When buying a small turtle for a home, you first need to find out what kind it is, what character your pet will have, and also ask about the conditions necessary for its maintenance. Chinese Trionics is a reptile with an exotic appearance and special care requirements.
Material Content:
Characteristics of the Chinese Trionix
The unique predator is often called the "evil trionics." This name is explained by the fact that the turtle has a severe disposition, considerable strength and aggressiveness. Caught in the wild, it can cause serious injuries with its bites.
Reptiles grown at home are not so formidable, although they are considered potentially dangerous pets. Tamed at a young age, such pets allow themselves to be stroked, but they never become a “submissive" person. It is interesting and safe to watch them through the glass of the aquaterrarium.
Description of the species and its features
Chinese trionixes are three-clawed turtles with 5 toes each, three of which end with sharp claws that help reptiles to break prey - large fish. On all fingers there are swimming membranes, larger ones are located on the hind legs.
These animals, classified as reptiles, have interesting anatomical features:
- soft shell;
- long neck;
- elongated muzzle with a soft nose;
- powerful jaws sharp at the edges.
The head and neck of the trionix are fully retracted into the shell. The size of the leather shield is about 25 cm, and the weight of the reptile can reach 4.5 kg. In China and other countries, such turtles are eaten, considering it a delicacy.For this purpose, they are specially bred on farms.
Small reptiles have a light gray top and have an orange belly. With age, it acquires a pinkish-milky or yellow hue. Such individuals breathe, sticking out only the tip of the nose from the water, and can also breathe underwater due to the special structure of the pharynx.
Life span
Chinese Trionixes live up to 25 years. The value of this indicator is influenced by the conditions of detention and proper feeding. The presented type of turtles is distinguished by terrible gluttony. therefore you need to limit their menu, feed no more than 1 time in 3 daysotherwise the turtle will become obese and may die.
Habitat and lifestyle
Chinese trionics or the Far Eastern tortoise is found in Southeast Asia, Japan, and Russia. The reptile loves standing fresh water bodies with silt or sand at the bottom, which it often digs into. She avoids settling in rivers with strong currents and slightly salted lakes. The animal rarely goes far from the coast, most of the time being in the water, but lays eggs on land. Oddly enough, but she runs pretty fast and swims well. Trionics belong to those turtles that fall into hibernation, which they successfully do at the bottom of reservoirs, and this does not prevent them from breathing.
Trionics love to bask in the sun during the day, crawling 1-2 meters from the water. All activity and hunting takes place at dusk and at night. These predators prefer living prey - fish, amphibians and spineless aquatic.
In nature, the animal usually awaits its prey in ambush. Since the reptile is flat and green, it is very similar to a stone lying at the bottom of a stream. Many fish think exactly that, calmly approaching a waiting animal very close. Stretching its long neck, the reptile instantly grabs prey. Sometimes a turtle lures “food” with the help of its tongue - it simply moves it, opens its mouth. The fish, believing that it is a worm, swims close and finds itself in the mouth of a predator. If you are not lucky with fishing, you can slowly crawl along the bottom and, digging up the soil with your nose, remove worms, larvae, and various insects.
What do Far Eastern turtles eat?
Trionix eats any carnivorous food - both live and frozen. Features of the natural behavior of reptiles must always be taken into account when making its diet. They feed the Trionix carefully: the predator has powerful and strong jaws, but poor eyesight, so it can take fingers for prey. The bite of the turtle is very strong, it is able to bite the phalanx of the finger. When feeding, it is advisable to take food using long tweezers. Then shake a little treat in front of the face, and the turtle itself will remove the product from the tool.
While the soft-bodied turtle is still small, it can be fed with a feeding bloodworm, earthworms, insects and pieces of lean fish. If you give the turtle live fish, you just need to lower it into the aquarium and not worry about anything. After a while, a curious fish will swim close to the predator, and he will grab it. Larvae of bloodworms and other insects should be strewed close to the muzzle of the turtle. Good scent helps to detect prey at a distance of 2-3 meters. At the same time, vision is very poor, so it is necessary to slip food under the nose of an individual.
If you feed Trionix with frozen meat or fish, you should not only throw the thawed food into the aquarium, but also attract the attention of the turtle. You can do this by moving your finger outside on the transparent wall of the aquarium, in the place where a piece of food sank to the bottom.
And also once a week to feed with any vitamins for reptiles, 1 time per month to give the turtle herbal supplements - cabbage, carrots, potatoes. She may not eat the proposed food. To interest, it is best to tie the thread to a leaf or other part of the vegetable, and point near the nose of the turtle. Then she will definitely eat the bait.
Home Content
The maintenance of the Chinese Trionix will require a spacious 250-liter water area.It necessarily arrange a small plot of land, accounting for 1/5 of the total space. Water should be heated by electric heaters to a temperature of +25 ° C, cleaned by filters and saturated with oxygen, because the animal breathes partially and under water. Pour sand at the bottom. Such a device is closed with a special cover, otherwise the moving turtle will go looking for adventure throughout the house.
It should be remembered that Trionix is very messy. He often tears meat into pieces, while eating something, but forgets about a portion of the food. When floating around the aquarium, food debris begins to deteriorate quickly, worsening water quality. Therefore, after 2 or 3 hours after feeding, if the pet has not eaten the prey completely, you need to clean the aquarium, catch the leftover food, select all pieces from the ground. Then it is advisable to fill in fresh liquid.
A mandatory requirement for water is the absence of chlorine and purity. Turtles are prone to fungal and bacterial skin diseases that develop rapidly in a dirty pond. In a small area of land, an incandescent lamp is installed that maintains the air temperature (+30 ° C in the daytime). Reptiles also need special UV lamps to help them stay healthy.
They contain adults individually: they have an aggressive character and attacks on relatives are a common occurrence. If it is planned to breed animals, they arrange "hibernation" for them. For 2 months, the water temperature is reduced to +15 ° C. A week before this, stop feeding. If such events are not planned, it is not necessary to arrange a rest period.
The turtle Chinese Trionix will never become tame, like a cat or dog, but it can get used to the master in captivity and will not attack. The predator is very aggressive, so if you don’t pick up the little turtle when it grows up, it will not let you in. It is necessary to take the reptile under the abdomen with one hand, hold the other by the tail. Care must be taken, since the very mobile head of the individual has a long neck, which allows a quick and very painful bite.
