Flirting Map Turtles?

TortoiseWoman

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2017
Messages
19
Hello all!

So, quick run down about my turtles and set up and then I'll ask my questions.
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I have a 110 gallon tank with a large above tank basking area, 300 gallons of filtration, live/fake plants, snails and neon tetras. I have a 2 1/2 yr old male Norther Black Knobbed Map named Waffle. I also have an approx 9 month old Mississippi Map named Pancake. They've been together for the last 4 months and Pancake has grown a large amount in that time. He/she is actually a little lager than Waffle now. I know Waffle is a male. Long fat tail, long front nails, slim body, and 4 inches SCL. Pancake...well I'm beginning to wonder might be a girl? Tail is long but not fat, nails not as long as Waffle's....body is thicker. Now I know they're different kinds of Map turtles....but....

So most of the time they don't seem to pay attention to each other. But just the other day (and a few times since) I've seen Waffle follow Pancake, get up in her(?) face and...vibrate his head. Pancake ignores most of the time or snaps and him and swims away. I've never had multiple turtles living together so have not witnessed social behavior. But is he flirting? Or is it an aggressive thing? It doesn't seem aggressive...I mean Waffle doesn't snap and won't do it for too long before swimming away as though bored. If it doesn't get worse where he's doing it all the time, no injuries, etc they can still live together right? I don't know where I'd put another tank if I had to separate them, haha! My husband has over a dozen marine tanks and has taken up all the space! I mean, I guess I'd work something out but I'd rather not separate them if possible.

Anyway, I wanted to get some of y'all's thoughts. Thanks!

Oh, here's a picture of their set up. Just because.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...565852950824.167680.1407920142&type=3&theater

Part of the above tank basking area is covered cause it made them nervous for it to be so open. And the little poops knocked the drift wood log over. But otherwise it's good.
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This is a video of both of them. Of course I missed it when Waffle vibrated his head at Pancake, haha, but you can still see both of them. And of course they were trying to hide from me so they go to the one part of the tank where algae grows because of that particular light. The live plants like it though. Gotta get more snails to eat that algae. The turtles ate most of the ones I had! *** I'm having problems getting the link to the video to work. So this is just my Facebook page. Scroll down till you find the video. *******

https://www.facebook.com/Puglady

Thanks for any input!

TurtleWoman
 

Moozillion

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10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
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Apr 26, 2012
Messages
10,744
Location (City and/or State)
Louisiana, USA
Hello all!

So, quick run down about my turtles and set up and then I'll ask my questions.
default_smile-smile.gif




I have a 110 gallon tank with a large above tank basking area, 300 gallons of filtration, live/fake plants, snails and neon tetras. I have a 2 1/2 yr old male Norther Black Knobbed Map named Waffle. I also have an approx 9 month old Mississippi Map named Pancake. They've been together for the last 4 months and Pancake has grown a large amount in that time. He/she is actually a little lager than Waffle now. I know Waffle is a male. Long fat tail, long front nails, slim body, and 4 inches SCL. Pancake...well I'm beginning to wonder might be a girl? Tail is long but not fat, nails not as long as Waffle's....body is thicker. Now I know they're different kinds of Map turtles....but....

So most of the time they don't seem to pay attention to each other. But just the other day (and a few times since) I've seen Waffle follow Pancake, get up in her(?) face and...vibrate his head. Pancake ignores most of the time or snaps and him and swims away. I've never had multiple turtles living together so have not witnessed social behavior. But is he flirting? Or is it an aggressive thing? It doesn't seem aggressive...I mean Waffle doesn't snap and won't do it for too long before swimming away as though bored. If it doesn't get worse where he's doing it all the time, no injuries, etc they can still live together right? I don't know where I'd put another tank if I had to separate them, haha! My husband has over a dozen marine tanks and has taken up all the space! I mean, I guess I'd work something out but I'd rather not separate them if possible.

Anyway, I wanted to get some of y'all's thoughts. Thanks!

Oh, here's a picture of their set up. Just because.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...565852950824.167680.1407920142&type=3&theater

Part of the above tank basking area is covered cause it made them nervous for it to be so open. And the little poops knocked the drift wood log over. But otherwise it's good.
default_smile-smile.gif




This is a video of both of them. Of course I missed it when Waffle vibrated his head at Pancake, haha, but you can still see both of them. And of course they were trying to hide from me so they go to the one part of the tank where algae grows because of that particular light. The live plants like it though. Gotta get more snails to eat that algae. The turtles ate most of the ones I had! *** I'm having problems getting the link to the video to work. So this is just my Facebook page. Scroll down till you find the video. *******

https://www.facebook.com/Puglady

Thanks for any input!

TurtleWoman
BEAUTIFUL tank, and gorgeous turtles!!!!! :) Love those big paddle feet!!!!! :)
I don't know what to tell you about your turtle's behavior. I just have a single mud turtle.
I've heard that keeping pairs can lead to trouble, but a group of 3 or more is better. Does your tank have room for a third turtle?
Let's see what the experts have to say. ;)
 

Markw84

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Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 17, 2012
Messages
5,041
Location (City and/or State)
Sacramento, CA (Central Valley)
Sounds like normal behavior to me. My maps do that all the time. The males are quite persistent. It has never turned aggressive with maps for me, they simply follow the females around quite a bit, especially in spring. I have never seen them biting as Trachemys do. I will see it even in very young and definitely sexually immature turtles.

The algae is an issue since we provide such nice UVB lighting. Along with that comes the UVA and nice blues and other colors that encourage plant growth. Also will be more if nitrates build up in the water. The normal biological action of a well balanced tank will take care of converting ammonia to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate. That takes care of any toxic issues. But the nitrate will build up and is basically plant fertilizer. Partial water changes are to mitigate that build up. For me, my tap water is very high in nitrates to begin with, so algae in a tank is inevitable. I do use plecostomus in my tanks to help. They will do well, and are so tough-bodied, I have never had a problem with a turtle bothering a healthy one. They are great algae eaters!
 

Alex Z

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5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2016
Messages
794
Location (City and/or State)
NYC
Hello all!

So, quick run down about my turtles and set up and then I'll ask my questions.
default_smile-smile.gif




I have a 110 gallon tank with a large above tank basking area, 300 gallons of filtration, live/fake plants, snails and neon tetras. I have a 2 1/2 yr old male Norther Black Knobbed Map named Waffle. I also have an approx 9 month old Mississippi Map named Pancake. They've been together for the last 4 months and Pancake has grown a large amount in that time. He/she is actually a little lager than Waffle now. I know Waffle is a male. Long fat tail, long front nails, slim body, and 4 inches SCL. Pancake...well I'm beginning to wonder might be a girl? Tail is long but not fat, nails not as long as Waffle's....body is thicker. Now I know they're different kinds of Map turtles....but....

So most of the time they don't seem to pay attention to each other. But just the other day (and a few times since) I've seen Waffle follow Pancake, get up in her(?) face and...vibrate his head. Pancake ignores most of the time or snaps and him and swims away. I've never had multiple turtles living together so have not witnessed social behavior. But is he flirting? Or is it an aggressive thing? It doesn't seem aggressive...I mean Waffle doesn't snap and won't do it for too long before swimming away as though bored. If it doesn't get worse where he's doing it all the time, no injuries, etc they can still live together right? I don't know where I'd put another tank if I had to separate them, haha! My husband has over a dozen marine tanks and has taken up all the space! I mean, I guess I'd work something out but I'd rather not separate them if possible.

Anyway, I wanted to get some of y'all's thoughts. Thanks!

Oh, here's a picture of their set up. Just because.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...565852950824.167680.1407920142&type=3&theater

Part of the above tank basking area is covered cause it made them nervous for it to be so open. And the little poops knocked the drift wood log over. But otherwise it's good.
default_smile-smile.gif




This is a video of both of them. Of course I missed it when Waffle vibrated his head at Pancake, haha, but you can still see both of them. And of course they were trying to hide from me so they go to the one part of the tank where algae grows because of that particular light. The live plants like it though. Gotta get more snails to eat that algae. The turtles ate most of the ones I had! *** I'm having problems getting the link to the video to work. So this is just my Facebook page. Scroll down till you find the video. *******

https://www.facebook.com/Puglady

Thanks for any input!

TurtleWoman


Hello...I cannot see any images..
 

TortoiseWoman

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2017
Messages
19
Thanks everyone! He does follow her around quite a bit but doesn't seem to do anything other than what I described.

As far as adding a third turtle, I don't know if that would work in this tank or not. It's 110 gallons and I have the 4 inch SCL male, not sure how big this female will get as she's not grown (she's slightly bigger than the male right now). If I get another Map hatchling and end up with another female, well I don't think that would work. Would it? I do have a third turtle now but it (he? I have no idea) is a 9-10 month old Common Musk. He is in a separate, much smaller tank. He's in a 20 gallon long. His name is Elon (for the actor Elon Musk :D ). He was the size of a penny when we got him and has probably tripled in size, if not more. Obviously a much slower grower though than the Maps. Elon would not do well in the 110 gallon tank. He's not the swimmer the Maps are, that's for sure! So I never planned to put him in with them.

So tell me your thoughts on a third Map. Would it help? Would it work? Is a community of three better than two? I don't mind at all getting a third Map if it might help. I'm just not able to up grade this set up any time soon. So whatever I have needs to be able to live in it for quite some time. But none of it matters if you don't think having three would "spread the behavior around" so to speak....does that make sense?
I don't know, haha, tell me what you think.
Thanks
 
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