Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I live in Bandung, Java, Indonesia. While at the local market on Sunday I purchased an aquatic turtle. I was told it is a fresh water turtle, but I'm not sure. It is black with a white belly. It has fins, not feet. Any information you can give me would be helpful. I have a picture, but I'm not sure how to post it! If you think you might know what kind of turtle this is and how we can best care for it, please let us know and we can email a picture.

Thanks-
Paul

It sounds like you have a Fly river turtle, Carettochelys insculpta. They are a totally aquatic turtle.

well, i live in Jakarta, so, asuming that the places are quite similiar, from what you are describing (especially the fins part), you most likely have a young baby sea turtle. More description may also help, like, does it have a pig-like nose? The very distinct part that caught my attention was the fins, but some pictures may also help.

Sea turtles are endangered, and, unfortunately, the government has very poor laws to preserve these creatures. Sadly, i've seen a few times, baby sea turtles are sold in little fish bowls, about 3-4 turtles, floating and swimming around like "toys" I believe that most of these babies die in the hands of ignorant/uneducated/misslead people. Perhaps you have a public aquarium (like Sea World in Jakarta), and the best possible chance for that baby is to be donated to the place, where it could be cared for properly,

Currently, i've never seen ANY INDIVIDUAL keeping a sea turtle for an extended period of time, most efforts are in vain. A public aquarium on the other hand, have most of the equipment to deal with a young sea turtle.

Or, an alternatif, they release it back into the wild (of course, if it has been in captivity for any extended period, it may as well die, as wild sea turts dont have a very good chance surviving, providing sharks, large fish, and humans, it may not have any experience as a hatchling wild sea turtle would have).

Try e-mailing me, send me some pictures, maybe i could help identify the turt (coz i'm still not positive that its a sea turt)
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My "babies" :
1.0.0 Indo BTS (Tiliqua gigas gigas)
0.0.1 Rainbow skinks (Mabuya multifasciata)
1.0.2 RES (Trachemys scripta elegans)
0.0.3 Amboina box turtles (Cuora amboinensis)
1.0.0 Chinese softshell (Trionyx sinensis)
1.0.0 Asian leaf turtle (Cyclemys dentata)
1.0.0 Leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius)
And still growing...

Based on the description I would tend to think that it is more likely a flyriver turtle than a seaturtle.

The black color would indicate an illegal sea turtle to me. Fly River Turtles are widely available, but they are gray in color and have the distinctive pig nose. The turtle at the top of this forum is this species, if it will help you in identifying it. Even these require specialized care, however, and you should seek care information on the All Other Turtles Forum or a specialty forum or information site.