I have had my redear for 7 years now..5 of these years I have kept him in a 50 gallon tank. Would it be OK to place him in a smaller tank so that I can have more space and much less clean up. I just have this fear of putting him in stress mode because of down sizing his home. He is about the size of the palm of my hand. Hopefully someone has done this in the past and can assure me this in now way will put harm on Rocky. Thank you so much
There's a calculation as to how much tank you need per RES, which is measured based upon the size of the turtle.
Your RES, god willing, is going to live for a very long time and will grow to about 2-3 times its current size as you describe it.
I've had to move my 14y/o [roughly mid-life] into a tank measuring roughly 2 feed by 4 feet with a depth of 3 feet. We would like to give her a larger habitat, but that would require a custom fabrication or more permanent installation.
I'd recommend getting a MUCH bigger tank now, rather than buy several in the future.
Nobody realizes the commitment when they buy that silver dollar sized cutie pie...