Help me find a small turtle that could be content in a 30 gallon tank with holding capabilitie. I am looking for any advice based on cage set up, food brands/ diet, proper shell care, habitat and such, Thank you so much!
I don’t think there are any species commonly kept in captivity that could live their whole adult lives in a tank that size, but I’m not a turtle expert. Musk turtles and spotted turtles stay pretty small, but I think they still need more space than that once they’re adults. That tank could work for a juvenile and then you could upgrade later.
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By no means at all a turtle person but I agree with @solarserpents, there are unfortunately no turtle species I am aware of that can comfortably live their entire lives in a 30 gallon.
I’d go with something no smaller than a 100gal for the smaller species, just based on seeing their natural activity… needing to have plenty of space to swim while also having an area to walk around and bask.
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You would even be hard pressed to find a small tortoise that could live in a 30 gallon tank. I am not sure why you specifically mentioned a turtle but there are a plethora of other smaller species of reptiles that could thrive in a 30 gallon tank……
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As the others have noted, there are NO turtle species that you can reasonably keep in a 30G. This is not about convenience but basic humane treatment of the animal and quality of life
Further, there is the ‘4-inch Law’ that you would have to deal with for any of the “smaller” species
As Caron so rightly points out:
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And what would some of those be?
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Mourning geckos, chameleon geckos, a male western hognose snake, a male African house snake come to mind for species that would do well in a 30 gallon.
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I’ll add to @inspirationexotics’s list: male Kenyan sand boa, a pair of garter snakes, or maybe even some frogs like White’s or Red-eyed tree frogs (though they’re arboreal and would do better with a vertical enclosure).
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@taylorlysons Is your tank a 30 gallon long or tall? If it’s a long then a leopard gecko would work well. Chameleon geckos are arboreal so a taller enclosure would work better for them. Leopard geckos are terrestrial so a longer than taller tank is best for them.
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That is a complicated question. Easiest answer would be to start with a couple questions back:
-Reptile or amphibian? Or maybe arachnid? Or insects?
-If the prior, snake or lizard? If the latter, frog/toad or salamander/newt?
-Terrestrial or arboreal?
-Tropical, temperate, or arid?
-How much work do you want to put into building the cage?
-How much money do you want to spend?
If you like the idea of a tropical gecko, there are scads of small geckos that you could go for - mournings, day geckos, house… There are also some fun arid gecko species that could work well - Bynoe’s, Coleonyx, Strophurus, smaller knob-tail species
Snakes offer some unusual little species aside from the ones already mentioned - ringnecks, rubber boa, anthill python…
Arthropods offer countless possibilities. There are many tarantulas that would do well. You could also do whip scorpions or cave scorpions. Some of the larger mantids would do well to (though you would have to start them in much smaller containers and graduate them up with each successive moult
Smaller dart or Mantella frogs would be possible. As would a number of the smaller terrestrial salamander species
Honestly, the biggest thing you probably need to do right now is look around for something that you might enjoy and the research the ever loving heck out of it. Once you have a rock solid foundation of what it would take to meet the animal’s requirements then you should have no trouble
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