It’s been quite a while since my last post. I don’t have many things to report since then except that I’ve learnt my lesson with regards to the turtles sharing one tank together.
This summer, the turtles have spent most of the sunny days outside in a child pool. I think they enjoyed it and the natural UV light was good for them. Due to this, Charlotte shed almost all of her scutes and her shell looks completely different then last year when I got her. It’s so much smoother and the colour is sharper too. She put on some weight though, Charlie as well. Too bad the hot sunny days are starting to get scarce and fall is almost here.
A couple of weeks ago, seeing how well they got along while they were in the pool, I decided to have another shot at the idea of them sharing the same tank. Just like last time I attempted this, everything was fine until the third day when I come home from work and find Charlie on the dock in a pool of blood. My heart stopped and I panicked, not knowing what to do. I got myself together, carefully picked him up while at the same time scolding Charlotte and calling her names that I’m not allowed to mention here. His eyes were bloody, swollen, and closed shut. I tried cleaning him up a little bit and I dry-docked him near a heat source for the night. The next morning, after cleaning away some more dried blood from his face, I noticed that the bleeding had stopped but his eyes still looked bad. It took a couple more days for him to start looking like the usual Charlie again, after which I put him back in his tank.
I’m not trying to put all the blame on Charlotte because, although she’s the one hurting Charlie every time, Charlie’s not a saint either and, from what I’ve seen, he provokes her by waving his nails in front of her face and stalking her around the tank. After all this I made a promise never to try to do this again. It’s a little bit inconvenient having two huge tanks in my room but I knew that that this could be the case when I decided to get Charlotte.
Posted by tammy on April 1, 2011 at 4:35 PM
I have 5 turtles: 2 maps (clyde n baby): 1 painted(simon) 1 yellow belly(bonnie) and 1 res(new to the family but has no name yet the map turtles are together in a 40 gallon tank just got them a new filter a canister and its awesome!!!! my res is in a 10 gallon tank cuz shes a baby but we put it in w/ the 2 maps cuz they r small in general….the only probs ive had is my male map turtle chases the two around the tank and it looks like it drives them insane they do nip at each other and the male vib rates his nails in front of the face which is their mating ritual, but even after all the chasing they are ok no blood drawn yet they have been together forever, but my painted turtle is aggressive I believe because he has always been by himself and he always wants to mate …my yellowbelly weighs almost 2 lbs now she gets along with the maps but i put the baby res w/ her and she was trying to mate with it hmmm…..does bonnie realize how big she is????oh and its spring time no less so anyhow i have 4 tanks right now hopefully will only have 3 im trying to get the new res to be not so skiddish this can be accomplished where i have freed my maps mostly of that situation and they are known for that they say they can also die from getting scared etc
Posted by vecinana on April 4, 2011 at 1:55 PM
It was nice to read about your turtles. Wow 5 of them… that must be a handful.