Turtle...???

[schubert]

This is going to sound a little random and perhaps even more dumb, but I was just wondering...has anyone every tried to keep a marine turtle in a large aquarium (300g or so)? I know marine turtles get very large, but apparantly the Olive Ridley species, as yearlings, are about the size of your hand. I guess they need a lot of swimming room...and are perhaps a bit messy...not to mention you might need to build a dry land spot at the top of the aquarium just to be safe (would you?)...could freshwater turtles live in a marine aquarium...the only thing that I could imagine would affect them is perhaps the salt on their skin...but who knows some might not have any problems. What do you think?

 

[schubert]

Wonder how big these guys get and how fast they grow

 

[jon321]

im almost 100% sure all sea turtles are endangered so cannot be kept. if you are really interested you can look at sea turtle care in old marine hobbiest books/articles/magazines from the 70/80's as they seem to have been semi-popular then and ive read a few good articles on them just for the heck of it. and about messy, ive been keeping freshwater turtles (red-ear, painted, and soft shell) for 13 years and they are not very sensitive to organics because they are not as intimate with the water as fish because they breathe air from the surface.
Jon

 

[schubert]

Do freshwater turtles behave similarly in the water as the marin turtles, or do they prefer to spend most of their time on dry ground?

 

[tthemadd1]

Seriously, YOu cannt keep one of those. Also, they spend almost their entire lives in the water, they only come on dry land to lay eggs. DO NOT keep one, they are very high maintenance and needs thousands of gallons to swim. I have seen a few at the boston aquarium and they had them in a circular tank 1000's of gallons. But they would swim in the opposite direction as the water flow. Please dont keep one in your tank. It will surely get sick.

 

[schubert]

Yes - thanks. I was not planning on keeping one...ever. I am simply curious as to how this same situation would work with freshwater turtles. Anybody have any ideas?

 

[jer4916]

i had a thread on wanting a sea turtle...i want one so bad....eveyone freaked out on me because theres only like 3 left in the whole world (im joking about the number, but theres not many) ..and yes i agree it would be INSAINLY sweet to have one, but your not going to find one...if you look in the aggressive thread there is one of mine in ref to sea turtles...there is a freshwater turtle that looks just like a marine turtle...i almost considered turning my tank into a freshwater tank...but i want to stay salt...if you do go a turtle tank send me pictures...i love the little guys.
~chris

 

[schubert]

That's cool. I just don't understand why freshwater turtles require fresh water necessarily. Like I had guessed before, perhaps it's a skin sensitivity issue, but then again they can't be too sensitive of water conditions in comparison to fish. There are many freshwater turtles that stay quite small...so why couldn't you put one of those in a salt system with some dry land surface at the top? Hope I'm not sounding too dumb...but what would be wrong with that?

 

[jer4916]

its kinda like you breathing carbon minoxide

 

[tthemadd1]

Sorry, you never know who is going to do something like this seriously. I am headed to the outer banx next week and look forward to spotting a few turtles laying eggs. It is always exciting.
Freshwater turtles cant live in saltwater because of the physiological issues. They evolved to deal with freshwater environments for thousands of years. Think of it as you swimming in saltwater for a few days. Eyes burn, skin dryed out, dehydration, etc. Their tissues simply cannot deal with it. I could see a possible brackish environment but even then you will see problems.
As for the difference between Fresh/Salt turtles. The most obvious is that freshwater turtles have feet with claws, they grow like our fingernails. Saltwater have fins/flippers. There are more differences but that is a pretty good indication about environment.
Good fishing,
themadddhatter

 

[harlequin]

All sea turtles and the only brackish water turtle are critically endangered. Its a real shame too because DiamondBack Terrapins are the most people friendly turtle I have ever seen. We have a project at school that rescues the eggs from mother turtles which are hit by cars, we literally extract the eggs from the dead bodies and incubate them at school. We have a very high success rate, and they are released at one year of age giving them a boost. I think we have something like a 90 odd % survival rate while in the wild it is extremely much lower. I actually had one I rescued from sea gulls in my reef tank for a short while, before I could get in touch with a permitted biologist who has raised it and plans on releasing it soon. It was about the size of a half dollar coin and so friendly it wasnt funny. She spent some insane money on anti-biotics though in the two years she has had it. Sea turtles get way too big for even big tanks. There is a loggerhead at the Chattanooga aquarium and it is horribly cramped and last I heard they had not moved it to a bigger tank. True sea turtles have several enemies still. You have barbaric peoples in third world countries who consider them delicacies and sell the meat. You have idiots in Mexico who continue to plunder the eggs of the Ridley's right after the mothers lay them. The fishing industry is wiping them out by the boatload as by-catch, especially Asian countries which refuse to use turtle safe methods, even though they have been scientifically proven to help their normal catch as well. Until the US and other civilized countries get their act together and realize diplomacy does not work and go after these evil fisheries with force of arms, the turtles are pretty much doomed. Not even protecting them in our own waters works because they travel often all the way accross oceans regularly.

 

[schubert]

"We have a project at school that rescues the eggs from mother turtles which are hit by cars, we literally extract the eggs from the dead bodies and incubate them at school"
WOW. That's...amazing. I had no idea turtle roadkill was that abundant, and I'm not kidding. That's cool.
OK so it is an issue of skin sensitivity...that's what I didn't know. Oh well...worth a thought.

 

[jon321]

plus the fact that im sure turtles drink the water, and fresh water turtles have not adapted a way to excrete the large amount of salt.
Jon

 

[nemo lover]

Down here in Fl. at this time of year. If you know how to be quiet, and go to the beach at night you can see the turtles come on shore, and lay eggs.. Sometime you can even see them hatch. We have many conservation organisations on watch all the time. Marking nests, counting babys, and making sure nobody disturbs these beautiful animals. I wouldn't want to mess with the future of these turtles.
I agree with you Harlequin-more should be done! But alot of talk doesn't do it. The only ones trying to making some sort of a difference are these Conservation organisations.
Everyone likes to see turtles at the aquariums, and at the beach, when your out snorkeling. Our children love seeing the bald egals, Bengal Tigers, humpback whales, grey wolf, bison, Florida pathers, african elephants, pandas, and chimpanzees at the zoo.(just to name a few) We need to make sure these endangerd animals are still around for our grandkids and great grandkids. More needs to be done to save their habitats and lives.

 

[stang66200]

I would not say it is a "skin" issue. More of a "get rid of the salt from the drinking water" issue. If you drank a glass of sea water, you would get extremely sick and probably end up in the hospital if you did not follow it with LOTS of fresh water. Same thing goes for fresh water turtles.

 

[ophiura]

I will also throw in that sea turtles, IME keeping them for rehab, can be exceedingly mean and aggressive. :yes:

 

[schubert]

Got to admit though, they're pretty awesome. I saw one in Cayman in March and I was a bit scared for him as there was a reef shark swimming his way...but that wasn't nearly as scary as the barracuda that was following us...it was only later that we read that they often follow divers but have never been reported to attack.

 

[kaotik]

why dont you just set up a freshwater turtle tank if you want one so bad???