General Care Discussion :: Questions about my babies

[Kiranin]

Hey guys, I had some questions about my two turtles, so here goes.

1. my turtles are a girl and a boy, but I heard somewhere that if you have different sexes, you should have 2 females per each male to avoid "mating pressure", they're still too young to mate, but this was something I thought would be important in the future. So basically should I get another girl later on?

2. I talked to my vet and she told me that at the store she also works at they had a big tank and I was wondering if you think this would be a good size for my turtles when they're grown up (assuming the female gets to about 12'' and the male stays smaller), she said it was about 5 feet long, and then she wrote down two other measurements which were, 12'' and 20'' now I don't remember which one was width and which was height, but I think that both are a bit iffy for turtles. so what do you guys think?

[BullDog]

1. If your turtles are under 4", then it's impossible to tell what sex they are. Sometimes pet stores sell them as a "sexed pair", but it's never a sure thing.
Two turtles is going to be a handful already, so you probably don't want to get a third. Also, if you see any signs of aggression, you should separate the turtles, since they can cause each other serious harm. Finally, RES are really over populated already, so it's really not recommended that you breed them.

2. A tank that size might be an OK size for one adult RES, but for two RES you'll want something about 200 US gallons.

[Kiranin]

oh don't worry, these guys are big enough to tell their sex and I'm not really planing on breeding, but since I'm moving and technically these are my girlfriends' turtles, I'm just trying to get everything setup (money-wise since her family doesn't have much money) before I leave, but anyhow she'll probably separate them during mating season, since she's not really into the whole destroying fertilized eggs, so she's gonna try to separate them during those months so that when she does destroy the eggs at least they won't be fertilized, personally I think it's a great hassle, but I understand why she doesn't want to do this and I respect her decision, let's see how these guys cope with that.

[BullDog]

Sorry - From your av they looked little
That's great you're helping out your girlfriend.
Unfortunately, with captive RES (if they're indoors), they don't really have a mating season. Every season is mating season since they don't have the environmental indicators. If destroying the eggs is an issue, then it may be best to separate them permanently (when they get a bit older). Or, if you prefer, you can just assume that any eggs are infertile...

[theartbook35]

1. If your turtles are under 4", then it's impossible to tell what sex they are. Sometimes pet stores sell them as a "sexed pair", but it's never a sure thing.
Two turtles is going to be a handful already, so you probably don't want to get a third. Also, if you see any signs of aggression, you should separate the turtles, since they can cause each other serious harm. Finally, RES are really over populated already, so it's really not recommended that you breed them.

2. A tank that size might be an OK size for one adult RES, but for two RES you'll want something about 200 US gallons.

No it's not... The cloaca never lies.

In any case, turtles just should not live together unless they certain kinds of personalities. The chances of getting turtles under two inches that are social and friendly are very rare. They only get along if raised together, in the same environment, at the exact same time.

A five foot tank is about between 75 and 90 gallons, yes? For one fully grown turtle, that's actually okay, but for two, that's not a good idea. You can get away with hatchlings under four inches living together in a small tank, because they can't really hurt each other if they fight rarely, but, even if you adult turtles in one tank fight just once, it's all over dude. Turtles can seriously hurt each other if they want too.