musk & painted turtles

Question
Hi Mark. I have 2 painted turtles,1yr.4months old, & a musk turtle,about 3 yrs old. They have successfully lived together for the past 16 months. Musk & Nemo, my painted,were best friends. Then the musk started bullying Nemo, now tries to bite him constantly. I have to take the musk out and put him in a seperate tank. My musk is very unhappy in the other tank by himself. Plus it costs alot to get another filter & bigger tank, etc.Can I put my musk back into the river, and if so, when is the best time? Or should I try to give him to a rescue or try to sell him? I love him, but don't have money right now for another set-up and his well-being is the most important thing. Thank you

Answer
Releases are tricky. They are most successful when done within 8 months and 1 mile of the capture. If you are going to release it, do it very, very soon.

Musks are usually pretty good at sharing habitat, so I wonder if the tank size was too small for the three of them, or if the stress of capture was just too much for it. (Being caught really, really stresses wild turtles- they usually only live a small fraction of their normal life-spans when they are wild-caught rather than being captive bred.)

Another possibility is diet- Musks are meat-eaters, and may just have been trying for more protein in its diet.

As for being lonely- that is not the situation. What you are seeing is that it was used to one habitat, and is now in another. It takes a couple weeks to settle in. Musk Turtles are not social, and spend most of their lives alone. Same for Painteds, actually. Other than group basking and mating, Painteds rarely are seen near another turtle.

Try http://www.austinsturtlepage.com or their forums at http://www.turtleforum.com for more ideas.

Good luck!