General questions about turtles

Question
Hi there!

Okay, when I was younger, my mom got me a male red-eared slider. He was okay; rather aggressive and cranky, but okay. About a year later, she 'rescued' two Peninsula Cooters, both female, and we put them into the tank with Houdini.

The girls were very sweet and outgoing, and reminded me at times of a puppy, the way they'd come clamoring over for attention and shell-scritchings. Regretfully, when we moved, I had to rehome them, and I've wanted to replace them ever since. Now that I'm older, I've done some research, and it appears that Cooters are unusual to find in petstores, and that they make very poor pets. Which confuses me, because they grew well and appeared to be in great health.

In that vein, I do have some general questions for you. What turtles would -you- recommend for a 'beginner'? Do you have any insight into why the male may not have been as friendly? I'm not sure on breeds of turtles, if some breeds are more gregarious than others, or if it was a male vs female aspect, or general personality or what. I do know that Houdini was not a pet I would voluntarily get again, mainly because I did not enjoy being hissed at and bitten regularly.

I've looked a little into tortoises, but most of the 'beginner' tortoises are ones that grow to be huge, and I can honestly say that I do NOT have the space to house a 150 lb tortoise! Are there good, hardy tortoises that are smaller, or am I better off sticking with turtles? And just how different is the care of turtles vs tortoises? (I'm thinking the lack of cleaning and scrubbing a 100 gallon tank weekly is a big perk to the torts, personally! XD)

I do thank you in advance for your time and patience with these questions.

Answer
First thank you for your well thought our question, I will try and answer it to the best of my ability.
I personally wouldn't suggest turtles as a "beginner" reptile. Torts are easier if you ask me and you run less risk with their setups being incorrect. As to why your male was aggressive I'm not really sure. I have seen many tame RES turtles but the ones that were not were both male and female so I'm afraid I don't have any great insight for you. As for torts I would suggest looking into Russian torts they are relatively hardy stay quite small (@ 10 inches) and I have never met an aggressive one. I would really stick to torts personally.
Here is a link I highly suggest checking out on Russians: http://russiantortoise.org/care_sheet.htm
This one has some nice facts:  http://www.reptilechannel.com/care-sheets/russian-tortoise.aspx

Hope this helps
JRFK