Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all, I have a 4 inch softie and a 7 inch unidentified turtle (I caught him crossing the road here in South Florida.) I have the softie in a 10 gallon tank but he's getting crowded and I wanted to move him to the 55 gallon where I have the other turtle. Does anyone know if softies and others get along ok? I think the other turtle is some kind of slider (I attached a picture). The water in the 55 gal is about 14 inches deep, I would create a sand bottom for the softie and I built a basking platform that seems to suit my other turtle just fine. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Mario

I think that the tank is definately large enough if you only have those 2 in there, but just watch out at feeding time. You definately need a sand bottom, but the only problem I would worry about is that softies like somewhat shallow water so that they can bury themselves, and then just stick their nose up to get air. Just think about that.

Does anyone have first hand experience pairing up softies and other turtles (sliders)? I would love to move my softie into the larger tank, but I want to make sure he doesnt hurt my slider and the slider doesnt hurt the softie. Also, I want to keep the water level where it is now (14 inches) since I created a basking platform that is siliconed to the side of the tank. Of course, if I add sand, the water level would probably be more line 12-13 inches.

Thanks!
Mario

Well, I would avoid pairing them together, sliders are pigs, they eat as much as they can as fast as they can while the softies are no where as aggressive. Although a softie can live easy enough in deeper water, mine loves shallow water, and sliders need the deeper water for swimming. Also anything besides sand or small smooth river rocks can cause damage to the softies shell along with sliders nails. I would reccomend seperation of the two species.

While I agree that you should not put the two together unless you know what you are getting into, I also want to add that some times they do just fine. It will depend on how the two interact. Sliders will not use their claws in the sand whie they swim around which allows the softshell to be home free. I have three softies. Two are together in a twenty and are only about on inch an half. The other though is a 5 inch guadalupe. He is in a ninety with a red eared slider. Since the tank is large and there are plenty of live, dead, and fake plants. The turtles mind their own buisiness. When I first monitored them together about a year ago. The softie chased the slider away if he got to close. Now the just deal with eachother. IN my experiance it is the softies that will be agresive, and not the slider. Just watch them. Feed them dailey their diets but also keep live fish in the tank at all times. This will mean that they know there is a constant supply of food and will not have a need to compete for it. Good luck with what ever you dcecide.

Thats not a slider, its some kind of cooter. Do you have a closer pic of it?
Chris
-----
Hey whats up, I'm Chris and I currently have 1.0 Softy, 0.0.1 Midland Painted, 1.0 Bearded Dragon

Agreed about the softies being aggressive.

I would not mix softies with hardshelled species like sliders.
They have different requirements and too often the (I have seen this happen too) You end up with a softie whose nose gets bitten off (looks like a nice worm to that slider) or their back cut up because the sliders climb on the if they happen to be basking and those claws scratch up the softies skin.

The softie on the other hand could also not like having the slider around and inflict some nasty leg and head wounds or even chomp on the tail.

I would keep the softie in one tank and get the hardshell in another and just get the hardshell guy a little hardshell buddy.