Australian smallest turtles

[FusionMorelia]

Gday guys n girls,
im looking for info on captive turtles, a good mate of mine (without Internet, i kno...)
is living in a unit and wants a turtle, im not into them myself but thought i might ask here see if people can help,
what's some small turtles somone can keep, somthing small who should i seek out
or where should i look for some info on Aussie turtles(fresh water)
also he likes spyders, would there be any that are good to keep? im just fishing for any hints or tips, mabey some direction,
thanks guys

 

[Jonno from ERD]

The best bet for him with regards to freshwater turtles, would be something like Painted Turtles or Macleay River Shortnecks. Get in touch with Craig and Gabrielle at Australian Freshwater Turtle Conservation and Research Association at Welcome to X-Cart store!

 

[gillsy]

Australian Freshwater Turtles
Craig and Gab run AFTCRA and the above forum awesome people and will help you out.

 

[hornet]

even the smaller species will still need probably a good 5-6ft min when they are mature but i agree with jonno, painteds or mcleays are probably the smallest round

 

[eipper]

Macleays tend to be smaller than subglobosa

Cheers,
Scott

 

[-Peter]

With the new DECCW regs coming out a single Macleay's river turtle will require a tank 2.4 meters in length. Thats 12 times the carapace length. They can grow to about 200mm. I have picked up a fair number of Macleay's in Sydney as the local aboriginal community not far from me annually collects them for big get together each year but it seems to have stopped.

 

[Adsell]

Macleays Only grow to 16 cm and that's for females. Males are smaller. What are they doing in Sydney? They don't occur for another 5 hrs nth

 

[-Peter]

read it again

---------- Post added 30-Dec-10 at 08:27 AM ----------

er, they have cars Adam, they drive them to Nambucca, trap the turtles and bring them back to Sydney to eat. The kids get a few of them that either escape or are surrendered, they get up to 180mm.

 

[Adsell]

Hi Peter, er i wasnt having a go at you about why they were in Sydney, i was just curious as Turtles could be collected a lot closer than driving to Kempsey.
The maximum recorded size for Macleays is 185mm. I have personally never seen one this big and i have examined over 300 individuals. Most max out at about 160mm with males adveraging about 140mm.
Also, how do you know they are macleays if you are picking up escapes? There is a large population of introduced short neck turtles in sydney comprising of a mixture of the various macquarii sub-species. The macs from sydney show morpholigical traits from many different regions making it almost impossible to assign them to one form or another.

 

[-Peter]

There isn't a large population of shortnecks in Sydney, they can be found in limited numbers in Centenial Pk. You are probably think of the Royal National Pk to the south. and the Nepean River at Penrith. I guess they could walk down to Redfern. I identified them as Macleay's using John's book and subsequently when they were passed on to licensed keepers this was confirmed.
The group involved have family up that way and annually caught the turtle and bought them to Sydney to eat. Some were save and subsequently handed in. You seem to have conveniently left this bit out. Thats how I know why they appeared there.
Did you observe the 300 individuals in the pet shop where you work? I would be a skeptical about some of them. They could just be juvenile mac species. How do you know they were Macleay's?

 

[Adsell]

Peter, in no-way was i attacking you at any point. I simply asked why they were in Sydney and you answered that, albeit rudely. If you had mentioned in your first post that they were transported to Sydney as food, i would not have asked.
You stated in your first post that they grow to 200mm and i just corrected this, again in no way was i attacking you, just trying to provide correct info. I should have put 185mm max with most adult females adveraging 160mm.
I have dived with macleays many times and observed over 300 in the wild in both the macleays and hastings rivers. I didnt conveniently leave anything out. I think it is good that they have been rescued.
I know the breeder of my macleays at the shop and also they have a conspicuous eye colour as juveniles.
I also keep this species myself.
Feel free to rudely reply again.
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[-Peter]

I cant see were I have been rude Adam, I have merely pointed out a few things and asked a few clarifying questions. Feel free to reply in an aggressively assumptive manner.