Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone merry christmas.

i am currently on a 3 month vacation in thailand. and have bin to a couple of the local pet stores if u can call them that there different then america and sell mostly fish. they do sell chinese soft shells about the size of a quarter and cost 10 american cents. there all very very healthly. the thai tradition is to buy the turtles and release them at a buddist temple. the idea is that they will let the turtles go and will have a long life like a turtle. now i have bin to a number of buddist temples and have seen these turtles in very large ponds and i have to say the soft shells are huge.

now my question is how big do chinese soft shells get?

some of the turtles i have seen have a shell measure of over 6 feet in length. i have bin able to get within inches of them since they come to any one they see for any food they might drop in. now all the books i have read say that they dont get much bigger then 10-12 inches. i have tryed to think if it could be a different species but they come from released animals in a pet store and i have asked the people there and they have only kept and had chinese soft shells for year and never had any other species of soft shells.

thanks a lot
Cody ⤴Õé
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I'm CrazyCody KadunkKadunk!!! I'm a herp god!!!

Kadunk was here

CrazyCody

Chitra indica can reportedly reach 72" and Pelochelys bibroni isn't far behind it.

Take some pictures! We'd love to see a turtle that size!
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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

The softshells at the temple have to be a different species if they are coming up to you to get fed when they see people what do you think is happen to the tiny turtles when they are put in the water they are snacks for the giant onoe the true chinese softshell only get about 10 inches not 6 feet I have read somewhere that these temple turtles only exist there the chinese softshells are farm raised I breed albino chinese softshells none are over 10 inches have you seen any albinos there and if so how much were they and were the chinese softshells green in color thanks tom

Well im sure that some of the little turtles get eatten, but you can buy food there to feed to the turtles so thats what there really looking for. I have seen albino chinese soft shells for sale in a couple places and they cost between 25-50 u.s. dollars depending on there size which is a lot more then the normal looking chinese for 10 cents.
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I'm CrazyCody KadunkKadunk!!!

Kadunk was here

CrazyCody