Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, firstly I am really sorry if these questions are covered in a FAQ, I've had a look online and I can't find all the answers, and when I do they quite often contradict themselves.

I am looking to get a turtle or two, however I need to ensure that this is a sensible choice, as I don't want to end up messing up.

I live in the UK, and I have only one stockist of turtles locally, unfortunately they are a new item here, so the staff are a bit clueless to say the least, and I don't think their advice will do me, or the potential turtle any good in the future.

I did some research, and found out that the Musk turtles are the smallest turtles that they sell, growing up to be around 10cm in length. I'm guessing a tank measuring 80cm long x 35cm deep would be too small for an adult?

Which leads me onto the next question, would a single turtle be OK on it's own, or would it be better to have a pair?

Another question is feeding. The shop I saw the turtles in said that the turtles need feeding twice a day, however a book I read said that turtles need feeding once every day or two? What are your preferences with feeding?

I'm also a bit confused about water changes. I udnerstand that it's best to have an additional tank to feed the turtle in, so that scraps of food don't pollute it's habitat. But how often do you do a water change? If it's once a week, how much water do you take out? I personally do a 1/6th water change weekly for my tropical fishtank, would this be similar for a turtle?

Thank you if you can offer any advice.

Hi New Bee

I have had a musk turtle in a 10-gallon fish tank now for 6 years. I have it filled about 3/4ths of the tank with water. I have a large rock inside were he can climb out if he likes and sit on it. I have a filter on the tank so I only clean out and change the water in the tank once each year in the summer. I only feed him floating turtle food 2-3 times a week. I do have some minnows that I catch in the summer and feeder gold fish that I buy in the winter in the tank at all times. It’s fun to watch him swim around trying to catch the fish. And he eventually will catch them all. I had one gold fish that managed to last almost 1 year in the tank. He grew very big and I was confident that he was now to big for the turtle to try to eat. Then one day I looked into the tank and he was gone. There was nothing left of him. I found it hard to believe he could eat the whole thing but he did. You do need the filter because feeding a turtle live food can be messy. I would clean the filter out every week or two as needed.
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Jack