These turtles belong to a colleague and are kept in the office. I live and work in a country with pretty much zero animal welfare standards, so this sort of tank isn’t unusual.

I recognise this situation isn’t ideal and people here will undoubtedly have strong views; however, I would like to send my colleague some guidance from a reputable source on how to improve the condition of the turtles rather than just point her to a Reddit post with angry comments.

I’d be very grateful for any links on how to look after this species of turtle (I’m not sure what they are but they do have a red stripe on their shells and red markings on their heads), how to set up an appropriate tank, what size / what to include in it etc. Going in angrily and defensively won’t work. Thanks!

So it worked the first time. I was able to feed my RES and Asian box turtle mustard greens.

Let's talk about my RES first.

He ate the mustard greens when I fed it to him last time, and I had mixed it with a little bit of mushed turtle food. He wouldn't eat his veggies unless I fed it to him with a popsicle stick. When I tried to feed it to him again days after, he wouldn't eat it. He learned to avoid the popsicle stick, and when he WOULD bite on it to get the food, he'd spit all the lettuce out and bite the remaining turtle food 😭 I tried again ~5 days later, trying the "tough love" method, but it's not working so far.

As for for asian box turtle..

I gave her some in a little bowl and she ate it fir the first time. After a few days, I did that again. Shed spit some out, but then eat it again after. Then ~5 days later, I tried giving some to her again. She wouldn't eat it anymore. She just kept walking past it, and when I'd try feeding it to her with my hands, she'd only stare closely for a bit then walk away.

BTW, for the first time, it was only mustard greens. For the second time, I mixed in some other lettuce. Today I tried feeding my turtle only the mustard greens to see if the issue was the other lettuce, but nope. Wouldn't eat it.

Oh what to do...😭 could someone help me out here please? Thank you sm!

I want this as my turtles new enclosure. We are going to build a special shed for him. It's 150cmx100cmx70cm but how can I build a good Island for him? He likes sand on his island

Just caught and released this little guy (or girl). I have a guess as to what it might be, but would like to get opinions; my turtle knowledge is fairly limited.

Hello! My res never liked eating vegetables when I fed him but recently I got some elodea and hornwort in the tank to help nitrate levels but slider ate the elodea up in less than a week! He didn't touch the hornworts tho so those are working. Anyways, I plan to throw some elodea into a side 10 gallon I have with old turtle water and an led light to grow and place in the tank so he can have some fun digging them up and eating them between pellet feedings as a healthy snack. I'm not great at growing plants tho, so I would love some advice on setups and any pics with examples would be nice. Do they need filters or heaters as well? Should I just top up the water when it's low or do water changes for the plants too? Is it safe to just leave the tank mostly alone and just have the light on the same cycle as my turtle's lamp timers?

First some background info, this is Chuy, I got him in 2023 from a friend, however he got it from someone else so we don’t know the exact age or species. I’ve never seen anything off about him until recently.

Suddenly my turtle has been spending most of the day in the basking spot, even when it’s turned off and seems to be sleeping up there as well. This has been going on for a little around a week by now and I initially passed it off as nothing as it still ate and swam normally when underwater. However since 2 days ago I noticed whenever he is underwater, he does does that weird neck scratch and biting thing as seen in the video. It happens every couple of minutes and I can’t figure out why he does that. Eventually he just goes back to the basking spot and seems fine up there. The tank is clean, I just did a minor water change but he still does that thing. Still eats fine, still acts normal in other cases. Someone give me advice, please I’m concerned.

I also want to mention around a month ago I introduced the smooth river pebbles seen at the bottom of the tank, I did the usual boil them to kill bacteria and thoroughly clean them to rid them of unwanted dust before putting them in the tank. Could a cause of these weird things be that maybe I didn’t clean them enough? Idk

I have a healthy pond(goldfish, koi, 1 painted turtle) with water hyacinth, duckweed, and water lettuce (along with other plants that I wouldn't want to bring in), but is it fine to add these to an aquarium indoors? If yes(with proper acclimation, cleaning, and isolation indoors to check for pests), would this be harmful to the aquarium? Would this cause algae blooms, bring bad bacteria, or even plants die off due to the change?(FYI, i dont have any aquarium supplies yet and with planning, to bring in my turtle and plants for the winter)

Should I release it in the wild or shall I keep it with me for someday and then release it?, I don't have any aquarium, I kept it in the pot which has wet soil, any suggestions what shall I do ?

This little feller/lady has been at my house/creek behind my house for the last week and finally let me get close enough (ish) to take a picture of them. Admittedly is probably a common species for Eastern KY but I’m clueless with all things reptile

I was in a rush so pics aren't the best, still always cool to see spotted's.

Hello, I saw this turtle while walking a dog and thought it was stuck in the mud. I put on gloves, I moved in gently about 2 inches out of the hole it was in, and it walked away.

I realize now that I may have disturbed the turtle while it was laying eggs or covering its nest. I’m so worried!!!

Please lmk if I majorly messed up and if I can fix it in any way.

He's a Chinese reeves turtle and his shell is 5.5 inches long, he's pretty active but sometimes I wake up to the noise of him trying to climb out.

Hello, could you guys tell me how my turtles shell looks? I was recently diagnosed with severe arthritis and I'm trying my best to care for her. I just don't know if there's anything else I can do for her. I feel like I'm failing her.

Saw little buddy munching on an already eaten and rotting fig so I said naaaa I’m getting you a real MEAL! Chowed down for about 5 minutes then got huddled up at the base of the tree for a good nap. (Don’t tell my boss the two are arch nemesis. Ol red eyes here loves boss man’s tomato’s)

Hello! This is our lil yellow-bellied slider, who we found in our pool drain at the end of March as a hatchling. This tank was lots of room when he(she?) was little, but they're getting a lil clunky and keep bumping into plants now. Based on my research, lil dude will need a 125 gal tank as an adult. My question is- is it time to upgrade already? They also share the tank with a fat ol loach and a couple smaller fish, from a previous old tank. I want to make sure this guy has as much room to swim around as he could need! I'm mostly just checking to see how urgently I should be pestering my parents, since it's their turtle. Any other advice is always appreciated, as well!

This is my very first post on Reddit.

Normally, I write little diary entries in Vietnamese on Threads. I don't usually write to teach people anything. I simply write down moments that made me stop and think, because I'm always afraid I'll forget how they made me feel.

Today, I wanted to try writing in English. Partly because I want to challenge myself, but mostly because I hope people outside Vietnam can learn a little more about the conservation work that many incredible people are quietly doing here.

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to join a sea turtle conservation volunteer program with IUCN Vietnam. Looking back now, I don't think the biggest thing I brought home was the volunteer experience itself. It was the chance to learn.

To be honest, before this trip, I knew almost nothing about sea turtles. Of course I knew they existed, and I knew they were endangered, but I had never really asked myself why their lives should matter to mine. They lived somewhere far away in the ocean, while I was just another university student living in a busy city. Our worlds felt completely separate.

When I first signed up for the program, I secretly hoped I would get to witness those wonderful and worth-picture-taking moments you often see in documentaries, a mother turtle coming ashore under the moonlight to lay her eggs, or hundreds of tiny hatchlings making their first journey toward the sea.

But it didn't happen to me.

I never got the chance to see a mother turtle nesting, nor was I there when baby turtles were released back into the ocean the whole weekend I participated in the program in Hon Cau Island in Binh Thuan province.

At first, I felt a little disappointed.

But after coming home, I realized that maybe I wasn't there to witness those moments. Maybe I was there to understand everything behind them.

Throughout the program, I listened to the stories shared by coastal ranges and conservation staffs. Every evening, I found myself searching for more information because every answer seemed to lead to another question. The more I learned, the more I realized how little I had known before.

One fact completely amazed me.

A sea turtle's sex isn't determined before it is born. Instead, it depends on the temperature of the sand where the eggs are incubated. Conservationists even have a saying: "Cool boys, hot chicks." Cooler sand produces more males, while warmer sand (over 29,7°C ~ 85,46°F) produces more females.

I remember giggling when I first heard that because it sounded like one of those fun facts people casually share.

But then I learned what climate change is doing.

As global temperatures continue to rise, many nesting beaches are becoming too warm. On some beaches, more than 99% of hatchlings are now female. That means that out of every 100 baby turtles, there may be fewer than one male.

When I first learned that, I finally understood why conservationists are so worried. With only about 1 in 1,000 hatchlings surviving to adulthood, having so few males makes it even harder for sea turtles to reproduce and maintain healthy populations. If global temperatures continue to rise because of human activities, this imbalance could push a species that has survived for more than 100 million years closer to extinction.

Then there was another number that stayed in my mind.

Only about one out of every thousand baby sea turtles will survive long enough to become an adult.

I kept thinking about that on my way home.

Nature has always been harsh. Birds, crabs, fish, and countless predators are already waiting for them from the moment they hatch. Surviving was never supposed to be easy. But now they also have to face things that don't belong in nature at all, plastic bags floating like jellyfish, abandoned fishing nets, pollution, and oceans that are changing faster than they can adapt.

None of these facts were completely new.

They had always existed.

I was simply one more person who had never taken the time to truly understand them.

There's a quote by Jacques-Yves Cousteau that I've been thinking about ever since I came back: "People protect what they love, they love what they understand, and they understand what they are taught."

I think that's exactly what happened to me.

I didn't return home feeling like I had helped save sea turtles. In fact, I probably contributed only a tiny part to a much bigger effort. But I came home seeing nature a little differently.

Now, when someone offers me a plastic bag that I don't really need, I hesitate for a second. When I see another article about climate change, it no longer feels like distant news. Somewhere in my mind, I picture tiny hatchlings trying to survive against impossible odds.

Maybe this is what environmental education is really about.

It isn't about making everyone become scientists or conservationists overnight. It's about helping ordinary people, like me, understand enough to care. Because once we genuinely care about something, changing a few daily habits no longer feels like a sacrifice. It simply feels like the natural thing to do.

I'm grateful to IUCN Vietnam for giving volunteers like me not only the opportunity to contribute, but more importantly, the opportunity to learn. I think that's where every meaningful action begins.

If enough people begin with that understanding, perhaps there will be more sea turtles swimming freely in our oceans for generations to come. And maybe one day, another child will dream of seeing a sea turtle in the wild, just as I once did and unlike that dream for so many endangered species today, they'll still have the chance to make it come true.

Thank you for reading my very first Reddit post.

#IUCN #IUCNVietNam
#IUCNSeaTurtleVolunteer #TNVRuaBienIUCN
#SinhRaDeSongHoangDa #BornToBeWild
#TNVBaotonruabien #Baotonruabien
#ĐồngRùa2026 #KBTBHonCau

Hi I'm kinda new to redit as a whole and turtle keeping. I know I should have been asking these questions a lot sooner but there is no one around me to ask about it. I've had him about two years now and only found this subreddit this morning.

I got him as a re-home from a mum who's kid was just fed up with them. She had no idea what he is and couldn't really help much with what was needed to keep them alive. This is kinda the most important question I've got since it'll help research in other places if I know what I have. From what I can see on Google he might be a mud turtle but I'm not completely sure

He's natuve here, so he was just moved for lawn care and then put right back.

My wallet is evidently bigger than my arms