Pick Me!

[Ethos]

I was wondering about turtles.
I've always love all acuatic creatures, and in fact, just animals in general.
So i've been wondering about turtles.
Whats a good sized turtle to keep in a 10?
Do they need gravel? I know tghey need land above and below water to be healthy, but how much land/how much gravel do they need?
Temp?
Thanks;
I was going to adopt a turtle a few years back, but I didn't have anything to keep it aslive in....

 

[bunjiweb]

IMHO 10 gallons is too small for turtles. Sure you could fit terrapins in there, but they do have the potential to get big.

Maybe try something else instead, frogs, newts or an axotyl?

Ben

 

[prankster705]

10 gal is way too small. If you want a happy turtle give it a 55 gal tank or an pond.

 

[Ethos]

Thats funny, because I have seen many tutrles in 10Gs.
There are some turtles that only grow to 3", so why do you guys say that its to small?

 

[prankster705]

Could you please tell me about that turtle I know that in lfs they are sold as young and are mostly just red necked turtles that grow to 30 cm. A turtle is the one kind that lives in the water right??

 

[Ian_Brown]

Could you please tell me about that turtle I know that in lfs they are sold as young and are mostly just red necked turtles that grow to 30 cm. A turtle is the one kind that lives in the water right??

Depends where you are... In the UK a turtle is - generally speaking - a chelonian with flippers which is either aquatic or semi-aquatic. Apparently in the US fully terrestrial chelonia are also called turtles whereas they would typically be called tortoises in the UK.

My LFS has recently been selling 'map' turtles an I'm tempted to get a pair. The only problem is that since the precise species name isn't given there's no way of knowing what size they will finally grow to.

I've never heard about a turtle which is 3" at full adult size after being cared for properly. 6" is the smallest that I'm aware of.

 

[prankster705]

Well it's probably a mississipi map turtle, that grows to 25 cm and needs 200l of water.

 

[Ian_Brown]

Well it's probably a mississipi map turtle, that grows to 25 cm and needs 200l of water.

That's pretty much what I thought. My tank is 100L, and I don't much like the idea of getting them now and keeping them in this tank and then upgrading later. I think I'm best obtaining a tnk suitable for their adult size prior to buying the baby turtles.

 

[prankster705]

That's the problem with turtles, they are sold as joung and bought by unavare people (not meaning you)and they grow, and grow, and groooow... and in the end they outgrow the aquarium and are relesed into the wild, and they destroy the natural envirement (one of our native turtles is virtualy extinct here because of rednecks).