Melanochelys tricarinata

Gabriel Mattei

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Here are my 2.0 Melanochelys tricarinata (Tricarinate hill turtle), these are long term captives that prove very hard to find, still on the lookout for a female. These turtles remind me of geomyda spengleri as they have the same behaviour when it comes to watching over their enclosure and running everywhere as soon as the rain hits. They are housed separately in two 10 foot by 5 foot enclosures, they are extremely aggressive when housed together and the males will try to mount each other.

Does anyone here keep them, I'm always open to more information on them?


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Kapidolo Farms

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Most people on this forum are in the US, where very few of these turtles are in private collections. They are, as you point out ,not well represented in any collections.

I wish you much luck in finding more. It sounds like you have a good conditions for them. I'm entirely involved with tortoises, but this is one species I would be willing to break from "All Tortoise - All the Time" tradition I have.

If you use https://scholar.google.com/ . and load their latin name in, you will find some natural history and semi-captive management narratives regarding them.
 

Michael231

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That is awesome that you keep this species! Besides some of the croc conservation centers in India (that have now become croc x turtle centers) and a few of the Turtle Survival centers in India, I’ve never seen this species in captive collections!

Would you mind giving a little overview of your care for them? Based on where they come from in Asia, I’d assume they like it pretty humid? Do you keep them a a specific circadian cycle?

Sorry for all the questions, it’s just finding any information on these guys beyond the Chelonian Conservation and Biology releases is very hard!
 

Kapidolo Farms

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https://www.researchgate.net/public...tricarinata_in_the_Doon_Valley_Northern_India

https://www.int-arch-photogramm-rem...8/719/2016/isprs-archives-XLI-B8-719-2016.pdf

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0a8a/5c38fac1787f90881adcd02e7fdcdf948ca3.pdf

https://www.facebook.com/assamwildl...ricarinate-hill-turtle-or-th/571832012970411/

https://www.traffic.org/news/royal-...se-and-freshwater-turtle-in-less-than-a-week/

https://sgp.undp.org/spacial-itemid...t-detailpage.html?view=projectdetail&id=13162

For those who ask more question than they answer.

That is awesome that you keep this species! Besides some of the croc conservation centers in India (that have now become croc x turtle centers) and a few of the Turtle Survival centers in India, I’ve never seen this species in captive collections!

Would you mind giving a little overview of your care for them? Based on where they come from in Asia, I’d assume they like it pretty humid? Do you keep them a a specific circadian cycle?

Sorry for all the questions, it’s just finding any information on these guys beyond the Chelonian Conservation and Biology releases is very hard!
 

Gabriel Mattei

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That is awesome that you keep this species! Besides some of the croc conservation centers in India (that have now become croc x turtle centers) and a few of the Turtle Survival centers in India, I’ve never seen this species in captive collections!

Would you mind giving a little overview of your care for them? Based on where they come from in Asia, I’d assume they like it pretty humid? Do you keep them a a specific circadian cycle?

Sorry for all the questions, it’s just finding any information on these guys beyond the Chelonian Conservation and Biology releases is very hard!


No problem I asked a lot of people on fb about them as there is so little info on them out there. They do like it humid and are exclusively terrestrial feeding on grubs and fallen fruit. They are adapted to climbing from what I have seen as I have been forced to remodel their enclosure walls multiple times, even better more agile than pancakes!

The story behind these two is interesting, they were for sell at a fish store and are long term imports that date back decades ago. I assume they were family pets as turtles are popular pets in Thailand as they are meant to bring good 'fortune'. They have been banned from exportation in India for a long time now so this is the first time I saw them for sell.

They were quite beaten up when I bought them though, one of them has serious shell rot so I'm doing dry docking with chlorohexidene. Care wise it is the same as the Cuoras, they are faced with hotter climates though coming from India, if I find a female i will create a cool down for them by bringing them indoors as it is always hot in Bangkok.

You can follow my instagram where I post photos of them it is called sokatraa
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Thank you so much, that is very nice of you! I have read a few of these however there are a few articles here that I haven't read yet.
I have seen your recent FB post regarding Kinixys. What a wonderful contribution to the body of knowledge. I do not find your inquires overbearing, you always offer something at the start.
 

Gabriel Mattei

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I was lucky to find a female that has been in the country for 15 years, she has already laid eggs with the previous owner but they never hatched. After a quarantine the female was introduced to one of the males and mating was very long and aggressive. The female was continuously running and the male chasing, they are much faster than i imagined they would be. From what I've heard from a successful breeder is that you need a high male to female ratio to breed this species so I will have my two males introduced to each other as well as the female. Mating lasted around 30 minutes.

Sorry for the photo quality is was dark when they were introduced.
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Yvonne G

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Wow! What a lucky find. He looks like a pretty aggressive breeder. Will you have to keep them in separate enclosures except for breeding? When can you expect eggs?
 

Gabriel Mattei

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Wow! What a lucky find. He looks like a pretty aggressive breeder. Will you have to keep them in separate enclosures except for breeding? When can you expect eggs?

They are kept in separate enclosures, I am not sure as to when I can expect eggs however I will keep this thread updated. The male is extremely aggressive when breeding, I will try and film it next time to link it to this thread.
 

JThompson

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They are kept in separate enclosures, I am not sure as to when I can expect eggs however I will keep this thread updated. The male is extremely aggressive when breeding, I will try and film it next time to link it to this thread.

Keep us posted for sure - I can't wait to see her nesting!
 

Gabriel Mattei

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Anyone knows of a breeder of this species? I've had three eggs for now and they all seem infertile. Either I am not having a proper incubation method or I am not pairing them often or too often as the female tends to be extremely aggressive and copulation (mostly fighting and running) lasts hours.

Thanks!


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