How do I get this to stop..

[MikeC1212]

I was wondering if somone would give me some advice..

I have 2 turtles, a yellow bellied slider and a western painted. The slider was about 3" long when I got him.. he's around 5-6" now and the painted is about 3" long. They're together in a 55g and did fine for weeks.. until recently. The slider started to try to bite the painted's tail! He tucks it in but the slider ended up biting the shell above his tail and a pretty decent size chunk is gone. That area of the shell seems pretty soft too and I don't know why.

I realize separation will obviously stop but that isn't the easiest thing for me, i have nowhere to put him.

The slider eats and eats, is he so hungry all the time that he's trying to get some extra food? Other than the nipping, he doesn't seem aggressive towards the little guy.

The slider eats 2 different kinds of turtle pellets, minnows, & krill.. he ends up eating whatever I feed the few goldfish too. The painted will only eat minnows and krill.

How serious is this? I'm getting nervous/ don't want to get rid of one but I will if I have to.

[Reptilian]

Well first off...the shell injury might need a vets attention. Is there a picture you can get?

Secondly it does sound like agression issues and seperation should be taken into consideration. If you can't afford another tank you can always use a 55 gallon rubbermaid container. They work great, hold tons of water (55 gallons of course lol), but don't look aesthetically pleasing. It will still need a filter and a water heater as well as basking light and a UV bulb.

Finally, do you have a UV light set up for them to bask under (as well as a heat lamp)? Your bulb might not be giving off the UV rays because it is older than 6 months (UV lights need to be changed every 6 months), or it is incased in plastic housing, which needs to be removed. The plastic window needs to be taken off.

Can you tell us more about your set up?

[MikeC1212]

55g, probably 45g of water. 2 filters, 1 is completely submersible, the other is suctioncup mounted both made for "10-30 gallons."

The top: half screen/half plastic hood. The basking lamp is obviously on the screen side w/ a 24" light.. 24" light on the other side as well. When I switched to 2 24" lights instead of 1 48" a couple weeks ago to better accomodate the top set up ..The UV went w/ the 48". I haven't had a chance to get a new one yet. The lights fixtures are staggered in order to have the basking spot in the back. Maybe I didn't realize the importance of immedate UV lighting... I'll be getting those tomorrow. The basking lamp might be kind of weak, only 25w but it's about 5" from the turtle so I figured it wasn't going to burn them, at least. They seem to like it. Ambient temp of the room is around 74, water temp between 78-80.


Anyway, The slider wouldn't stop biting! The only thing I could do is give him back to the store. I'm glad they took him because I couldn't stomach it any longer.

As for the vet.. they don't have reptile vets up here. I hope he does ok.