what is the biggest turtle?

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mothernature

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 28, 2006
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nevada
I want a gigantic turtle or tortoise, are there any easily obtainable, legal in nevada, big turtles? I love long time companions , thats why turtles are my favorite !!!! :thumbsup:
 
Here is the government link, apparently there are no species outlawed of turtle or tortoise in Nevada but some species will be federally prohibited under the endangered species act.

If you are looking for a legal, gentle, long lived, large tortoise try the Sulcatta spur thighhed tortoise, it is the third largest tortoise and readily available as captive bred specimins of various sizes. Just do a google search on "sulcatta" and you will find dozens of sellers and breeders.
 
If you really want to go Monster. The 2nd largest land tortoise, that can legally be owned, is the Aldabra Tortoise - Geochelone gigantea. These moving mountains can measure up to 55" total length and 500lbs. This species is available from captive-bred farms in the US.

aldabra.jpg
 
Just go with a harmless Aligator snapper turtle - they make wondeful pets :ROFL:

They are the biggest and badest fresh water turtle - in North America and possibly the world...they will most likely out live you and your kids kids. They can watch out for him when your long gone :)

Duc
 
Well, you cannot legally keep this one and probably would not have room for it if you could but here is the biggest modern turtle, the leatherback, the largest recorded was 2015.4 lbs and 10 feet long.

Leatherbackturtle.jpg
 
Why is it you all want the largest of everything. You see something and want it with out even thing about how many are left in the wild. get a clue and a normal easily obtainable tortoise/turtle. they take years to grow and will outlive you. you will have to pass it down for generations and you dont even know if your kids or other family mebers or anybody elss for that matter will agree to keep an animal that size. Think about how big an enclosure you will need, how much food you will need, how to heat something that size up. etc. leave them for the wild before theres none left. ( dont care if its captive bred leave it you wont want it when your old and weak and its bigg and strong )
 
Whoa!! Whoa!!! That's quite a soapbox you've climbed onto. It's human nature to strive for what we don't have. If the opposite were true, progress would have us just shy of mud huts in the new millenium.

As for passing long-term collections on to relatives...your relatives may not be amenable to taking over your menagerie, but my family is chomping at the bit to get some or all of my collections.

Take a deep breath, chill out, and realize that alot of these dream posts are just that...dreams. I've posted before that i'd love to get ahold of a FW bullshark and a FW sawfish. But, unless the Publisher's Clearing House prize patrol pulls into my driveway, those dreams will remain on the permanent back burners.

Heck...if the patrol did pull into my driveway it would probably be to ask for directions to a neighbor's house.
 
The nice thing about the sulcattas and the aldabras it is easy to find them homes know matter how large they get. In the wild the remaining populations are vulnerable to dogs and their eggs are prey for rats, consequently more are produced in captivity than in the wild.
I just posted the picture of the leatherback because I saw one once and think they are cool, like I said, you cannot keep one.
 
Oddball said:
If you really want to go Monster. The 2nd largest land tortoise, that can legally be owned, is the Aldabra Tortoise - Geochelone gigantea. These moving mountains can measure up to 55" total length and 500lbs. This species is available from captive-bred farms in the US.

my LFS had one of those in a pen

IT WAS HUGE!!!!

i think it was like 900 bucks

it was labeled as a galapagos land tortise :screwy:
 
guppy said:
Well, you cannot legally keep this one and probably would not have room for it if you could but here is the biggest modern turtle, the leatherback, the largest recorded was 2015.4 lbs and 10 feet long.
is that the 10 footer?

:WHOA:
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com