Please help, I'm so confused
 

So I have two Hermans (thb), I had them since they were hatchlings and they were incubated to be female. They hatched August 2008 so they are 8 years old. Eggs have been laid! So I'm thinking one is male. One is smaller than the other, so I intially thought that was the male (now renamed by my son as James). However the larger one (Daisy) has a much longer tail, the small ones tail is almost non-existent. So then I thought the one with the long tail must be the male. I separated them, as the smaller keeps chasing the larger one and trying to bite her and mount her. And now the large one has laid another egg (the 4th egg in three days), so now I'm back to thinking the larger one with the longer tail must be the female after all? I'm really confused, anyone got any suggestions? Not sure how to post pictures

Hello post pictures of both please. The one you have already posted is a female.

Females can be dominant & females can also lay eggs without males present, particularly if they are with another dominant female.

I have a female"Mini" she was previously kept in a viv & has never grown in the time I have had her but she has the biggest chip on her shoulder! Bites everything in sight.

Thank you!

Yeah, she is incredibly bossy even though she is mini! I don't know why she is so small, she also has pyramiding whereas the bigger one does not. They have been kept in the same environment (table and outside) and fed the same diet since they hatched.

Do you think I should continue to keep both together? They spend a fair bit of time chasing and mounting each other. But they are not being aggressive towards each other.

As Lynn has said some females can be very dominant towards others, especially in a small space, if you can get them outside this summer in a large enclosure, so they have plenty of space, the chasing and mounting behaviour might stop, but if it doesn't you might need to separate them, for a while, and possibly re introduce them, and see if it happens again.

I agree with Suze. Outside, as big an area as you can but add plenty of hides & "sight breakers". If they are not " in each others faces" they should be OK! Let us know how it goes :)

The mounting and chasing will not hurt your tortoises, its just what they do.
Especially if they are eggy, once they have laid eggs, things go back to normal.
This happens even if they have a large area.
My tortoises have at least 60ft x 35ft area, and during the last month, all my females were mounting and bashing each other, and the male got the same treatment from them:0). Two I have seen lay eggs, and I know one other was eggy, but all is quiet again. And they are back to normal behaviour. Until one or another is eggy again.
But if they cause any damage to each other (draw blood) then you will have to think about seperating them.

Thank you, we are moving house next week and I will have a lovely large southwest facing garden so I plan to build them a new outdoor enclosure :)