The smallest turtle

[Papatoad]

Whats the smallest turtle that would stay small?

 

[Clint]

snapping turtles stay small for an extremely long time, my mom had one in her 50 gal fish tank for 5 years and it was only about 6 inches across when we let it go.

 

[Papatoad]

for a pet for a 20 gallon. I've done some research and the Speckled Cape padloper tortoise is the smallest at 3inces. What would be a good 5-7 inch turtle to get? Should I have half water and half land?

 

[Nflytrap]

By no means an turtle expert, but I would look into mud turtles...some species of which will only grow to around 5 inches.

 

[Slizarus]

can't get one who's shell is less than 4 inches in width.. salmonella thing.. though I've heard some breeders can get around it by selling them as "adoptions"

 

[The Griffin]

If you can get one, the spotted turtle stays relatively small.

Joe

 

[Papatoad]

My son has been posting here as of late looking for a small turtle. I told him once that when I was young, we had small aquarium turtles. Since banned due to salmonella. Does anyone know what those turtles were? I am trying to talk him into a tortoise if he gets anything.

 

[buster1]

Most of the small turtles that used to be sold were red-esred sliders. Adult red ears are fairly large turtles and depending on sex can become 12-14 inches in length.

 

[rattler]

turtles can be difficult to keep over the long term. you need one heck of a filter cause they need HIGH quality water. ive never kept any for very long. i highly suggest checking out the www.kingsnake.com forums, lots of ppl with LOTS of years experiance there. i used to cruise the forums when i was heavily into snakes. still check them out from time to time.

Rattler

 

[Slizarus]

Quote[/b] (Papatoad @ Aug. 02 2004,5:13)]My son has been posting here as of late looking for a small turtle. I told him once that when I was young, we had small aquarium turtles. Since banned due to salmonella. Does anyone know what those turtles were? I am trying to talk him into a tortoise if he gets anything.

Painted turtles mostly because they were easy to get, and some stores painted their shells, then Red eared sliders and various others like map turtles and such

 

[Mannannan]

Quote[/b] (JustLikeAPill @ July 31 2004,10:09)]snapping turtles stay small for an extremely long time, my mom had one in her 50 gal fish tank for 5 years and it was only about 6 inches across when we let it go.

Dunno if there are several species of snapper, but my friend's snapper was pushing 2 feet when he managed to get rid of it..
(Had it for about 3.5 years)
Friggen thing chopped a 1" hockey stick handle right off, and was downright evil!

/Quensel

 

[The Griffin]

Easiest small turtle will be some kind of mud turtle(including the popular stink pot). I think they max out at five, and four would be more common.

Joe