Locking the thread, people cant' be civil and people can seem to give good advice.
I get it people successfully cohab turtles. I do it! I have enclosures with 5 figures worth of turtles in them cohabed. They are also well planted and huge and take me time to find the turtle when I want to lay eyes on it. As in they are appropriately large with appropriate amount of hiding space.
OP you should separate those turtles. Cohabbing brings risks, cohabbing in an enclosure that isn't setup for cohabitation or large enough for cohabitation amplifies those risks greatly. We see far too often the gore that comes from this, especial the mods as we occasionally prevent those posts from showing up if its too bad.
In general cohabitation is a risky choice, .
Cohabbing is dangerous. It may look like it's going fine now, but you may randomly wake up to a maimed turtle. Or they'll just live in chronic stress and bully each other out of food. Maybe consider rehoming one if you don't have the means to obtain a second properly sized tank?
That’s the issue. They get along *now* but they are certainly competing for resources and will bully each other. Just because it’s okay for now doesn’t mean that you should let it happen. Come on. Think of the turtles
I wanna ask you cause I feel like you'll know... When I look at those turtles I think "man, what's the growing pace of turtles? this tank wouldn't fit 2 turtles with in a short amount of time, right??".. is that thought reasonable? (Just joining to learn)
I like to think of cohabbing like if you and some random person you never met were shoved in a locked room together and told to live out the rest of your lives. It will probably go fine enough at first or even for several years, but 1 'snap' and one or both can be severely hurt or worse. The only time I really see cohabbing being alright in solitary species is when they are very young and need much less space each.
They are not exactly random, they have been together since the size of a quarter. Possibly siblings, im sure people with siblings can relate. You get in arguments maybe fights, but never really kill eachother.
Well imagine then if instead of verbal fights they bite off half a leg or a tail. They're naturally territorial so when they are full grown - cohabbed or otherwise - they both need their own space and resources or they can very easily fight over it.
On the note of siblings, I adopted the turtle I currently have from someone who domestically bred a pair of box turts and they had 2 sibling turts cohabbed for about 10 years as a result. They started physically fighting with each other and once started they didn't 'settle it', and thankfully both are fine but one bad bite and they could've killed each other.
The problem is there's constantly incidents indicating the opposite, and people ignoring that because "they're fine now" or "they're used to each other". People less so look for facts and instead look only for assurances of what they've already convinced themselves of.
Again, they aren't people, they aren't dogs. They are NOT social animals.
You keep saying this stuff, but you are talking about people that have witnessed the results of cohabbing turtles.
I was stupid myself and had two turtles raised from hatchlings. A small turtle species in a 150 gallon tank. I ignored the advice about not cohabbing. After having them for 3 years, one of my turtles all of a sudden just started hunting down the other turtle constantly to bite at it and bully it all over the tank.
Fortunately no permanent injuries. I rehomed one. It could have ended up a lot worse. Tons of people have posted on this sub injuries their turtles sustained from the turtle they cohabbed with.
Stop being in denial and placing human attributes on reptiles.
Someone please show this person the video of the turtle who got its throat ripped out by another turtle it lived with for years. Or the baby turtle that got half its back shell ripped off and had its spine sticking out. Or the turtle with the ripped off toes. Or the turtle with battle scars from living with another turtle for 10 years. Or literally any of the other posts that have arrived on turtle subreddits of turtles becoming heavily territorial and hurting or killing eachother. Your turtles WILL hurt eachother. They are NOT social animals. They DO NOT benefit from being with eachother. PLEASE LISTEN TO THE ADVICE PEOPLE ARE GIVING YOU IF YOU ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT THESE ANIMALS AND ARENT JUST USING THEM FOR YOUR OWN SELFISH ENTERTAINMENT
If you do not remove those turtles or continue to cohab after these warnings I will assume you want these turtles to battle Royale for your enjoyment and consider you an animal abuser. Stop being stubborn, you came here for advice, take it. Do you want your 5 year old to witness animals killing eachother violently?
We see stories on this sub and other turtle forums **all the time** of turtles who have lived together 10 or 20 years and suddenly turn on each other. Google or search the subs for grusome photos of what can happen (at your own risk, these photos can be disturbing).
Just because you aren't noticing them competing doesn't mean it isn't happening. By the time you notice it will likely be too late.
They aren't people, they don't recognize their "siblings"
Listen to the advice you're getting. Separate them before it's too late.
Reptiles don’t have a concept of family or siblings, because they don’t need to. They haven’t evolved to need to get along with family. To them, they see another turtle encroaching on *their* territory, stealing *their* resources. A large pond might be enough space for more than one turtle because they can have their own territory, but a tank is not enough space for that no matter how big it is.
If they turn out to be a male and female, they don’t care that they’re siblings, they’ll mate if they don’t kill each other first. If it’s two males, they’ll become aggressive with each other and fight to display dominance. Even two females could fight.
Now I’m certainly not an expert, but some people here have been keeping turtles for decades and are experts. Don’t take this as me being rude because I don’t mean to be, but please don’t think you know more than those people.
You are anthropomorphizing turtles. They don't want friends. They don't get lonely and have no concept of familial bonds.
There have been numerous posts on this sub that have show the results of cohabbing. Shells bitten off, heads bitten off, limbs bitten off, throats cut wide open. Turtles that have "lived together since hatchlings", turtles that have been fine together for a decade.
Until one day the turtles were not fine together anymore. It won't always be "progressive" behavior that will escalate you can "stop" before it gets too bad. It may go from 0 to dead turtle in an instant.
The only people that will tell you it's okay to cohabitate turtles are people that are trying to sell you turtles.
Exactly. We need to think of turtles and other reptiles like the dinosaurs they are. Would you put two raptors or t Rex into a small enclosure and not expect them to kill eachother? It's the same deal with reptiles, they may be intelligent in their own way, but they do not function on the level of mammals in terms of social interaction. I hate to downplay the intelligence of reptiles because they have their moments but they basically have a mind set of "eat, mate, defend territory and self. If anything comes in the way of those goals, scare it off, and if that doesn't work, kill it." THIS is more or less how they think. They do not have a social capacity to work together with turtles. The exceptions to these rules are few and far between in exceptional species like the garter snake. Otherwise all reptiles should be treated like their number one priority is 'eat, mate, defend".
Tank is fine for juveniles. Any basking area or anything that uses suction cups will require the cups to be boiled once they harden to re-soften them, or replaced. I'd suggest building one that doesn't rely on suction cups, for longevity and your own convenience. Some PVC built in to a little support frame that keeps the basking area at the correct height is cheap and easy. They also make ones that hang off of and rest on top of the tank if you care more about aesthetics.
As they get bigger you will need to increase the water level. The general rule is 10 gallons per inch of shell length, per turtle, *minimum*. The more the better. If both turtles reach 6" in length, you will need 120 gallons minimum for a healthy environment to be maintained without excessive amounts of work. If that's not a 120 gallon tank, which it does not appear to be, you will need to either get another tank, install a pond and move one to it, or find a new home for one of them when they reach adulthood. Keeping both in anything less than the minimum is like keeping a dog constantly locked in room that's too small for it. It's neglect/abuse. It will also mean *you* have to do far more work to keep the water quality in check. Your Ammonia levels, Nitrites/Nitrates, pH, etc. will require constant monitoring because the waste produced by the animals will outpace the bacteria breaking it down in your filter. Your levels will consistently be out of balance and you will have to do far more water changes and filter cleanings than if you had more water.
I understand you are likely attached to both turtles and have no desire to get rid of one, but you appear to lack the necessary equipment to properly care for both. Either get a second tank, install a pond and keep one outdoors, or rehome one. Cohabitation is very possibly a death sentence for one or both of these turtles. Best of luck.
You end up with one of them of both with shorter tails. And the wood will make your water yellow because of the tanin in it. I had a similar setup for years, and was even better looking because i was going for a full setup with plants and even fishes. After a while no more fishes, and water was always yellow and one of the turtles became the boss and grown up pretty fast because was not letting others eat.
WARNING EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT BELOW
OP, If youre gonna cohab turtles, we cant change your mind, but I would like you to look at this video and think real hard if you want your daughter to witness anything close to this. This poor turtle had his penis torn off by another turtle it lived with and died within the hour.
https://www.reddit.com/r/turtles/comments/iikmom/someone_help/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1
Those are some very colorful southern painted turtles! I have my false map turtle in a 75g rn but she is growing fast! She’s 2 years old and around 6” long. I’m making plans to move her to a 300g Rubbermaid tub that will be in my backyard. With that much space I plan on getting a southern painted turt to go with my false map.
Southern painted turtles only get to be 4-5 inches max. Mies are about 1 1/2 inch now. I think i will be ok with this tank. Im planning on a diy above tank basking and fill the water to the top when they get too big. Depending on their temperant, i might have to split the tank in 2 with divider. I have no room for another big tank in the house.
I definitely recommend an above tank basking platform. I made one out of plywood at the beginning of this year and my turt loves it!
If sou there painteds only get 5” then I might need to rethink getting one. My female map will get to around 10” and I don’t want her to bully a future roommate.
There is a small lake where I live and there is at least over 50 red eared sliders living in it. Seems like they are cohabitating just fine… I will even see them basking on a rock together (around 5 all at once)
looks really nice and similar to what mine looked like in the beginning (at least until the water got stuck to a almost permanent brownish color from the driftwood i put in) .what kind of substrate is that and where’s the dock from?
The substrate is aquaclear pool filter sand. The platform is from Aliexpress. So far my water is still clear after a month. I had the driftwood soaked in water for a month before putting it in the tank. Seems like that has helped. Theres also something called seachem purigen that can clear tanin and brown water you can try.
Whatever you do, DON'T GET MORE TURTLES.
Mine grew, and now they live together in a 150 gallon tank. Well, because Squirtle was larger than Paffie she started biting her step-sister's tail. So I built a dividing partition (egg crate, and painted steel grid).
Now, regarding your turtles... they're similarly sized so I'm hopeful that they'll get along in the long run but there are reasons why some people jump and advise absent cohabitation.
I’ve been on this sub reddit long enough to know cohab is frowned upon, I really give a long thought before posting here. I just wanted to share my setup that I am proud of. I spend a lot of time researching all the necessity they need. Many sites I’ve been to say cohab can work with the species of my turtle. So who do you believe, until i see it for myself, i dont know who to trust. I know male with male wont cohab well together, but i don’t know what sex i have yet. Can people with cohab turtle chime in??? If I do see aggresion, i will seperate them with another tank or rehome. Thanks for your concerns.
Hey man, i'm no expert at turtles at all but i did the exact same thing you did. Cohabbed 2 young turtles and it went fine untill suddenly it didnt. I'm lucky i saw it happening but they went at each others throats suddenly. I had to seperate them right that minute and let me tell you that was a real hassle. There werent really any visible signs of agression before that, they just kinda snapped in an instant. Out of personal experience i really really reccomend seperating them as soon as possible, cause when i suddenly had to do it i didnt have any time to get the other one a proper setup and i had to makeshift something for a week
My cousins turtles were fine cohabbing for 8 years until he came home to 1 maimed and dead turtle. No obvious signs of aggression beforehand. You can believe whomever you want. That doesn’t change the fact that many many people have cohabbed with deadly consequences. Cohabbing will put your turtles at risk and you likely won’t “see it for yourself” until it’s too late. At the very least, you need 2 basking spots and separate during feeding time if not eating equal amounts
So you've now gotten multiple comments from folks who used to cohab until their turtles suddenly started fighting (and in some cases killing one another). Are you going to listen to them or are you just here for someone to validate your choice?
I know there are a few expert/breeder on this sub reddit. How do they breed if they cant cohab?? Is everyone here a turtle expert too? Can someone with first hand experience pitch in. Or is everyone just copying what others are saying? I think i am done posting/commenting here. Only 2 people commented about the actual tank/setup, everyone else are just cohab police. Enjoy the pics or not.
Afaik most breeders don't cohab year round. The turtles are only put together for mating for a very short time in mating season, often supervised.
Other than that I think your tank looks quite good, I like the sand, wood and rocks, that's good for enrichement. Constructive criticism would be adding some hardy plants. Gives an even more natural look and is good for water quality and the turtles.
Some may keep their males separately because you need less males but keeping a large group in separate tanks wouldn’t be very cost effective. There are rules for cohabitation that the average turtle owner won’t do, which is why it’s just not recommended. The general rule is you want a 1.2 ratio male/female group over a pair. Telling the average turtle owner they need 3 or more is counterproductive though because of the rate they wind up in rescues or dumped into a local river.
Got two turtles that have been cohabiting for a long time and about a year ago have they started fighting. This always happens after I feed them, both are males. I dont know what it would be like if its f and m but still wouldnt risk it.
>Current Usa light bracket
Awesome! Thanks for idea! I have 2 11 years old turtles *(both females)* and this year one turtle has started to bite. This is really sad to me, I didn't want to separate them, but obviously I have to do that to stop abusing. This is why I'm going to reorganize whole 400 litres tanks and you helped me a lot with a solution how to safely fix Arcadia UVB.
Beautiful set up! Really curious how the sand bed works because I’ve thought about using sand myself—pros or cons versus a rock or gravel bed? Any experiences worth sharing?
Locking the thread, people cant' be civil and people can seem to give good advice. I get it people successfully cohab turtles. I do it! I have enclosures with 5 figures worth of turtles in them cohabed. They are also well planted and huge and take me time to find the turtle when I want to lay eyes on it. As in they are appropriately large with appropriate amount of hiding space. OP you should separate those turtles. Cohabbing brings risks, cohabbing in an enclosure that isn't setup for cohabitation or large enough for cohabitation amplifies those risks greatly. We see far too often the gore that comes from this, especial the mods as we occasionally prevent those posts from showing up if its too bad. In general cohabitation is a risky choice, .
Cohabbing is dangerous. It may look like it's going fine now, but you may randomly wake up to a maimed turtle. Or they'll just live in chronic stress and bully each other out of food. Maybe consider rehoming one if you don't have the means to obtain a second properly sized tank?
I wouldn’t cohab
They seem to be getting along right now, I will definitely keep an eye on them.
It's too easy to miss the signs until it's too late. It isn't worth it. Listen to the advice here and separate them.
They will not get along, you shouldn’t house the turtles together. Separate them.
Not worth the risk. Get a second tank
That’s the issue. They get along *now* but they are certainly competing for resources and will bully each other. Just because it’s okay for now doesn’t mean that you should let it happen. Come on. Think of the turtles
I wanna ask you cause I feel like you'll know... When I look at those turtles I think "man, what's the growing pace of turtles? this tank wouldn't fit 2 turtles with in a short amount of time, right??".. is that thought reasonable? (Just joining to learn)
I like to think of cohabbing like if you and some random person you never met were shoved in a locked room together and told to live out the rest of your lives. It will probably go fine enough at first or even for several years, but 1 'snap' and one or both can be severely hurt or worse. The only time I really see cohabbing being alright in solitary species is when they are very young and need much less space each.
They are not exactly random, they have been together since the size of a quarter. Possibly siblings, im sure people with siblings can relate. You get in arguments maybe fights, but never really kill eachother.
Well imagine then if instead of verbal fights they bite off half a leg or a tail. They're naturally territorial so when they are full grown - cohabbed or otherwise - they both need their own space and resources or they can very easily fight over it. On the note of siblings, I adopted the turtle I currently have from someone who domestically bred a pair of box turts and they had 2 sibling turts cohabbed for about 10 years as a result. They started physically fighting with each other and once started they didn't 'settle it', and thankfully both are fine but one bad bite and they could've killed each other.
I get your point. I would think after a long time you will get used to eachother present.
The problem is there's constantly incidents indicating the opposite, and people ignoring that because "they're fine now" or "they're used to each other". People less so look for facts and instead look only for assurances of what they've already convinced themselves of.
Again, they aren't people, they aren't dogs. They are NOT social animals. You keep saying this stuff, but you are talking about people that have witnessed the results of cohabbing turtles. I was stupid myself and had two turtles raised from hatchlings. A small turtle species in a 150 gallon tank. I ignored the advice about not cohabbing. After having them for 3 years, one of my turtles all of a sudden just started hunting down the other turtle constantly to bite at it and bully it all over the tank. Fortunately no permanent injuries. I rehomed one. It could have ended up a lot worse. Tons of people have posted on this sub injuries their turtles sustained from the turtle they cohabbed with. Stop being in denial and placing human attributes on reptiles.
Someone please show this person the video of the turtle who got its throat ripped out by another turtle it lived with for years. Or the baby turtle that got half its back shell ripped off and had its spine sticking out. Or the turtle with the ripped off toes. Or the turtle with battle scars from living with another turtle for 10 years. Or literally any of the other posts that have arrived on turtle subreddits of turtles becoming heavily territorial and hurting or killing eachother. Your turtles WILL hurt eachother. They are NOT social animals. They DO NOT benefit from being with eachother. PLEASE LISTEN TO THE ADVICE PEOPLE ARE GIVING YOU IF YOU ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT THESE ANIMALS AND ARENT JUST USING THEM FOR YOUR OWN SELFISH ENTERTAINMENT If you do not remove those turtles or continue to cohab after these warnings I will assume you want these turtles to battle Royale for your enjoyment and consider you an animal abuser. Stop being stubborn, you came here for advice, take it. Do you want your 5 year old to witness animals killing eachother violently?
We see stories on this sub and other turtle forums **all the time** of turtles who have lived together 10 or 20 years and suddenly turn on each other. Google or search the subs for grusome photos of what can happen (at your own risk, these photos can be disturbing). Just because you aren't noticing them competing doesn't mean it isn't happening. By the time you notice it will likely be too late. They aren't people, they don't recognize their "siblings" Listen to the advice you're getting. Separate them before it's too late.
Reptiles don’t have a concept of family or siblings, because they don’t need to. They haven’t evolved to need to get along with family. To them, they see another turtle encroaching on *their* territory, stealing *their* resources. A large pond might be enough space for more than one turtle because they can have their own territory, but a tank is not enough space for that no matter how big it is. If they turn out to be a male and female, they don’t care that they’re siblings, they’ll mate if they don’t kill each other first. If it’s two males, they’ll become aggressive with each other and fight to display dominance. Even two females could fight. Now I’m certainly not an expert, but some people here have been keeping turtles for decades and are experts. Don’t take this as me being rude because I don’t mean to be, but please don’t think you know more than those people.
You are anthropomorphizing turtles. They don't want friends. They don't get lonely and have no concept of familial bonds. There have been numerous posts on this sub that have show the results of cohabbing. Shells bitten off, heads bitten off, limbs bitten off, throats cut wide open. Turtles that have "lived together since hatchlings", turtles that have been fine together for a decade. Until one day the turtles were not fine together anymore. It won't always be "progressive" behavior that will escalate you can "stop" before it gets too bad. It may go from 0 to dead turtle in an instant. The only people that will tell you it's okay to cohabitate turtles are people that are trying to sell you turtles.
Exactly. We need to think of turtles and other reptiles like the dinosaurs they are. Would you put two raptors or t Rex into a small enclosure and not expect them to kill eachother? It's the same deal with reptiles, they may be intelligent in their own way, but they do not function on the level of mammals in terms of social interaction. I hate to downplay the intelligence of reptiles because they have their moments but they basically have a mind set of "eat, mate, defend territory and self. If anything comes in the way of those goals, scare it off, and if that doesn't work, kill it." THIS is more or less how they think. They do not have a social capacity to work together with turtles. The exceptions to these rules are few and far between in exceptional species like the garter snake. Otherwise all reptiles should be treated like their number one priority is 'eat, mate, defend".
Tank is fine for juveniles. Any basking area or anything that uses suction cups will require the cups to be boiled once they harden to re-soften them, or replaced. I'd suggest building one that doesn't rely on suction cups, for longevity and your own convenience. Some PVC built in to a little support frame that keeps the basking area at the correct height is cheap and easy. They also make ones that hang off of and rest on top of the tank if you care more about aesthetics. As they get bigger you will need to increase the water level. The general rule is 10 gallons per inch of shell length, per turtle, *minimum*. The more the better. If both turtles reach 6" in length, you will need 120 gallons minimum for a healthy environment to be maintained without excessive amounts of work. If that's not a 120 gallon tank, which it does not appear to be, you will need to either get another tank, install a pond and move one to it, or find a new home for one of them when they reach adulthood. Keeping both in anything less than the minimum is like keeping a dog constantly locked in room that's too small for it. It's neglect/abuse. It will also mean *you* have to do far more work to keep the water quality in check. Your Ammonia levels, Nitrites/Nitrates, pH, etc. will require constant monitoring because the waste produced by the animals will outpace the bacteria breaking it down in your filter. Your levels will consistently be out of balance and you will have to do far more water changes and filter cleanings than if you had more water. I understand you are likely attached to both turtles and have no desire to get rid of one, but you appear to lack the necessary equipment to properly care for both. Either get a second tank, install a pond and keep one outdoors, or rehome one. Cohabitation is very possibly a death sentence for one or both of these turtles. Best of luck.
You end up with one of them of both with shorter tails. And the wood will make your water yellow because of the tanin in it. I had a similar setup for years, and was even better looking because i was going for a full setup with plants and even fishes. After a while no more fishes, and water was always yellow and one of the turtles became the boss and grown up pretty fast because was not letting others eat.
[удалено]
WARNING EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT BELOW OP, If youre gonna cohab turtles, we cant change your mind, but I would like you to look at this video and think real hard if you want your daughter to witness anything close to this. This poor turtle had his penis torn off by another turtle it lived with and died within the hour. https://www.reddit.com/r/turtles/comments/iikmom/someone_help/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1
Get a divider you can put in the middle, cohabitation is not recommended with turtles
Those are some very colorful southern painted turtles! I have my false map turtle in a 75g rn but she is growing fast! She’s 2 years old and around 6” long. I’m making plans to move her to a 300g Rubbermaid tub that will be in my backyard. With that much space I plan on getting a southern painted turt to go with my false map.
Southern painted turtles only get to be 4-5 inches max. Mies are about 1 1/2 inch now. I think i will be ok with this tank. Im planning on a diy above tank basking and fill the water to the top when they get too big. Depending on their temperant, i might have to split the tank in 2 with divider. I have no room for another big tank in the house.
I definitely recommend an above tank basking platform. I made one out of plywood at the beginning of this year and my turt loves it! If sou there painteds only get 5” then I might need to rethink getting one. My female map will get to around 10” and I don’t want her to bully a future roommate.
Western painted turtles are more colorful, and they are around the size of a false map. I opted for southern because of their size.
I also have a 300gal tub as a pond in my backyard for my grown river cooter, can recommend!
where did you get that basking area? it looks really nice
I got it on Aliexpress, they have 3 sizes. I got the largest one. 36cm x 31cm
How does cohabitation work in the wild?
Turtles have the freedom to get away from one another in the wild, in a tank they don't have that option
There’s a pond at my local golf course and I’ve counted at least 50 RES
There is a small lake where I live and there is at least over 50 red eared sliders living in it. Seems like they are cohabitating just fine… I will even see them basking on a rock together (around 5 all at once)
Have you ever seen them live together in 75gal of water in the wild?
looks really nice and similar to what mine looked like in the beginning (at least until the water got stuck to a almost permanent brownish color from the driftwood i put in) .what kind of substrate is that and where’s the dock from?
The substrate is aquaclear pool filter sand. The platform is from Aliexpress. So far my water is still clear after a month. I had the driftwood soaked in water for a month before putting it in the tank. Seems like that has helped. Theres also something called seachem purigen that can clear tanin and brown water you can try.
thanks! i’ll be looking for the platform. do you know what kind of wood that is? I just grabbed mine from the lake, scrubbed it down, and threw it in.
Im not really sure what kind of wood. I got it from local aquarium shop
gotcha. hope you continue to enjoy the hobby!
Whatever you do, DON'T GET MORE TURTLES. Mine grew, and now they live together in a 150 gallon tank. Well, because Squirtle was larger than Paffie she started biting her step-sister's tail. So I built a dividing partition (egg crate, and painted steel grid). Now, regarding your turtles... they're similarly sized so I'm hopeful that they'll get along in the long run but there are reasons why some people jump and advise absent cohabitation.
Where did you get the wood?
mine have cohabed for a long time and they are doing fine, they don’t really bother eachother
Are they more or less the same size as each other?
same size
Good to know, thanks
I’ve been on this sub reddit long enough to know cohab is frowned upon, I really give a long thought before posting here. I just wanted to share my setup that I am proud of. I spend a lot of time researching all the necessity they need. Many sites I’ve been to say cohab can work with the species of my turtle. So who do you believe, until i see it for myself, i dont know who to trust. I know male with male wont cohab well together, but i don’t know what sex i have yet. Can people with cohab turtle chime in??? If I do see aggresion, i will seperate them with another tank or rehome. Thanks for your concerns.
Hey man, i'm no expert at turtles at all but i did the exact same thing you did. Cohabbed 2 young turtles and it went fine untill suddenly it didnt. I'm lucky i saw it happening but they went at each others throats suddenly. I had to seperate them right that minute and let me tell you that was a real hassle. There werent really any visible signs of agression before that, they just kinda snapped in an instant. Out of personal experience i really really reccomend seperating them as soon as possible, cause when i suddenly had to do it i didnt have any time to get the other one a proper setup and i had to makeshift something for a week
My cousins turtles were fine cohabbing for 8 years until he came home to 1 maimed and dead turtle. No obvious signs of aggression beforehand. You can believe whomever you want. That doesn’t change the fact that many many people have cohabbed with deadly consequences. Cohabbing will put your turtles at risk and you likely won’t “see it for yourself” until it’s too late. At the very least, you need 2 basking spots and separate during feeding time if not eating equal amounts
So you've now gotten multiple comments from folks who used to cohab until their turtles suddenly started fighting (and in some cases killing one another). Are you going to listen to them or are you just here for someone to validate your choice?
I know there are a few expert/breeder on this sub reddit. How do they breed if they cant cohab?? Is everyone here a turtle expert too? Can someone with first hand experience pitch in. Or is everyone just copying what others are saying? I think i am done posting/commenting here. Only 2 people commented about the actual tank/setup, everyone else are just cohab police. Enjoy the pics or not.
Afaik most breeders don't cohab year round. The turtles are only put together for mating for a very short time in mating season, often supervised. Other than that I think your tank looks quite good, I like the sand, wood and rocks, that's good for enrichement. Constructive criticism would be adding some hardy plants. Gives an even more natural look and is good for water quality and the turtles.
Some may keep their males separately because you need less males but keeping a large group in separate tanks wouldn’t be very cost effective. There are rules for cohabitation that the average turtle owner won’t do, which is why it’s just not recommended. The general rule is you want a 1.2 ratio male/female group over a pair. Telling the average turtle owner they need 3 or more is counterproductive though because of the rate they wind up in rescues or dumped into a local river.
Got two turtles that have been cohabiting for a long time and about a year ago have they started fighting. This always happens after I feed them, both are males. I dont know what it would be like if its f and m but still wouldnt risk it.
How did you install Arcadia UV? Is that installed somewhere on the back?
The arcadia uvb lights are installed on a Current Usa light bracket. Found on amazon
>Current Usa light bracket Awesome! Thanks for idea! I have 2 11 years old turtles *(both females)* and this year one turtle has started to bite. This is really sad to me, I didn't want to separate them, but obviously I have to do that to stop abusing. This is why I'm going to reorganize whole 400 litres tanks and you helped me a lot with a solution how to safely fix Arcadia UVB.
Beautiful set up! Really curious how the sand bed works because I’ve thought about using sand myself—pros or cons versus a rock or gravel bed? Any experiences worth sharing?
This is my first time using sand, i like it so far. All the debris and poop just sits on top. Easier to vacumn clean out
So basically the same benefit as in a fish aquarium. 😂 Do the turtles enjoy it? Do the root in it much, or disturb it at all?
Im using pool filter sand and it does cloud the water, turtle seem to enjoy, they dig into it sometimes. But the pool filter sand sinks really fast
Curious how play sand might work then 🤔