Reptile & Amphibian Forums

the field station at which we stay while in Peru is on the Rio Orosa, about 75 miles down-Amazon from Iquitos. No roads, no motorized vehicles (except an occasional boat), no phones, no electricity (except when the generator is running).
Matamatas, the most unique appearing turtle in the world, are occasionally found (usually by villagers) near canoe-landings. Most found are half-grown or smaller (this one was about 5" long) but occasional 16" long adults are seen. The fringes and flanges are probably electrical receptors to help these turtles find the fish-prey on which they depend in the heavily silted waters.

we used to get them for $25.00 or so each for babies. They never seemed to really thrive, though. Once in a while one would do well. I had one for about 3 years once and gave it away. Last I heard (25 years ago) it was still doing OK. I had another one that was doing well until the thermostat hung on the water heater while I was away for a few days.....not pretty. Probably we didn't have some little factor down in the husbandry, such as water PH or there was some bacterial or parasite problem they came in with that we couldn't figure out or something along those lines. Some people did pretty well with them fairly consistently from what I used to hear, but information sharing wasn't always what it is now in the private collector arena. No internet or Kingsnake.com in those days. Now they are relatively expensive when you can find one and babies are hard to come by anyway. I don't know of anyone breeding them in captivity. They are very interesting turtles..watching them eat is a trip...

sounds as if you've had many of the same experiences as I, Travis.
Matas used to come in with the trop fish shipments, and as you noted, sold for $25 or less. They're usually in the $175 area now, and, again as you said, of limited availability. cheers/Dick

Wow, I paid $350 for mine. He's a 9 incher, though.
pH is very very important to them, as is water quality. Other than that they're pretty easy to keep. They stay in the same spot unless you feed them, though. I assumed the 'fringes' were for camoflauge, but the electrosense would make sense, given their beady little eyes.
I'd love to see one in the wild.

I paid $50.00 each for mine back in 1983. They did fine till they got around 8 inches when I sold them. But then I heard that they developed shell rot on the plastron after another year or so.

I think there's more to the captive mata problem than just pH and "water quality." I've addressed those items and still have problems when the matas get to about 4.5" shell length.
We _usually_see from one to several on each Amazon excursion. The water in which they occur is so silted that vision is very limited.
Cheers/Dick