What Do Turtles Like in Their Tanks?

As a turtle owner, you will always want your turtle to have the best conditions possible, the best food, the best tank, the best basking area, etc. But what do turtles actually like?

What do turtles like in their tanks? Turtles don’t have a preference for colors, shapes, or sizes. But turtles like to have fish or plants in their tanks.

Overall turtles are not that pretentious and don’t really care for most of the things in the tank unless they can interact with them. While most things that you can put in the turtle tank are generally harmless, some of them can be quite dangerous, like fishes for example. Turtles like to chase fish around in their tank, but some fish can be quite dangerous for turtles. So let’s explore most things that you can put in a turtle tank and see if your turtle likes them, or if they are dangerous.

Decorations

So let’s start with the most obvious thing, decorations. When I say decorations I mean plastic, metal, or stones, not living organic things, those are completely different things.

Overall decorations are ok, as long as they don’t take up too much space. The thing that turtles like the most in their tank is space, and while decorations can be pretty to look at, and your turtle might even enjoy staging near them, they will take up space, which is the most important thing for your turtle.

Another thing that you have to be careful with decorations is that they aren’t made out of foam, or anything that your turtle might be able to bite and eat. And of course, very small decorations are a big no. Turtles can always end up eating them, thinking that they are food, or even by mistake.

Plants

Turtles really love plants in their tanks, but not because they look nice. They like them because they can eat them.

So plants are a great thing to add to the tank, but don’t expect them to last more than a week, and be prepared to change the water after your turtle is done with them.

Overall there are no bad or dangerous aquatic plants, but to be sure always buy them at a pet store, and ask somebody who works there if they are ok for turtles.

Fishes

Just like with plants, turtles love to fish, but, just like with plants they like them because they can eat them.

Fishes will provide some entertainment for your turtle and even a snack. So your turtle will love them. And unlike plants, they might survive more than a week, but this depends on how many you add to the tank.

Your turtle will not always chase them, so don’t worry about exhaustion, most of the time your turtle will probably let them be, but when it gets boring or hungry, the chase will begin.

But, unlike plants, there are a lot of fishes that can be bad for your turtle.

Pet shops will usually have a selection of feeder fishes that are safe to eat by animals. But even some of these fishes aren’t healthy for your turtle. Some of them, like the goldfish, for example, contain thiamine. Thiamine is an enzyme that will block the absorption of vitamin B1 which is essential for a turtle.

Here is a list of feeder fishes that you should avoid:
Goldfish
Rosy Red minnows
Carp
Gizzard Shad
Feathered minnows

Here is a list of fishes that are safe for your turtle to eat:

Bluegills
Bass
Crappies
Guppies
Killifish
Platies

Toys

As far as I know, there are no specific toys for turtles, but small (but not too small, you don’t want your turtle to eat it) rubber balls that float can be quite fun for turtles.

Overall anything that your turtle likes to play with and doesn’t present a danger to your turtle can be a great toy.

A Friend

You might think that your turtle might enjoy having a buddy in the tank but that is completely wrong. The most common thing that can happen if you have more than one turtle in the same tank is that they will fight.

Fighting usually happens if you have one or more adult turtles in the same tank, juvenile turtles can be a little less aggressive. There are a lot of reasons why they will start a fight. One of the reasons can be the food. Even if you give them enough food, they will still try to take each other’s food and this will result in fighting. There is no way to avoid this, at some point they will fight over this if you feed them in the same tank. Placing food for each turtle on separate sides of the tank might seem like a good idea, but at some point, one of the turtles will try to go to the other side to take the food from there as well. The only way to solve this is to feed them one at a time in a separate container, unless you do this they will fight at some point over food.

Another reason why they might fight is for territory. This is just the way animals are, there is no way to stop them from doing this. If you place them in different containers then it doesn’t help them at all with loneliness.

While I was researching I thought that placing one male and a female should solve the fighting problem, maybe this way the two turtles will get along, but I was very wrong. If you have one adult male and one adult female in the same tank, the male will continuously try to mate with the female, and at some point, the female will have enough of it and they will start fighting. Placing two males, or two females in the same tank will also lead to fights. So gender doesn’t necessarily play any role in this.

On the other hand, juvenile and baby turtles are actually very peaceful compared to adult turtles. So there are smaller chances of them fighting, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen. One of the biggest problems is that they are small, and as a result, their tails can sometimes look like worms or other small animals, and because of that, they can sometimes bite each other’s tails. As a result that their tails can be nipped and this will lead to permanent scars and to fight as well.

Placing an adult turtle with a juvenile turtle will basically result in the smaller turtle being bullied by the bigger turtle for every reason possible, so this is also not an option.

Another big problem is that one turtle can assert its dominance over the others, this will mean that the others won’t get to eat as much food and that they will also not get to bask as much, and over time this can lead to serious health problems.

Turtles just like being alone, you won’t find a turtle that likes to have company, instead, you might find that there can be turtles that are able to tolerate other turtles. After all, every turtle has a slightly different personality, and this can play a big role in how well they get with other turtles.

I’m not trying to tell you that keeping more than one turtle in the same tank is impossible, it is, but you will need a very big tank so that your turtles won’t have to interact with each other as much. But again this kind of goes against the idea of having a company.

What Turtles Really Like in Their Tank

Overall turtles like some decorations, some toys, and they like fishes and plants. But what they really really like is clean water and good light and temperature.

Toys, plants, and all things that I mentioned above are more or fewer extras, but the essential things that keep your turtle happy are light, clean, and warm water.

I won’t get into details in this article, since those things are entire topics on their own, but I will leave you those articles which cover those subjects in depth: Guide for Lighting and Heating a Turtle Tank and Basking Area, Recommended Turtle Tank Cleaning Gear.

Conclusion

So overall I would say that turtles are not very pretentious and they will like most new things in their tank, just be careful not to overcrowd the tank, and not to add any dangerous decoration, toy, or fish.

I hope this article answered all the questions that you had. But in case you still have some questions that weren’t answered in the article, you can leave them in the comment section and I will answer them as soon as possible.