Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Last night my dad went to a pet store... He's very impulsive, and apparently has a liking for turtles now. He bought me a softshell turtle. Now, I don't have much of a problem with this- he's adorable! But I don't know what kind he is! So far, I've narrowed it down to either a smooth softshell or a spiny softshell... But the pictures on the net look SO alike to me. So, my question is:

What is a distinct trait I can look for to accurately identify this turtle?

Any other advice on keeping one would help... I.E. food, lifespan...

Thankyou!
(If this seems familiar, it's not spam, I just posted on another forum here on kingsnake. )

The front rim of the carapace in the second photo gives it away. Spiney softshells are so named because of the row of tubercules (little bumps) on the front rim of the carapace (top shell). If you have both a spiney softshell and a smoothe softshell hatchling in hand, they look completely different, but with pictures for unaccustomed eyes such differentiation can be difficult. Yours is a spiney

Care for softshells is definitely more involved than with most turtles. Good care sheets can be found in the care sheet section of chelonia.org. Fortunately for you, spineys tend to be substantially easier to raise than smoothes. Although it can't be told for certain from pattern upon hatching, especially since this is such a geographically variable species, females tend to have fainter spotting, and yours looks to have this condition. Should the animal be female, you are looking at something that will grow to a foot and a half or more. If well-cared for, these guys can easily pass the two decade mark in lifespan.

Whoa... brilliant! I deffinitely hope to have this turtle for a long time, I'd love to see it get so big. I have no problems with investing in a large tank in the future, so it's not a big deal to me about the size.

I noticed those when I picked him up today... but on the web, I still couldn't find one that matched. Ahh well, at least I know now!

Thanks for the website, I'll go take a look at it now.

Does "she" seem to look healthy in the picture? Can you tell?

I read that they are carnivorous... so he won't eat reptomin?
As soon as I put him in last night, he tried to eat the fake plant... so I gave him some lettuce and he ate. So I'm confused about food.

Care sheets only go so far in their applications. They can tell you reasonable point temperatures (the preferred minimum and maximum operation temps for an animal) and preferred food items, make suggestions about cage size or filtration, but they can't cover everything, and you may discover a lot in a single animal that never made it onto any care sheet for the given species.

Wild turtles of many species, even the most carnivorous ones, will go for lots of vegetation as this is often a most practically acheivable food source. As an example, snapping turtles are carnivorous, right? They eat fish, smaller turtles, anything they can secure. They even have rocket launcher necks tipped with formidable assault tips. Then why do large wild specimens normally contain more plant than animal matter? Because plants are easier to catch than are any animals and can provide elligible nutrition for at least the larger specimens that don't need lots of protein for growing. You won't normally find that sort of info in a care sheet.

Spiney softshells can be very eager feeders (not all specimens are). If yours is attacking aquarium ornamentation, ReptoMin should be no problem. And yes, it does look healthy, although fuzzy photos can hide things. Common signs of significant trouble include red streaking on the underside (not a light pink hue, as that is just the normal skin tone) and extensive basking (should you provide a basking site). Definitely provide sand or fine gravel so the animal can stay buried; the water need not be more than four or five inches deep. Keep the water extremely clean. Allow replacement water to sit out for 24 hrs to lose the chlorine instead of gunking it up with aquarium dechlorinator.

Alright, thank you very much. It seems as though I have most of the basics covered, except sand, so I'll run out and figure out what to do about that later today after school. I think Skuttle may have eaten some reptomin this morning, but I'm not 100% sure.

That's very interesting about the turtles going for vegetation... They're taking the easy way out! How adorable.

Again, thank you for your responses, it's much appreciated. Maybe I'll borrow the boyfriend's nice digital camera sometime and take better pictures. (Mine's 5 years old and a 1 megapixel... ouch!)

Two decades would be a very minimal estimate for softshell survival WITH PROPER CARE, which is just a bit trickier that for hardshells because of the added risk of surface infection and fungus. With softshells, the leathery outer covering very often grows much faster than the underlying, much smaller bony shell because of dietary imbalances. Watch for "curling" of the edges and adjust the diet accordingly (usually needs more calcium). They also seem to be just a bit more susceptible to septic infections than many hardshells. I did not mean to be in any way "authoritarian" in estimate of longevity, because only a few, lucky individuals get the exact care needed for long-tern survival and many softshells die in a year or two, but I have had one for over twenty years and still going strong, although others have totally refused commercial food and perished in short order. If you can get your turtle on a good well-balanced commercial diet as a staple (plus treats, such as fish or earthworms) such as Reptomin, Mazuri or Wardley's, your prospects for survival are much better.