Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: Turtles attacking the biggest one

[irsl8er]

Hi
I have had three turtles for about 7 years. Two females I adopted at the same time and one male. About 7 months ago we noticed turtle sex happening. A month later teh big one was laying eggs. When we saw this, we instantly removed her, put her in a box of dirt, and let her lay her eggs.

Well a few days ago the fish in the tank were gasping for air. I went through my montly project of cleaning the filters and such, and noticed egg shells busted on the floor. Didnt' think anything other than to be on the lookout for more eggs. Remember I said two females, not sure which one would be laying them.

Well this morning during feeding time, I noticed the male chasing the biggest female, and trying to bite at her leg. The female is easily 8 or 9 inches, male maybe 6. I took the female out, and let her chill in a plastic box. So when I got home from work, I put her back in. Well with in 5 minutes of her being put back in, the other female starts attacking her. SO now I pull out the opposite female from earlier thinking she may have been the culprit the whole time. I was wrong, as the male started trying to get under the big females neck, and apparently had grip on her according to my wife. So currently the biggest female is out of the tank...and the other two are still in there with no issues to each other what so ever.

So what do you guys think?
Domincance from cleaning the tank a little---seems doubtful to me.
She still has eggs in her, and they are thinking of her as week?
Personally I thought she was the meanest, and all her years of being the big one has flipped on her/
Or turtles just getting tired of each other.

Pleas answer me as intelligently as you can. IF you have questions, I will tell you them. If you think I may be missing something, I will try to fill you in. I can't let the big tutle badck in yet, so what does everyone suggest?

Oh, and the tank is 150 filled 3/4 full, two cannister filter rena xp filstar4, and a bunch of random cichlids. THe turtles have lights, they have filtration, they have space, and they get food. Please advise

[PridgNYC]

I'm thinking normal mating behaviors. The male while underwater will swim backward in front of the female and try to grab her head and flutter his claws on her face. If she is receptive, she will allow this and eventually allow him to mount. The rest you can look up on youtube.

[sflemin2]

The male is typically the one that needs separated. When my normally submissive female is gravid, she gets dominant and starts fights. I only have the two and they seem to work together well because my other girl will back off of her and stay out of her way. Once shes gone laying eggs, she goes back to normal. Feel her for eggs and keep her separated until she is finished. Then hopefully things will go back to normal (unless shes laying eggs again at least!)

[irsl8er]

See, I thought the males were usually more aggressive. IN this case, both male and female are attacking the bigger female.

Right now she is in a tiny tank, which will work, but I am very uncomfortable with.

How does one check for eggs? In this new tank she has not laid one(though it only has been 12 hours. I am thinking I may give her time in a dirt box just so she can try to release eggs if she has any. I know when we pulled her, the other two were going after her eggs as soon as they came out. And since they must have eaten the last set she dropped(which I believe messed up the levels in my tank causing a nitrate spike which caused my fish to gasp for air and become lethargic), and the fish started getting a taste for meat as they started going after the cichlid's. They generally don't chase the fish, usually because they are rather fast, but when this whole thing started they were whole heartily trying to eat meat.

[steve]

Both males and females can be aggressive, males with almost certainty. They really need to be separated.

[sflemin2]

One of our posters here made this video to show how to check for eggs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY2pRyQgn9o

You should check Craiglist to see if you can find another tank for a good price. Also, consider rubbermaids and feeding tubs (for farms)

[irsl8er]

Setting up a tank isn't really a true option. The space needed isn't there. I would prefer to figure out how to get her back in there's.

[steve]

If you don't have room for another or larger tank, then you'd want to consider rehoming one of them.

[irsl8er]

So putting her back in the rank is a bad idea? Like I said this is the first time this has ever happened.

[steve]

If she's attacked right away or even on a regular basis, then yes.