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Turtle attack on his best friend

22 16:02:18

Question
This past year I was given a large female Red slider ( 10 inches) with her friend goldfish. Two months later I was given a 7 inch male red slider I have had them all in the same large tank for 7 months now this past week the female has begun attacking the male I just noticed she is only attacking his feet. I am separating them tomorrow. my question is can I try to introduce them again after some time or is this for their friendship?

Answer
Hi Tara,

You're projecting human emotions onto your turtles.  They don't have friends in the sense that people do, or even dogs and cats.  They can get along (or not) in a captive environment, and will share basking areas and so forth, but they're not really "friends" (and not with the fish, either).  There could be two things going on.

One is that your female is gravid.  They will often become aggressive prior to laying.  Since you've had a male and female together, this is a distinct possibility.  I would actually recommend not keeping a male and female together because of this.  RES are very hard to find good homes for because of the amount of space they require, so breeding them and incubating the eggs isn't really a good idea.  You'll end up with a lot of hatchlings and have trouble rehoming them.

Another possibility is territoriality.  You didn't say how big your tank is, but two RES the size yours are need at least 150 gallons.  If the space is too small, you can get aggression and bullying problems.  Sometimes moving the tank decorations, basking area, etc. will help, but really if the tank is too small, the only way to solve the problem is to either get a bigger tank or separate into two tanks.