before you make a decision. Turtles and tortoises as you know come in all different shapes and sizes, and have varying degrees of "personality", husbandary requirements, and prices. It would be difficult, however, to find one that is going meet all of your requirements (i.e., under 12", lots of color, personable, and inexpensive). I see you have some nice (and expensive) snakes and geckos, so I'm not sure why you mentioned the budgetary requirement. In my mind, if you can afford an abino boa, you could probably afford to shell out the necessary cash for a nice tortoise too. One other thing I would recommend you consider, is where you live and what the weather is like there, as many feel it is best to offer tortoises natural sunlight as much as possible. Some species (desert dwellers) do better is drier areas (like SW US), whereas others (tropical forest species) fare better in more humid places (like SE US).
One animal (although not technically a tortoise) comes to mind when considering most of your requiremnts. The ornate box turtle (or terrapin) looks and behaves much like a tortoise (high domed, round carapace, terrestrial), has beautiful colors and patterns, stays small, and is relatively inexpensive. This is a CITES species, however, and cannot legally be transported across state lines without proper permits. You would likely need to find a breeder in your state to find one (unless you live in the midwest where they occur naturally).
Best of luck.
