About Yexalen Expertise I am experienced with the care, lighting, heating, breeding, sexing, species identification, and general keeping of mostly aquatic turtles. I also have experience with tortoises and land turtles and can certainly research any question that I do not know the answer. I can not answer medical related questions as I am not veterinarian certified. I prefer not to answer questions on animals that you or somebody else has taken out of their natural environment unless the animal was in danger, ill, or injured.
Experience I have owned six aquatic turtles and have been researching turtles for several years. I have been on several question and answer sites under this category. I also have started up a web site focused on reptile care with a portion of it for turtles.
Education/Credentials I have been around turtles sense a very young age and always found them fascinating and because of that it has lead me to researching day after day, reading book after book, and finding endless amounts of web sites with information.
Question hi, i was just wondering how big of a tank i should have for my three red eared sliders. i know how big the standard size for one turtle is, but on all the other web sites they just say it needs to be bigger for more turtles; but i dont know how much bigger. 2 of my 3 turtles are 5 ins long and the other is 4 ins long
thank you for your time
Answer Hello Ashley, at this point in the turtle's life it is definately time to think about either a huge enclosure, separating them into their own somewhat large enclosure or the best option of putting them in an indoor or outdoor pond.
The rule is 10 gallons of tank per inch of shell. So a 1 inch turtle needs a 10 gallon tank.
So you have two 5 inch turtles meaning 10 inches of turtle plus the other one which is 14 inches of turtle. You will need at least a 140 gallon tank.
This is getting into the extremes. which is why I suggest a pond. With a pond you can go a little bit lower on the gallons mostly because there is more diameter room to swim rather then in a boxy tank. However if you live somewhere that the turtles are not native then acheiving proper temperatures and such can be difficult. I think its best to somehow work with putting a pond inside the home.
Click on Indoor Habitats and then you will notice a few pictures of a pre-formed pond setup inside a home. Or you can research what is needed to house them outside.
