8 months old
Josephine: Female / had for 3 months/ maybe ten months old

They live in a 50 gallon tank with a basking rock, fake plants and a small ship decoration.
Have heaters, water filter works perfect, heating lamp, window light in the afternoon if needed, gets a lot of attention, regular food sticks from Petco called reptomin. I recently got two turtle bones that they have enjoyed but don't use much.

I believe that Josephine is older than Napoleon. She is much thicker than him and seems to act older. Me and my boyfriend bought them at Petco where they have the turtles in shop for adoption. Napoleon is smaller then Josephine. We believe she has met sexual maturity but Napoleon doesn't exhibit much actions.
Josephine has been biting on his feet for the past month. She bit at his feet tonight and almost got his hand before I stopped her. There hasn't been an issue since now and they have so much space. But Josephine is aggressive towards him. There isn't any injury and they really do get along. But I believe she's to aggressive and may hurt him. I just took out a corner piece decoration from the tank to give them more room and be able to have eye contact. They have been more conscious of each other and swim along side one another for a month now. I just fear that she may hurt him and it's scaring me. She bites at him but he doesn't seem to fear her, they my be playing but she does seem to also want to bite me since we got her. It may be her personality but it's a little concerning. I don't want to separate them and if she keeps doing this, we may have to give her away which I don't want. They are both females, despite napoleons name lol. I love them so much and don't want her to deal with the stress of being put in a new home with no friends.
Please help...
Thank you :msgreen: :msgreen:
Mhunte48
 
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Post Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 1:08 pm   Re: Help Me Please... for my turtles :/

Are you sure both are females? If one is already sexual mature at that age, she's probably pretty big and overfed. Usually aggression is tied to personality and/or gender. If both are females, then it is a personality issue. Either way, I would recommend separation of some type... the easiest would be a large (stock) tank divided up.
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steve
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Post Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 4:42 pm   Re: Help Me Please... for my turtles :/

Thank you. Yes they both are female, same tails claws etc. Josephine Is large for her age. I've tried giving her less food to reduce her size so she doesn't get health issues and my boyfriend thinks it's that make her aggressive. I just don't want to separate them because they do like each other, and even sleep next to each other. I just feel like these random spurts of aggression freaks me out but happen rarely so I could separate them but I feel like I should take Josephine to a vet and check her health, see if she has any eye sight issues (thinking that napoleons feet are fish) or to see if they do need to be seprated or if it's her personality. She hasn't hurt him from what is see but I'm trying to prevent injury.
WeirdLonersForLife
Mhunte48
 
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Post Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 8:29 pm   Re: Help Me Please... for my turtles :/

I highly recommend as Steve said , separation of some type ! I've been doing this 50 plus years and thought I could read turtles very well. No signs with two turtles all good. Everything perfect ! No signs of any problem ! Play , eat , sleep together until. One day Ellen and I went to lunch , arriving home ...Ellen screams while I was parking car....she just pointed...front left leg bit off...dead turtle. Lost two turtles that day one "dead" the other had to re-home after 18 years with me from birth. To this day I knew my fault for not separating , it was to rare that it was working out. The pain to this day is like the first. Hope you do not get the pain I have to this day!

You have the signs "personality differences" , "aggression" , "biting" you state: almost got the other before you stopped her! You can not watch ever minute...hope you don't find what we did that day. Please , separation needed to save you from that pain. And for the turtles to be happy and healthy.

You posted under Urgent Care//Help Me Please...for my turtles:/ You heard from two long time turtle keepers " separation" for your turtles !
litefoot
 
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Post Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 7:26 pm   Re: Help Me Please... for my turtles :/

Thank you so much. I'll take this more seriously and separate the tank. I just wished I had known before hand. But we can have them love each other from a distance in order for them to both stay safe :) thank you so much
WeirdLonersForLife
Mhunte48
 
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Post Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2017 11:12 am   Re: Help Me Please... for my turtles :/

I'm sure you'll make the right choices. Most of us are caught off guard about the effort required for turtle care, but we'll try to help make it as easy as possible.
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steve
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