Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had turtles for many years and have quite a few right now(around 25) But I have been reading some books and it says to not mix species at all. I always though it was okay to keep species from the same areas together. Right now I have some 2 Maps, 10 Red Ear Sliders(5 pastel, 5 normal) 1 Southern Painted, 1 Musk, 1 Penn. Cooter, 3 common snappers, 1 Flordia Snapper, 3 Hypo Common Snappers, 1 Alligator Snapper. So all of my turtles are north american species and all are captive breed by breeders. I have all the snapping turtles seperate and then the other turtles are just basically divided up by size with species inter-mixed. Do you think this is fine? Or should I seperate them by species? Or whats species are okay to live together. They are not over crowded as I have 4 Medium Waterland Tubs, 1 custom build 220 gallon indoor pond, 1 65 gallon indoor pond, 1 90 gallon indoor pond, 1 170 gallon outdoor pond, 1 55 gallon tank, 1 75 gallon tank and 1 40 gallon tank and then a 20 and 29 gallon unused as well. So around 1000 gallons of living space for them. So if I need to serperate some thats not an issure. I just want to make sure I am doing everything right and that I keep everyone with who they belong and everything. Please let me know if I am doing anything wrong and what need to be corrected.

I know this is long and I tend to rant on here or there, just dont know exactly what to say/ask.

Thanks,
Mitch

I'd keep them separate except for the cooters/res's/maps. Such turtles live together in the wild.

Sounds like you have it right, for now.

Man, 25 turtles? I'd had 18, but just got rid of 10.

Good job.

Keep those snappers to themselves, though. In the wild they have bit off limbs of other turtles.

Alright, thanks for the info. I figured that most could live together. I have the snappers in there own enclousers until the hypos become breeding size then they will be put together for breeding season. I just slowly keep getting more and more turtles and then all the sudden have 25ish. I will be getting more soon as I would like to start breeding other less common species. I will put the musk and the painted turtle with themselves and go from there.

Mitch

I wanted to say the following. The painter can go together with the maps,red ears and cooters,too. But the maps actually like deeper, clearer water, whereas res's/painters like sluggish, murkier water.

Some res's and cooters have interbred in the wild as well, which is the problem they're now facing in Florida. They create hybrids. The cooters, likewise-if they're the same as Florida cooters-are herbivores, not omnivores, like red ears.

The snappers I don't know much about except that you should never pick them up by the tail, watch out for their expert climbing skills, and be careful when feeding them together. They lunge and chomp.