Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have just bought a RES from a pet store that was not takeing good care of him and brought him home to my 1 other RES. The problem is I know he is to small for the tank I have now I was just wondering how big of a tank I should get.the new guy is about 7 and a half inches and the little guy is about 3 and a half. Can someone please give me some advise?
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Right now i have:
13 dogs
2 cats
2 RES
2 gunie pigs
4 fish

I don't think it is possible that he is too small for the tank, in the wild they live in lakes. If you are worried about putting him in with your larger RES, that is a different problem. He should be in at least a 40 gallon tank, you could try addding him in with the larger RES and watching to see if there is any aggression.
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Did you mean to say that the tank is too small for the new RES? You say the new turtle is 7.5 inches and the other is 3.5 inches. If you get a seperate tank for the new turtle the rule of thumb is 10 gallons per inch of turtle, so a 75 gallon tank would be a good idea. If you want to put them together, assuming they get along, go for 110 gallons.

Good luck!

My advice is that you shouldnt buy animals from pet stores because they arent taking care of them. Youre putting money in their pocket, rewarding them for what they are doing. Now they have extra cash and can buy 3 more turtles to stick in the crappy tank that the turtle you bought was living in. They are also thinking hey, people are buying turtles, lets stock up.
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Sorry I did mean he is too small for the tank i have him in right now.

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Right now i have:
13 dogs
2 cats
2 RES
2 gunie pigs
4 fish

Not all pet stores are bad... I've seen my local PetsMart have some remarkable setups for RES and other types of turtles. Remarkable in a sense that it would cost hundreds/thousands of dollars to do, and looks great! Once I checked and there were about 4 RES basking on a huge rock, in what I can only describe as a "whirpool spa-size tank".

I've some bad set ups though from stores like PetCo. And speaking of bad setups, I got mine from NY Chinatown which was the king of bad setups... 100's of turltes cramped together in a inch of water -_-

Oh well my turtles survived and are now 8 years old

Until you can afford a larger tank - I would NOT keep the two together right now due to size differences - you can get a large Rubbermaid container from a home improvement store or Wal-mart to house them seperately.

Katrina