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If a male turtle extends his arms out and vibrates it is called mating dance, that's what I heard. My 2 turtles, 1 male and 1 female, are doing the same thing to each other at the same time, so this behavior may not be exclusive to the male turtle. The female's hands are actually touching t he male's face, they keep doing it but nothing else follows, what gives? I also noticed that the female's head always tucks in when reaching out vibrating. So, is this mating dance or fighting dance? I don't know.

It's called fluttering and can be a sign of aggression or a mating thing. How big are your turtles?

Yup, both males and female can do it.

One is around 4" and the other is around 6 1/2". I'm still trying to figure out what's up with them, at first, I thought it was an romantic thing between them. I have a second thought now. I haven't seen them got into a real fight yet, knock knock, knock, but the big one always blocks the smaller one just like a big kid bullying a smaller kid with his chest, lol! With that said, I worry it is going to escalate into a fight because the smaller one can't move much in the tank. I, myself would hate someone blocking my way every single moment.

Unfortunately aggression is a pretty common problem when turtles are housed together You may want to start considering seperating them. How big is the tank?

I logged on to the forums for this EXACT behavior issue! I've had my turtle for over 20 years and he's never done this before. About a month ago I got him a few new decorations for his tank, a small budda statue and an oriental rock dojo house looking thing. He started "stalking" and then aggressively charging the budda after a few days, so I took that out because I was worried he was getting upset and stressed. Now the last couple days he's been doing the "stalking" dance at the turned over rock decoration (because of course he had to knock it over and "redecorate" everything) and doing the flutter thing with his arms. He is the only turtle in the tank, so he can't be getting aggressive in that way. I've taken all the old decorations out of the tank because I was worried he was getting stressed, but now he's doing the same flutter thing to one of his large rocks he's had for years. Like I said i've had him over 20 years and i've never seen him act like this.

I just want to make sure he's not stressed or anything. :/

My turtle flutters at what I think may be his own reflection every night. He looks almost proud afters he's done, like he's thinking "I really showed that guy who's in charge!" lol

happycamper wrote:My turtle flutters at what I think may be his own reflection every night. He looks almost proud afters he's done, like he's thinking "I really showed that guy who's in charge!" lol

I was thinking that's what he was doing at first with the budda, but could he really think he's the boss of a rock? If I come over to the tank he completely forgets about it and acts normal (i.e. begging for food again, lol) so it's tough for me to tell if he's distressed. Since i've had him so long and he's never done this before it has me baffled!