Hey, I wouldn't keep your turtles with fish. They sound like red eared sliders, or orange eared sliders, but either way, they have a wonderful appetite for fish.I suggest going to the store OR even walmart, and getting a 55gal tank. The ones at Walmart come with a bunch of stuff for the tank and are about $180, pretty good deal. This will be a good size tank for your RES for the first three or four years of their life. After that, you will need to move them into a pond or you will need to get a 100gal tank, and those are super expensive. You can also get a large horse trough and put them in that. You can get one from farm-supply stores or local farms sometimes sell them after they no longer need them. But thats way in the future. ^.^Males will have long tails that kind of tuck to the side. Females have stubby short tails that stick out most of the time. I have a male RES and a male Western Painted turtle.When setting up your tank( for this scenario, I'll call it the 55gal), make sure the water is not too deep. Baby turtles are not the best swimmers, if you haven't noticed. In fact, it would be best to slope rock in the tank so there is a 12x4 inch area of land with a basking light. You can also place drift wood so it is out of the water, and they seem to like that more. I would have the water level at about ten inches, at the deepest part. The slope should be semi steep(not a 90* angle but not a 160* angle either), so you will need large rocks to help with that. Make sure everything is ok and nothing the turtles can reach will fall. As for filtration, you should get a 501 turtle filter for 30gal tanks. Maybe two, or you can get the Whisper internal filters that are for 30 gal tanks. I have two in my 55 and its crystal clear, even with the turtle and all the fish! If you get two of the whispers, and an air bubbler, I would say it would be safe to place some feeder guppies and goldfish in the tank. Maybe if the RES is well fed and cared for, he will leave the fish alone. At least they are feeder fish and would be meant for eating if anything did happen. For feeding, I feed mine a dead, chopped up goldfish every other week(so he wont eat the fish in the tank) and live crickets, mealworms, waxworms(sometimes). Also, some turtle pellets, dried krill, and baby shrimp for a complete balanced meal. When they are older they will want to eat more veggies(water plants only!). For now, worry about the meat. Never feed them mice, thats terrible and not part of their natural diet. They need to be fed in water because they can not swallow on land, they dont have strong enough throat musscles. Make sure you buy a UV light for them! Most 55gal's come with two light fixtures now, not the old 48" one they used to. Get one 2.0 bulb and one 5.0 bulb, the 5.0 placed over the basking area, and it should be ok. The basking area needs to be about 90* or so. Dont worry if you never see them there, it takes turtles forever to decide people aren't going to eat them.Please dont 'play' with them like you would a dog because water turtles get stressed easy. They are definately a look dont touch pet. Although once in a while my old RES will want a pat on the head, its very rare.Oh, try not to feed them by hand. My baby western Painted tries to bite now because he thinks our hands are food. Train them to get up on something to eat, so the food wont get squishy in the water.Good luck! You sound like a caring reptile owner, we need more of those. ^.^
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