I am a kindergarten teacher and I have a bad habit of rescuing animals from my kinders and taking them home. Nov. 2000 one of my students brought 2 brand new RES hatchlings to school to share for "T" week. They were cold, in 1/2 inch of dirty water in one of those tiny critter plastic cages with pink gravel. I sent home a long letter home explaining how to care for them and to be sure and wash hands as there were 6 kids at home. The next day they came back with a note that said, "They are yours." I was afraid to take them home because my husband had said no more critters! So I took my 10 gal set up into class. The students named them Speedy and Gonzalez. We raised them until June when I had to take them home. My husband fell in love with them and they never went back to school.
Fast forward 1 year. Speedy and Gonzalez are now 4 inches and it turns out that Gonzalez is actually Gonzeta. Speedy has become a hormonal male and is fluttering Gonzeta like crazy. Gonzeta is not having any of it and when Speedy displays his privates, she takes a big hunk out of them. Fortunately I was there and got between Gonzeta and Speedy with a wire divider. But the water is turning orange from Speedy's blood. Tank change! I thought I had solved the problem with the divider but the next day Speedy is hanging parallel on the divider and displays again. Gonzeta reaches thru and takes two bites of him AGAIN! I put in another wire divider with a large enough space between the two that Gonzeta could not reach her head thru to Speedy. But by this time I don't know if Speedy is going to survive because he is leaking blood constantly. So I called the "turtle lady" in town and asked if she would take Gonzeta off my hands.
Fast forward 10 years. Speedy survived, has a large, bare tank (his nickname is "The Destroyer", loves his blue marble and grapes... and Daddy, who over feeds him! However, he hates the lady with the yellow gloves that cleans him.
