Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok, so my friend has a wc common snapping turtle in the same tank as a wc painted turtle, both turtles are pretty small, the snapper is a little bigger, the tank is a 20 long, please give me a coupla good arguments as to why this is not ok, and also could you tell my approx how big common snappers get thank you
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my animals
1.0.1 leopard gecko (goliath, gebco)
0.1 hypo red bearded dragon (puff the magic dragon)
0.0.1 schnieder's skink (ghandi)
0.1 white's dumpy treefrog (un-named)
0.0.1 red eared slider (carl)
0.0.1 fire belly toad (escaped..)
1.0 lop eared wabbit (oreo)
0.0.2 pink toed tarantula (mambo mambo, and un-named)
0.0.1 green iguana (iguanadonatello)
the rest of the animals in the hizouse
1.0 westie puppy (gabriel)
1.0 plain ol' outdoor alley cat (joey)
0.1 indoor rag doll kitty (tinkerbell)
2.0 goulian finchs

snapping turtles will grow at a much faster rate than your painted turtle putting him at a disadvantage when the snapper is hungry because he will fight for more food or possibly hurt the painted turtle. Snappers like a water level where they can sit and have their nose just out of the water to get air, where painted turtles like deep water to swim around and all that. Depending on the species of painted turtle will will let you know the size of the turtle (painted turtles range from about 6-10 inches in average, they are 4 subspecies) and snapping turtles are big. Males can reach a little over 80lbs. which is the record and shell can be around 19 inches or so. Females are smaller but they are still a big turtle, so you gonna need a bigger cage than that. All in all, they made be fine now, but my opinion is not to keep them together.

I would definitely separate the two. As juveniles there is a possibility that the snapper will tolerate the painted. Eventually this will change and the snapper will go after anything in its site. Even with it being smaller than the painted it can easily take off its tail or damage the legs.

Also, like the last reply the two turtles require different tank setups. The painted prefers deeper waters while the snapper should have water shallow enough to sit on the bottom and reach its head up for air.

Both should have a place to completely emerge from the water. Although some snapper caresheets may not state this, I provide my snapper with a basking area and he loves it. He is out of the water for most of the day.

-Mike
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Mike
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2 Painted
1 Musk
1 Common Snapper
1 Cooter
1 Map
1 RES
2 Water Dragons
1 Corn Snake
1 Toad
2 African Frogs
1 Degu
3 Dogs
1 Cat

Just to give you an example, my female common snapper is 9 years old with an 11inch carapace. She killed almost everything she ever lived with, including other snappers. I learned the hard way.