Fanning and discharge

Question
I have two male red earred sliders. I have seen them both fan, which freaked me out till I found out what it was. My question is: The smaller of the two has a long thin white string like discharge that sometimes comes out of the hole in his tail. What is it? My husband says it is sperm but I am afraid its a tape worm. It does break up and disappear in the water.Also the larger of my two turtles seems to be trying to mate with the smaller one even though he is male. Is that normal?

Answer
White discharge is probably urea, a component of urine. Tape worms don't dissolve in water, and turtles rarely release sperm outside of mating. It is a little unusual to see urea release, but not a big deal. It may be a function of diet.

Mating behaviors are common in smallish tanks. It is recommended that you keep turtles in about 10 gallons of water per inch of turtle- one reason for that is to give each turtle a little room.

Check out http://www.redearslider.com and http://www.austinsturtlepage.com for more info.