Map turtles

[pauls]

Hi again,

I have two map turtles and after a few months one has grown considerably larger than the other.

I appreciate that females usually grow larger than males??? but the largest is around three times the size of the smaller????

One of the main things that has caused my concern is the smaller of the two has an inability to maintain any depth in water without swimming franticly to stay there, where as the larger quite happily sits at the base of the tank for as long as needed. Although the smaller still gets it's fair share of food it just does not appear to be growing at the same rate as the other.

Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

[MissHayho]

females grow about 1 - 2 foot in length!!!! in comparison to the males they are huge! your male (if you have one ) will not grow much bigger than your hand! - not sure of the exact sizes but we had a female n she was hige compared to n e male ive seen! im sure someone will correct me if the sizes are wrong though

[pauls]

Thanks for the reasurrance.

They are still very young at present and the smaller is only around 1-1 1/2 inches in length the larger is probably around 3 inches long

[MissHayho]

ye sounds as if you have a male n female -

[pauls]

Cool

Any ideas how old they are when they normally breed.

Any thing I should do to encourage thislol

[MissHayho]

well i have looked into it a bit for you and have found out that females grow about 30cm in length and males grow about 12cm in length when fully grown.

the site said this about feeding:
DIET. Be careful not to overfeed your Graptemys. I recommend only feeding 2 to 3 times a week for adult turtles and every day or every other day for the rapidly growing hatchlings. Map turtles are highly carnivorous and crayfish, snails, insects, worms may make up a large part of their diet. Some vegetable matter is also taken with hatchlings eating more duckweed and water plants than the adults. Many of the commercially prepared turtle diets that exist on the market today are excellent Map turtle food.

also found this;

For those Map turtles in which courtship and breeding behavior have been described, some common behaviors have been noted. Those species in which the males possess elongated claws apparently use them in approximately the same way as male sliders do. First the male swims past the female and turns to face her. He then vibrates his forelimbs and elongated claws against her cheeks. After performing this courtship maneuver for a variable amount of time the male will mount the female. In species in which the males lack long foreclaws, other behaviors have replaced this sequence. For example, it has been reported that in the Alabama Map turtle the male will vibrate his head against the female's nose, alternating sides rapidly. Female Map turtles routinely lay multiple clutches during the course of a single breeding season. A moderate number of eggs are laid per clutch, ranging from 5 to 16 eggs, depending on the species. These hatch in 60 to 75 days. Females usually choose well-drained areas for egg deposition, such as sandy beaches or open clearings. The temperature at which the eggs incubate can affect the final sex of the turtle in some species of Map turtle. Incubation at 25 degrees C. gives a high percentage of male turtles, while eggs kept at 30 to 35 degrees C. yield females, at least in G. pseudogeographica, G. geographica, and G. ouachitensis.

hope it helps!

[pauls]

Thats great

Thanks for your help.

I will defo be posting if I notice any signs.

How exciting

[MissHayho]

hehe good luck with it - like i said i dont know much on them really!

[pauls]

you have been a great help.

Thank you

[sam316]

just a little extra info. if you do still feel worried about the little one maybe not getting enough food try feeding them seperately for a while and see if this makes a difference. like others have said though, sex makes a huge difference to size. i got a male and female and she is at least twice his size lol!
sam