General Care Discussion :: soft shell question

[camb]

i was wondering could, a res and a soft shell live together?

[maddpnoi]

I wouldn't recommend it, considering the aggressive nature of RES's. The soft shell would be very vulnerable. I'd be in constant fear of it getting bitten.

[camb]

ohhh, but they are so cool. what could live with an res? another res? Map turtle? and do albino red eared sliders have an health problems because of the albinism?

[SpotsMama]

The sad truth is nothing lives very well with a RES - not even another RES. They are aggressive little beasties. There are exceptions of course. RES have their own individual personalities and some are more accepting than others. Some have lived with other RES for years but suddently one of them gets fed up and starts biting and kills or seriously injures the other. I agree that it would be especially unwise to try to house a RES and a softshell together as softies, I believe, are more passive in nature and would naturally be more vulnerable to bites. You could certainly have both as long as you housed them in separate tanks.

Here are some examples of turtles attacking other turtles:

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19586

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewt ... ht=#153203

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16789

These are just a few examples - there are many more on the forum.

[joeybsmooth]

No I would not do it .

/most of the people here would say not to house anything with a RES, however if you must , some pairing work better than others ,and soft shells work the worse. Softies are normally shy , so much so they spend much of the day hiding in the sand.

Also their backs are soft and that is something that a RES would try to bit on. So my friend if you want a softie you would have to get a new tank.

[camb]

ua, i wont go with a softshell.

[Sassamo]

Softies also get huge, females get 19+ inches long, so you'll need a 200 gallon tank for one.