Reptile & Amphibian Forums

First time posting here but I wanted to share a picture of the new turtle tub I bought for my boys, I seen this while in Daytona at the expo and though my kids would like it. Right now their room is being painted so it is setup in the living room with just water but I wanted to try it out!! It holds about 15 gallongs of water.

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Those are so neat! How much did it weigh **empty?**
What kind of filter are you going to use?

What kind of turtles do you have?

Thanks!

I have to figure out a filter right now I just have a pond pump circulating the water. I don't have any turtles yet, I wanted a group of spotteds but they are only the size of a quarter and the breeder said my tub was too big. I will probably end up with red ears that are about 6". Its for my kids and I am sure they really don't care! It might weigh 20lbs empty.

Breeders think in terms of "breeder's space."

They don't give their animals much space because space costs money, and breeders make more money by housing their animals in the smallest space possible without the animals dying right away.

You can't give a turtle too much space... at least for the turtle. It may turn out to be too much space as far as you are concerned because the turtle hides so well!

The spotted turtles being so small actually would present a different problem to you... how to feed them. Baby turtles are harder to feed than bigger ones.

But there are adult spotteds for sale if you just look. They are a great turtle, merely expensive. They don't get too big, they're very smart and friendly, and they tolerate cooler tempertures than tropical turtles.

I'd pick them over a R.E.S. every time.

Spotteds are great, but I certainly wouldn't recommend them to a beginner. They can be somewhat difficult to care for and recreate a natural habitat for. I would go w/ a common musk or even a midland painted. Also, adult spotteds are almost certainly wild caught, the last thing you want to do is get one of these.

-Jesse

I have been keeping spotteds for about five years now, and have found them to be easy to care for, difficult to breed (but I don't breed them, so I don't worry about it).

As for being wild-caught... unless all of the people in the classifieds who say that they are breeders are liars... one can easily find spotteds that are captive-bred.

Just look a little.

However...

If you're talking about a group of turtles that will be handed over (pretty much exclusively) to the care of the kids (who "won't care" what kind they are, as stated in the original message, above), and if the kids want something that will be lively and "cool" and that they can pick up and laughingly thrust into each other's faces, and if the turtles will then end up being neglected after a few weeks or months...

Then, yes, Midland Painted turtles are your best bet. They're cheap (free, if you can catch them yourself), easy to obtain, and are pretty tolerant of poor treatment.

a RES need ALOT more than 15 gallon of water
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1.3.0 Leopard Geckos
2 Blizzard females, pair of albino trempors male is tangerine
Turtles
1.0.0 Common snapping turtle
0.1.0 Belize slider
0.1.0 Egyptian tortoise
2 hatchlings on the way a blacknobbed sawback and a commonmusk

Personally (and I am sure you agree) I don't think that ANY turtle should be subjected to what you have stated. No animal should be treated in this fashion expensive, inexpensive or free.

They all deserve to be treated to the best possible life we can offer them.

We get so many turtles into Turtlehomes that are victims of the poor treatment that you've described and it is just sickening. Young kids should not have turtles as pets without adult supervision.

Odyssey you went from trying to give advice to insulting me in two posts. No one ever said anything was going to be neglected or that kids were going to be allowed to carry the turtles around and stick them in each other face. Its a display or turtle tub for my boys room, my boys are 6 and 3 so obviously there is going to be some parent involvement when it comes down to the care of the turtles and maintenance of the tub. Thanks for all your concern but any turtles no matter the cost or the type will be cared for the same as all the other animals I keep and breed right now thats about 35 snakes..

well, if you have 35 snakes than you obviously know something about reptiles. And your plan is to keeo turtles, water turtles at that, in a room with boys of ages 6 and 3? Perhaps knowing what we do about disease and young children you should re- think this.
Personally i owuld let any kid under 7 within ten feet of an aquatic turtle without constant adult supervision.

constant adult supervision? Constant?? Come on its a turtle not an alligator. Think you are overreacting just a tad? And that goes for everyone else in here? Leave the guy alone he was just asking for advise, not to be ripped apart by the turtle fanatics.

I appreciate your post.

Rene

Personally I think that is an awesome "tub" I like the idea of it and might try to recreate something like that here at home. As for kids and turtles I agree that we need to supervise kids with the turtles but we also need to teach good habits. I have 3 children with a 3yr old being the youngest and 14 being the oldest, I have taught them from the start not to handle the turtles and to just "watch" them. Never have we had any problems.
Give the parent some credit.
Don't you just love the openminded-ness of some people on here? Sheesh, you were just trying to show your neat tub off and look what you got instead? Good luck with your turtles what ever kind you choose, I bet they will have a great home.
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Slow and Steady wins the race...

The tub is great and I am glad to see you choosing it (better than a small tank) and doing so in advance (before the acquisition of the turtle) but i stand by my post. Constant supervision. Your children are way too young to be trusted. The issue is not so much immediate danger to the child (as your short sighted comparison to an alligator suggests) but rather the safty of the turtle and the long term health of the child. At age three kids don't think to wash their hands for 2 minutes with the zest that adult herp keepers do. Yes constant supervision. It only takes one touch of the turtle and one more of the mouth to spread illness or one pick up of the turtle and one drop (from even three feet) when it kicks to seriosuly hurt the turtle. No its not an alligator, its a mostly defenseless turtle and if its going to live in its own rotting waste and your young children are potentially going to touch it they need constant supervision. But i see we all grow weary of my opinion here. Sorry if i spoiled your day.

Native,
Very nice setup. But it is certainly to small for a RES, and a painted for that matter. painteds need at LEAST 55gals of water. 15gal is not enough for almost any species of turtle except maybe spotteds/muds/woods. The reason I say those 3 are because you have a large land area that would be wasted my musk/RES/Painteds. They will not explore the land area like a mud/spotted/wood turtle would. I think your setup is great for small semi aquatic turtles, like the ones a named. But not for a large paited or RES. They require more water than land. As far as the children go, turtles and children dont mix. But this can easily be accomplished with a good cover and supervision. As long as they can not stick there hands or whatever in the enclosure you should be alright. But that does not mean you should not watch them. Turtles are not dogs, they do not like to be touched, played with ect. (I know you never said that they would but im just informing you.) I think this could be a great learning experience for you AND you children as long as you take precautions along the way. Hope this helps...
Chris D.
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Hey mine name is Chris and I currently have 1.0 Midland Painted, 1.0 YBS, 1.1 Leopard geckos, 1.0 Bearded Dragon

Hi there

That looks like a great set-up.

How many turtles do you plan to keep in it, and what kinds do you have?
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-Lauren

~ Lauren's Lizards ~

groups.yahoo.com/group/LaurensLizards