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George is now 1 years old and thriving, very healthy and happy! No heat lamp yet, but she's got a heat source. Upgrading is ongoing, of course...

George is active, loves to play the finger game, and has lots of furniture to rearrange in her tank.

Boyfriend suggests casually a friend for George, another turtle.

Backstory: George is from Chinatown Los Angeles, where they sell baby RES illegally.

Would George eat her new companion? They are so tiny and George is...getting pretty big!

George has never had live food. She eats salmon, lettuce, pellets, strawberry, etc.

I like having her people-centric. If she had another turtle friend, she might bond with it and neglect me, LOL.

Boyfriend knows people who have large turtles who live together in an outdoor pond. George is different. She's indoors with a filter, etc., aka spoiled.

My vote: one turtle is fine. Interested to hear stories of others... Thanks!

Getting a hatchling, you will not know the sex plus the size difference is too large to keep them together initially. Not worth it without a large pond.

Thanks for the good advice!

Hello! I was thinking about getting another turtle, and I know the size, sex, and species*. All of those are the same as my current turtle, Skipper (6 inches, Female, RES). The only problem is that i currently have only a 55 gallon tank, but it's full to the brim and lots of other users seem to have multiple adult RES in a 55 gal. that are doing fine.

*The reason i know this is because she was put for sale alone and no one wants her because she is missing an eye

Also, it is cold right now in my area so maybe next month..?

I have often thought of this topic myself. I am not sure if Phil really wants or needs a friend or if its me that wants to be involved with more then one species of Turtle.. I lean towards it being me that wants him to have a friend more then that is what he wants or needs..

When we were feeding the wild pond turtles, yes they were all in the same pond and yes they all basked together on the same bank.. And they all tolerated each other at feeding times. But other then that I don't know how much time they spent close to each other or in each other's space. I mean the pond was not clear so there is no way of knowing if they all hung out together under the surface. But when we did see them surface they did tend to be fairly close to each other. Considering the size of the pond.. But mostly, we only Saw Momma ( big female yellow bellied) and Sheldon ( male yellow bellied) together.. Sheldon would float all over the pond on Momma's back.. And not just in mating season.. He was lazy and just let Momma do all the work..lol in my opinion those two turtles were bonded. But Sheldon was definitely the only male in the pond.. Other then the Snapper.. He pretty much chased off all males of all species.. RESs, YBS, even the male soft shells disappeared when they reached maturity.. Only Zilla the male snapper remained in the pond.. So in my opinion you can definitely only have one male in a tank once they are mature. But as I have read many times on this site.. People have kept turtles together for years and all of a sudden they get aggressive towards each other.. You have to consider this possibility and anticipate possibly having more then one tank with seperated turtles in them.. This is what holds me back from decidiing on adding to my collection.. Yes I will call it my collection, since I think Philbert is quite happy on his own..lol

i think skipper wants a new companion; she swims into her reflection in an interested way, and has a lost look in her eyes whenever she's not eating or basking. she floats around aimlessly. i am prepared to separate them, but i think its worth the risk either way.

Say you can manage a 2nd tank, could you also find someone to help you when you're sick or no longer able to care for them? I have that problem sometimes.

Do female RES of the same size (that are in the juvenile-adult category) normally fight

Depends on personality but it does happen. A weird thing is, it sometimes happens after they move into a LARGER habitat. They just become territorial.

oooh i see

i think i might get her

steve wrote:Say you can manage a 2nd tank, could you also find someone to help you when you're sick or no longer able to care for them? I have that problem sometimes.

and yes, i have a friend who can feed her and stuffs

I started with 2 turtles and they seem fine to me