southeast asian box turtle ADVICE NEEDED

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Arowanagarfan

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 19, 2010
67
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Phnom Penh
I have a 50 cm long turtle that likes to destroy plants, climbs its wall in order for me to put it in my backyard so it can walk or swim with the arapaimas, attacks birds and can never get stressed. I've always been wondering whether or not this is natural and if i can do anything to make the turtle happier. I currently have the turtle in a 4.5x4.5 meter walled area with a swimming area that's 60x60 cm and i have it on a diet of water glory. Is there anything wrong with the way im keeping my pet.

video of turtle in its annual walk and you can see my pimas in my other videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqurBF8Njrg
 
Your turtles seems completly fine, the only thing here is that Im picking on my brain to figure out exactly what kind of turtles is yours! Ive NEVER herd of Cuora of any kind reaching 50 cm long, the largest Im aware of are the species and subspecies of the Cuora trifasciata complex. But again Im not expert on Cuora trifasciata, you should take closer pictures of your turtle´s head and shell so we can ID for shure. I would include more foods on its diet, I feed my Cuora amboinensis mango, grapes, figs, papaya, water cress, mustard greens, turnip greens, chicory greens, small fish and ocasionally a bit of lean meat.
 
Vicious_Fish said:
I agree, that's the biggest Cuora I've ever seen or heard of. I think you may have something else....
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That turtle has been passed on for 40 years now and I can't believe what I'm seeing because every southeast Asian box turtle loses their yellow stripes once they get bigger and I'll try to get pics since it was small till now. But the turtle is older than me and was in my family's care before the Khmer rouge so I think it is at least 48 years old
 
I figured that must be a older turtle. It would be very interesting to see for shure what species it belongs to. Have you ever seen other turtles that look like her in person?
 
coura said:
I figured that must be a older turtle. It would be very interesting to see for shure what species it belongs to. Have you ever seen other turtles that look like her in person?
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this kind of turtle in khmer is called andaek bet muk and is a very common turtle but mine was found by my ancestors during 1973 right when the khmer rouge started attacking and was considered lucky and was considered luckier when it survived through the genocide in my familys house where it ate the furniture to live and i have pics of it one in 1978 where color camera just came out here and one just today
(excuse me for bad quality i tried my best to enhance quality using photoshop for the first pic)

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This is during 1978 when my family first heard and used a color camera from a far distance

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this is today and notice the fading yellow stripes on its head

IMG_0255.JPG

IMG_0258.JPG
 
Wow, there really is some history to that turtle! Thanks for sharing and I hope it lives another 40+ years in your care.
 
WOW your turtle is a Cuora amboinensis, however is FAR from being a usual one. First thing is obviously huge, I also never herd about them getting faded colours as they get old (however that doesant mean that they dont). Rigth now Im picking my brain, and I did remenbar seeing a HUGE Cuora amboinensis in a photo tanken in a asian food marked allongside dozens of normal sized ones. And I have a nature film in which apears another Cuora amboinensis of yours size rank. What Im thinking is, Cuora amboinensis has been one of the most exploited turtles in asian food industry in the last 20 years. In some parts of the range they are fortunatly still comon but in others their numbers have been depleted. And one consequence of over consuption is animals getting smaller in individual size and in numbers, you see that in many species from elephants to tuna and Chitra chitra to show a turtle example. Maybe the average Cuora amboinensis used to atain a much larger size then it currently does. What Im thinking is because your turtle was collected before the large exploitation of asian turtles took place, he may contain very interesting "larger size" genetics. Also we can not put asside the possiblilty that it is a yet undescribed form of Cuora amboinensis, it would be unlikely but not inpossible. One silly question: has your turtle ever laid eggs? Have you got any clue about its sex?
 
It is a male because in Cambodian belief males take a longer time to lose their stripes than females which should have a Black head by this time and this turtle species is only exploited by the Vietnamese but these turtles are everywhere and the max size is 70cm long and has never laid an egg though I'll find a female somewhere
 
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