My boyfriend has 2 yeallow bellied sliders and they are both over a year old, yesterday i got a baby one 2 go with them. How do we tell which are boys and which are girls? Also the biggest turtle, mertle has been swimming kind of wonky and when he goes to the bottom of the tank his bum tries to float up. Mertle has also been chasing the other turtle and like holding out his front legs n shaking them, wats this?
Sounds like Mertle may be a male. Males will use their front claws to "fan" the female's face during mating. It's not a 100% garantee that he's a male because of that, but it's a good bet. How big of a tank are the original 2 in? Three YBS will need over 100 gallons and males can be territorial and sometimes even females, especially if there's not enough space in the tank. Since YBS aren't sexually mature until at least 3-5 yrs, it's hard to tell sex until then. When mertle swims, what exactly appears to be happening? I know you said his bottom looks like it wants to float up, but is it just when he swims to the bottom? I ask because a lot of times, when the turtle tilts to one side or can't swim because one side wants to "float" it's an indicator of several problems: dehydration (unlikely since he's living in an aquatic tank), pneumonia (or other type of respiratory infection), or any type of bloating can cause this. Their bottoms natural will float as they do not swim levelly front-to-back, but they should swim level side-to-side and shouldn't have to struggle to stay level.
I dont know what size it is but its plenty big enough because he used to have 5 in there. well when he swims he just tilts on one side. we've got some special food now with added calcium to see if that helps. we have calcium blocks but he is a picky eater and we have never seen him eat them but he seems to eat the food. what should we do with him? thanlyou for your help so far.
