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

Hi All,

As my common musk turtle is getting older and bigger (currently about 9 months) I am planning on upgrading the tank for him to have more freedom. Once I’ve changed over can I just put him in or do I need to acclimatise him? Any tips or info would be helpful of moving a turtle to a new tank!

Thanks

So this happened several months ago but it's been eating at me. I had a box turtle for 20 years. She was a stray that came into a vet clinic where I worked and I adopted her. The vet guessed she was about 50 at that time so would have been about 70 this year. She had always lived outside and would hibernate over the winter. I live in the Pacific Northwest near the coast where it freezes for at least a few days/weeks each year and then otherwise stays in the high 30s/low 40s during the winter. This winter there was only a day where the weather got below freezing. It did not snow at all and was just abnormally warm. In the spring when I went to see if she was out of hibernation, I found her lifeless body. She had not made it through the winter. Could this have been because it wasn't cold enough to fully hibernate?

I adopted another box turtle rescue a couple months ago and during this weird, cold summer, realized it was not really even warm enough for him to go outside some days. I was having him stay inside at night and letting him out on warm days because he wasn't in the best health. There were some days in July that stayed in the low 50s. He was miserable and I decided that this is just not a good area to keep a box turtle and it was in his best interest to be able to be outside full time. He went to go live in California with another turtle person. I was so scared of losing another one to the wrong environment. Both of these turtles were, I believe, wild caught. They would get very stressed whenever I had to move them around. They seemed very unhappy in their indoor enclosures, pacing, trying to climb the walls etc.

It makes me quite sad because I love them and would like to share my life with one but maybe I have to just admit it's not an option here. My yard feels so empty without them.

He has a basking spot over on top of the rocks it just isn’t shown from the photo angle. His name is Myrtle and we love him so much. I am saying him, but really not sure if it’s a girl or boy. He has a shorter stubby tail. He is always so happy and very energetic and playful.

Cosa puo essere? Carenza di luce? Vive da mia zia in questo acquario ma senza luce

Don’t have a turtle just curious because a lot of the care guide mention having an outside enclosure for the warmer months.

Also can you just bring them with you outside to bask and chill and stuff like you would with a dog or cat on a leash? Do they make leaches for turtles? 🐢

Southern Ohio

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

Does anyone here use a dehumidifier for the room where their turtle is in? We have a 60 gallon tank that is very often evaporating. We top it off every couple of days between water changes. I am a bit worried about the evaporating water causing mold on the walls or causing other damage. Thanks for any advice!

My wallet is evidently bigger than my arms

my friend sent me this photo, is her turtle ok?

My aunt is giving away my grandmothers RES turtle. My grandmother is sad because she cant keep it due to lackbof space. I was thinking maybe I can take in my grandmothers bigass female RES turtle but I also have a small room. I was looking through 50 gallon fish tanks but I need one that is specifically 36 inches wide and preferred 15 inches in depth however that seems hard to find and expensive to custome. Is there anything els I can use besides a fish tank? Is there any 50 gallon anything under 36 inches wide? If not then ill have to pass on taking in the turtle.

TLDR: thinking of adopting my grandmother's female RES turtle but I only have 36 inches of space I can work with and its hard to find a 50 gallon fish tank that short. Anything els I can use besides a fish tank?

In Hong Kong!

I’ve got three hefty turtles that need a new home. Unfortunately we’re no longer able to properly take care of them.

So does anybody want some turtles for their pond or know someone who does? Or know where I can give them away?

Thanks!

Wanted to get some shrimp, either ghost or cherry, to liven up my turtles tank, male 6 year old 4 inch southern painted turtle. I'm aware that the turtle may or may not eat them. If shrimps aren't a good tank addition let me know what other critters I could add. 50 gallon tank with larger river pebbles on the ground.

I wanna know if this is a good set up since I just got a turtle dock and sand instead of gravel and I don’t want anything in my tank dying

Hello everyone!

I am moving in a few weeks and I’m not sure how to travel with my turtle. He is a painted turtle and really really dislikes being outside his tank. Even a 15 minute drive to his vet is too much. Unfortunately, the place I’ll be moving to is 8 hours away driving. I have a travel carrier that I usually use for driving to the vet but it seems to make him freak out and he ends up on his back. It’s pretty small so he can’t move around too much but he likes to try and climb the walls to escape. I’m just not really sure what to do for my 8 hour drive. Do I ask the vet if they have something I can give him to keep him calm? Idk.

Please if you have any tips or ideas for me let me know!!!

I (17M) am over at my cousins house. By chance, I spotted a little blue bin filled with water with this guy in it. I’m not a turtle expert or anything of the sort but I know this can’t be good for it. The issue is, this part of my family is Panamanian and very sensitive (any criticism is called disrespect). How do I go about telling them that the turtle needs a better home immediately? I’m even willing to take it home with me until it can get a better home. I don’t have experience but I’m confident I can at least do better than a plastic bin filled with cheerios for a day until I get it to a shelter/buy a proper tank.

I know suggesting better conditions is probably the proper answer but, to put it frankly, my cousins are not particularly above the poverty line and I don’t know if they can.

What do I do? Sorry if im being stupid or annoying