Urgent Care :: Problem with two females

[egillt]

I have two female turtles in a big tank (540L) in my living room, but one of them is a quite a bit bigger than the other one. Recently she has become really agressive and is attacking the smaller one and I am beginning to be afraid of that she might harm her.

Any ideas of why this might be and what I could do to help it? Really do not want to lose one of my turtles : (

[Kemul]

That might be, well, aggression. What you can do is to separate the two. Yes,
that means you need to set up another tank.

What's your setup like right now? I wonder why there can be aggression in a tank
that big. Well, we can't really predict the turtle's behavior, but usually territorial
issues can be diminished with large tank size for two turtles. Do post photos.

I'm sorry I can't help much.

[bradmeisel]

I had the same problem. I put a partition (egg crate) to separate the tank without needing a whole different setup. You still will need two basking areas and lights etc...

Separate them now or it could be disastrous. My turtles are actually alot happier having their own areas. Chimpy has gotten much friendlier and outgoing.

[egillt]

Yeah, Think I have to do that. Just have to get a new basking area and light, can work on that this weekend.

But with what material is best to separate the areas? I mean it must hold water, but also my cleaning device (cant remember name in english) cant cover both of the places really if its completely seperated.

[Kemul]

I forgot to mention dividing your tank in my first post. It's big enough anyway.

What you can use is egg crate or light diffuser. You can get it from hardware
store. It's plastic and certainly won't block water, so you don't need to worry
about the filtration.

[egillt]

I dont seem to figure out what you mean by egg crate, could u perhaps send me a link of an image of it? I just think about a carton thingy that we use in iceland

[Kemul]

I'm going to use Bulldog's photo for an eggcrate sample:



It doesn't have to be an eggcrate/light diffuser, but it'll give you a hint on what
you can use to divide the tank.

[vear]

hehe... "eggcrate" I used to think of egg cartons too! lol. Sorry I just find it funny because I used to not know what it was either.

[bradmeisel]

I had no idea what egg crate was either.