Newbie questions...

[EvilDes]

A bit of advice if you experts would be so kind!

At the weekend I was out and about with the inlaws whilst my fiance's dad was getting some fish, and seen a tank with 2 turtles in it which I admit I fell in love with!

I've since found out the tank is called a Reptile One Pro 60, it has a docking ledge built into the background and the setup looked very nice. Since seeing this, I've been thinking of getting one, but am weary of it's size. As the name may suggest, it's 60cm wide, 32cm deep, and 50cm high.

Now, the problem is I'm at a complete loss as to what the reuirements are for the turtles I seen in the tank, and have no idea how large they'd grow and whether this tank would be suitable for one or two turtles. The main problem is I have no idea about the different species of turts so can't find out which care sheet to go by. What species is commonly sold in petshops?

If I know what I'm looking for, I can do my research before splashing out on the setup. I don't want to spend any money without doing my research so thought I'd ask you guys!

Any help, advice, and opinions on the tank or turtles would be greatly appreciated

[Fozz]

The most commonly sold terrapin in pet shops are Yellow Belly Sliders, It may be worth you escribing what you saw because I am starting to see alot more different breeds of terrapins make their way into the pet shops.....

[EvilDes]

Ooer, as I say, I'm really not clued up on them turtles and terrapins. They all had different patterns on them and different eyes, so I couldn't point anything out in particular. Alot of them had "stripes" around their heads, some nice patterns on their undersides, and were about 3 inches nose to tail, if that. Some had plainer looking shells than others, some were coloured differently.

I'll get pics next time I'm out and about, but thanks for the tip on them being Yellow Belly Sliders. I'll have a gander and see whether it looks familiar.

Any thoughts on the tank setup?

[Fozz]

These grow to around 12" for females and 6" for males...... The tank should be 40litres for every inch of their shell length (SCL)..... I'd recommend the biggest you can, it can be quite costly pgrading it everytime it grows. Instead, get the biggest you can.....

[AnythingWithAShell]

That tank sounds nice and handy, but to be honest you'll get more for less money by just using a standard aquarium and creating your own basking area. Wedging in corkbark is good for this.

YBS grow up to a foot long if they're female, so unless that tank comes in mega sizes, you'd just need to upgrade!

If indeed they are sliders If you can get a pic, or find one online that looks the same, then you should get an ID. Fozz is right, there are more species finding their way to pet shops, but YBS are still the most common ones.

[Turtle Jo]

Originally Posted by EvilDes

Ooer, as I say, I'm really not clued up on them turtles and terrapins. They all had different patterns on them and different eyes, so I couldn't point anything out in particular. Alot of them had "stripes" around their heads, some nice patterns on their undersides, and were about 3 inches nose to tail, if that. Some had plainer looking shells than others, some were coloured differently.

I'll get pics next time I'm out and about, but thanks for the tip on them being Yellow Belly Sliders. I'll have a gander and see whether it looks familiar.

Any thoughts on the tank setup?

Sound like YBS and Map turtles

[Frase]

mate what shop you goto? i see ur in brum i might know what it is they had.

To be honest, ithink you might be able to squeeze 1 musk turtle into a tank that size? I dunno what the others here say.

[EvilDes]

Having had a look at some pictures of Yellow Bellied Sliders, it looks like they are the ones I've seen. And having just had a look at the caresheets, as you rightly suggest, that tank would too small for even just one adult. They do indeed do a bigger version (well 2 actually) but you're obviously looking at more money.

I see what you're saying about making my own, but I'd never given turtles a second thought if I'm completely honest, until I seen this setup. It was just because of the ease of it and how good it looked with a couple of turts swimming about that I reconsidered and thought about purchasing. Not to mention the little turt that was swimming about had alot of personality when I was looking at him, I thought I'd look into it.

The problem is that I build and make my own reptile vivs, and having something else that I'd have to put some thought into doesn't really appeal to me at the mo. I may just leave it for the time being and see about getting a larger version of this tank in the future. I'm not going to buy one on to have to replace it when the turt gets too big.

One more question - is there ANY turtle that would fit that size of tank for it's life? If not, I wonder why they'd make a tank of that size knowing nothing will fit...

Many thanks for the replies, much appreciated!

[EvilDes]

Frase - the first place I saw the tank was at Shenstone Garden Centre, and they also had one in Erdington Aquatics. I popped up to Birmingham Pets and Reptiles on Walsall Road aswell and they had what looked to be the same turts in their fish section.

[Frase]

yeah i thought so lol. I saw the one at ERdington, like i said, i would think 1 musk might be ok in there not 100% though to be honest,

And as for effort, minimal effort to set it all up and still so rewarding mate, i reccomend you get 1

I know that melbicks are selling baby musks at the moment.