Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My family and I found a turtle the size of a quarter at a park in Georgetown, TX called "The Blue Hole". The body of water is the San Gabriel River. We brought it home, put it in a 1x1x1 ft. aquarium and gave it the name Blue, because of the park's name we found it in. I have always assumed it to be a "Red-Eared Snapping Turtle" because of the similarities. We have had it for about 3 years now and it won't grow at all. Abt. a year ago we got him an aquarium that was about 1.5x1x1 ft. It wasn't a big change but we figured it was bigger so it must be good.

Today we purchased a 10 gallon aquarium for it because this turtle will not grow at all. It is still abt. the size of a quarter is around. Besides the growing issue, which I believe is because the size of it's home is not big enough, is the kind of turtle it is. It has no red ears on it. It has a mask, made of several yellow/brownish lines running from one side of the head across the front of the face and to the other side. The belly is a whitish color. Pics of this turtle is at:

http://www.geocities.com/billisa99/Blue_Pic.JPG
and at
http://www.geocities.com/billisa99/Blue_Pic2.JPG

If anyone could shed some lite on what kind of turtle this is we would greatly apreciate it.

Thanks,

Billy Jackson

I know the pictures are fuzzy. I have uploaded three more files with the same camera. I can't seem to get this camera to take the pictures any better. Hope this will help.

http://www.geocities.com/billisa99/Blue_Pic3.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/billisa99/Blue_Pic4.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/billisa99/Blue_Pic5.JPG

Thanks,

Billy

Looks like a Common Musk Turtle to me(Sternotherus oderatus), but clearer pictures would help.
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I am 15 years old and I have over 100 Turtles/Tortoises which 45 of those are different species!
Turtles are like potato chips, you can't have just one.

That looks like a Musk turtle to me. If you've had this turtle for 3 years, it should have at least doubled its size since then. Usually, it is not so much the size of the tank that keeps it small, it's how much the turtle eats. Small tanks can literally poison the turtle if they're not kept clean enough. Or, the turtle could have been stressed out. Musk turtles are very shy. These two things may have caused it to eat too little. Put a whole mess of safe aquatic plants in the tank for it to hide amongst. Then, offer it earthworms, mealworms, guppies, waxworms, and other live critters small enough. I'm sure you know this, but if this turtle stays the size of a quarter...it's probably gonna die. It's just a matter of when. Try to find some Musk turtle care sheets on this site and others. Good luck.

well, first off i think it is an unhealthy common musk turtle. After three years it really ought to be over 3 inches long, so you are doing something terribly wrong. Without knowing anything about how you have been keeping it I would suggest going out and buying some reptomin turtle food if you arent feeding it that already. Another thing that commonly helpes out a turtle is getting better light, so if you could move it to be next to a window or give it a floursent bulb that might be nice. The filter could also be a problem, for a little musk i would reccomend a whisper power filter, but its mostly just important you give it something. If you actually want to change things and want any more advice or even to get rid of blue I will be in Austin for most of the summer and could drive up towards georgetown easily enough.

sorry for the rambling,
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