Other Turtle Discussion :: Yellow Bellied Sliders and Red Ear Sliders

[thatgirl05]

So The Boyfriend and I were looking at the gallery and noticed how very cool yellow bellied sliders are. We were wondering...can YBS and RES be tank buddies? I know its a noob question, but you all know what assuming does..!

Thanks!

[missibsu]

I do believe that they can be tank buddies, but there is a lot more that goes into it than that.

New tank nates may not get along and turts really are more solitary creatures. There is also a concern of quarantine since your prospective new pet could be ill or a carrier. 90 days is the recommended minimum time period that the ybs would need his own set up.

Just do some research before committing to a new turt, then you won't have any surprises, lol.

[steve]

Yes, but they need just as much space as RES.

[Turtle addict]

Being from the same family they can also breed, so both the same sex is perfered...there are an awfull lot of red ears and yellow bellies out there. I have two female that were together for two years, then they started fighting.

[shellin]

I have one YBS and one RES and thay have ben getting along great for 6 years now but my female RES occasionally nips at my male YBS

[MikeMagic]

I have 3 Yellow Bellies and 2 RES. 1 Yellow Belly lives in solitary for being well an [---] really. The other 2 tanks have 1 of each species in it. My larger tank has an 18yr old RES and a YBS a little bigger then he is but I have no idea how old it is as he was adopted a couple years ago. Those two don't get along great, the YBS tends to harass the RES. The younger turtles though get along great. So in my experience its just like having 2 RES living together, sometimes they'll get along, sometimes they won't.