Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A friend of mine and I just got two hatchlings Mine (merric) is a miss map and hers (zip) is a pen. cooter they are almost exactly the same size and are shareing about 3sq feet of 4in deep filtered water with a basking lamp and floating island. I had just a few questions. How fast will they grow? Will they continue to house well together? How big do they have to be to sex them? and finally if we house them together to maturity and they do turn out to be a male and a female would a miss map and a pen cooter mate and hive viable ofspring. (this would be a very strange looking hybrid if so) hope someone out there can help.

They average about an inch or so a year with proper feeding (though some may grow a bit faster). The problem here may be the sexes. If the Map is a Male and cooter female she is going to grow much bigger than he will. I house these two species together just fine but they are kept in a large pond without incident. Both are peaceful (and the cooter will be more of a vegetarian as it matures than the Map will).

As far as mating -- they will mate if they are opposite sexes but I doubt the eggs will be viable.

Maps are know to cross with Diamond back terrapins and produce viable eggs.

I currently have a bunch of baby maps that I hatched which were an accidental hybridization. The father is a false map and the mother is a Texas map. They turned out pretty cute. All the markings of the Texas with the distinct top head bars of the false map and the false map plastron coloration. Will be interesting to watch these guys develop.

Steve

thanks any idea when we can tell what sex they are?

If they grow normally not for a few years yet. Some of the characteristics will immerge as they get passed 3-4 inches.

You have some time on that.

Steve