Habitat - Outdoor :: Turtle and Tortoise in same habitat?

[Myke]

I have a Russian Tortoise and planning and building a pond for a RES. Since one is aquatic and the other a land lover, can I put them in the same fenced in area? Will the RES come out of the water and be aggressive towards the Ruskie? Do I need a barrier around the pond to keep the tortoise from falling in to the pond? I know this is a RES forum, but hoped somebody would be able to help.
Myke

[jenaero]

Definetly not a good idea. Torts don't swim. Besides that, the tort could carry an illness or even good bacteria that may be harmful to other species. I'd suggest keeping them completely separate.

[Terryo]

Against some people's advice, I keep my three toed and cherry head together since they were both hatchlings. They both need the same environment...humidity...temp. etc. So I have them in a 75 gal planted vivarium. They go outside together in a little pen that I have for them. I bring them in at night. I am in the processing of building a much bigger enclosure for them for next Spring. By then the three toed will be able to stay out year round, but the cherry head will come in for the winter. There are many people who disagree with this, but it works for me. But a water turtle and a land turtle.....that is a different thing.

[JimmyJam]

If you'd like both of them outside together you may want to try to build a mini fence so the tortoise can't get to the turtle same for the other way around. But yea, don't risk your tortoises life trying to keep them together like that. They could also get into a fight and depending if the tortoise is bigger could kill or hurt the turtle badly making you spend money at the vet you didn't need to do if you did keep them seperate.