How do you tell the gender of a red eared slider turtle 

One more thing. I found something weird in the tank but now it disappeared. It was like a throw up? maybe...poop? I have no idea what that could have been and how it disappeared overnight. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw it. By morning it was gone.

out of curiosity, what is that hay/bedding looking plant that your turtle is basking on? looking for something like this for mine!

I still don't get it. You are touching a bunch of turtles and not saying what's what. Mine looked like a male and now I'm debating if it's a female. The tail is very thick but slightly shorter than the longest I've seen a male have online. Even males have different lengths, that's why this is confusing. It would be good to say the age of the turtles and have a male and a female next to each other. And even that is not clear enough, unless you do a time lapse of tail growth for both genders from tiny to mature, side by side.

I was doing it waaaay wrong....

First