Urgent Care :: Fighting turtles! seen something & dont know what it is?

[Newbieish]

aye ppls...i'm in need of some urgent help....
for the 2nd time this month my 2 turtles (male and a female--about a yr and a half old) have been caught fighting---if u can call it that

i separated them for about a week the first time and put them back and things seemed to be back to normal.....
I keep them in one of those big rubbermaid clear containers btw

Then suddenly i heard some moving around and it was sounding frantic!...
when i checked on them, the male was holding on to the female close to her tail
when i looked closer and eventually separated them, the male was biting something that looked black by the base of her tail!!

the first time i saw it, i thought it was her droppings....but then that would jus break off of course if he's biting on to it.
On both occasions when i go him to stop, the black "thing" went back up ......

not sure what this thing is.....
could it be she's pregnant?? plz help urgently!

(this was the same type of incident for the 1st fight)



I have just separated them, but have to look to see how i'm gonna cater for 2 aquariums now

[taurusgirl]

that would be the man part u saw

[Newbieish]

huh?!
sssooooooo the female aint a female as i thought?

the first time, it was black and streamline i guess i can say

this time....it looked more like a "sack"
like something was in this black "thing"

i just dont know what to call it...plz bear with me

[Newbieish]

so my "female" may actually be a male!?!?

and i checked them out by checking under their shell etc for the concave shape etc

how else can u tell if it's male or female....


but this thing is still scary

[SpenceMasta]

its a penis, its black and can come in and out of the base of the tail, female turtles dont have anything like that

the concave rule seems to confuse a lot of ppl about their turtle's gender since i guess they really dont know what to look for, but a protruding penis is usually solid proof you have a boy

also since they are fighting, the fighting will never stop unless one turtle kills the other turtle so i suggest you separate them for good, even if you think they are best friends or sibling or whatever, they will eventually kill each other

[SpotsMama]

The concave shape applies to other types of turtles. In RES, it's hardly there at all, or maybe not at all.

And Spence is correct - it's important now to keep them separated. The penis biting behaving is pretty common and can be devastating to the male, as you can guess.

When a male matures, he grows unmistakably long front toenails. But even before he grows the toenails, he can start with the fanning (that's the term for a male showing his penis).

[Newbieish]

thanks for the help
i separated them as soon as it happened.

Just trying to work out what to do with them now.

thanks again

[blackforces get you]

my turtle i think is male. some time ago i noticed somthing stuck out her tail wen i heald her. and wen i looked it was somthing like pinkish and in under a second it withdrew back in her cloaca. could it be a penis?

[TheComputerGremlin]

Pinkish, maybe not. Normally they are a dark purple, almost black color. Pinkish may have been a random moment when the intestines slipped out (I know, freaky sounding, huh?). If you search the forums, there are some photos of the boy parts to help you identify them.

Newbieish - Can you post pictures of both of your turtles? The key places to photograph are the front claws and the back underside of the tail, extended if you can. That will help us determine if they are both male or one male/one female. As for what you can do with them now, is there a close family member or friend who would want a pet turtle?

[blackforces get you]

lol i bet she feels awkward about that. okay thanks for the help