Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We found what appears to be an adult Eastern Painted today on a busy road quite far from any kind of body of water. Going in the direction he/she was headed, and given the roads ahead, I would be shocked if it were able to make it to safety alive. Given this, I have temporarily placed him in a big plastic tub with a rock and provided some worms and salamanders which he appears to have snacked on. I intend to ultimately release him in the nearest pond where I know there is a population of Eastern Painteds, or in the pond I am currently building.

Now to my question. When the rule of thumb states that you should have about 10 gallons per inch of turtle (as I have been reading), which would mean about 50-60 gallons for this one, I am assuming this DOESN'T mean to build a semi-aquatic environment in a 60 gallon tank (e.g. fill just the bottom of the tank), but rather to literally have 60 gallons of water for the little guy to swim in, correct? Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question...

I want to make sure that even if I keep this guy for a short amount of time, I give him/her what it needs... Thanks.

I wouldn't release him in a near pond. He had his heart set on leaving whatever pond he was leaving for a reason. You don't want to put him in a pond where he feels he needs to leave again. If this new pond has painteds there might be too many for him to make himself at home. If you are building a pond I would keep him there.
Yes, the rule of thumb is 10 gals per inch of turtle, so if your turtle is 6 inches then 60 gals of water is good so you would want a tank just a little bigger than 60 gals so you can make a basking area too.
This is my 90 gal set up (it's a 90 gal tank but not 90 gals of water because it's not all the way full).

My set up is far from finished but you can see it has alot of water and a basking area (that specific one is called a turtle dock and I just got mine and love it). You can see there is a light, mine is only UVB and I am working on getting a heat light. I hope my picture helps you. Good luck and feel free to ask anymore questions you have.