Question

Question
I have two RES turtles, One Stewie (male ~ 5.5 Inch Shell length ways) The other Olivia (Female ~ 4.5 inch shell length ways)
I have had them for a while now and Stewie has always jittered his nails on her face. Which I know can mean threatening or dominant behavior or mating behavior. But he has done this sense she was a little bitty baby. They have never fought, never had a problem with eachother not even during feeding time. They are not vicious towards people and have been together for a long time. Now all of a sudden (last 2 weeks or so) She has been vibrating her nails back at him and they do it to eachother at the same time. Most of the time she will back him up into a corner and he will push her and walk (swim) out towards the middle of the enclosure and then she will push back and I think its a mating thing but is she old enough for that? She is still to young to get eggs right? He hasn't tried mounting her or anything but when he does this he does like to lift his but up and raise his legs off of the bottom of the tank. sorry for the book but I figured i would give you all the information I knew...
She will put her nails up aganst her own face and he puts his nails along the outside of hers and they both vibrate and walk towards eachother... Just any information on this would be helpful... possible eggs? Still to young? Mating, fighting? Anything else would be great. Thanks for reading my book! Hope to hear back from ya soon
~~~Heather-Elise

Answer
Courtship-like behaviors between two turtles that are not appropriate mates is a dominance issue and is a form of ritual fighting.

It can indicate a few things...

1. Stress, usually due to overcrowding. We recommend giving turtles about 10 gallons of water per inch of shell to help minimize this stress. Your turtles should be in about 100 gallons of water by this standard.

2. Bullying. RES are noted for their tendency to 'go bully' for no known reason, with no known absolute remedy. If the habitat is big enough and they are still doing this, they may just be incompatible in one tank.

http://www.redearslider.com has other info that may help.