Introduction to Golden Coin Turtle Breeding Methods: Is It a Precious Turtle?

The Golden Coin Turtle is also known as the Three-striped Box Turtle, Broken-plate Turtle, Red-bellied Turtle, Golden-headed Turtle, etc. It is an ornamental turtle belonging to rare turtle species, is extremely popular in the market, and is convenient to keep in captivity. Here we introduceGolden Coin Turtle Breeding Methods.

I. Golden Coin Turtle Breeding Methods

1. Breeding site

For keeping the Golden Coin Turtle as an ornamental turtle, it is better to buy a medium-to-large aquarium; river water, stream water or tap water can all be used inside, and tap water should be placed in the sun for half an hour. The water depth should be 2-5cm above the back, and a landing platform and some places for them to hide should be placed in the water. Then, place the aquarium near a place with sunlight, or artificial light can also be used, for the turtle to bask its back.

2. Selecting turtle hatchlings

Pure wild Golden Coin Turtles are now very rare, and any that exist are protected animals whose sale is explicitly prohibited by the state, so most of those sold on the market are artificially bred; however, artificial breeding is also divided into wild-simulated and captive-raised. It is best to choose wild-simulated ones; if choosing captive-raised ones, carefully observe the appearance of the hatchlings and whether the tail is broken.

3. Feeding food

The Golden Coin Turtle is omnivorous, mainly preying on snails, fish, shrimp, tadpoles and other aquatic animals in the water; it also eats young rats, small fish, shrimp, snails, young frogs, scarab beetles, earthworms, snails and fly maggots, and also eats pumpkin, banana and tender stems and leaves of plants and seeds. In captivity, it can be fed fish and shrimp, river snails, mussel meat, earthworms, pumpkin, vegetable leaves and commercial feed, etc. Adhere to feeding at fixed times, in fixed amounts and of fixed quality, so that the turtle eats well and is full; generally, the daily feeding amount should be controlled at about 5% of its own body weight.

4. Daily management

(1) Temperature: The Golden Coin Turtle is a poikilothermic animal, with a growth temperature between 24-32℃. When the water temperature is 28℃, it needs to surface to breathe about once every 20 minutes; when the water temperature is 25℃, it surfaces to breathe about once every 26 minutes; when the water temperature is below 12℃, it enters hibernation.

(2) Water quality: The water color should be light green, and the water transparency should preferably be 20-30cm. If the water color is brown-green or blue-green, it indicates that the water is too nutrient-rich and oxygen is insufficient, and the water should be changed in time; moreover, the water should be changed regularly, once a day in summer, changing 1/3 each time, once every 3-5 days in spring and autumn, and less or no water change in winter.

(3) Cleaning: The aquarium should be cleaned frequently, especially when feeding; each feeding amount should be based on finishing the food within 1 hour after feeding, and 1.5 hours after feeding, remove residual bait and scrub the feeding platform.

(4) Disinfection: Before stocking Golden Coin Turtles, thoroughly disinfect the aquarium with a bleaching powder aqueous solution at a concentration of 100mg/L for 12 hours, then drain the medicinal liquid, and rinse the residual medicinal liquid in the tank clean with cleaning water.

(5) Disease prevention: Every 2 weeks, use a 10mg/L bleaching powder solution or 2% salt water to soak and wash the whole pond and shower the turtle body for 5 minutes—10 minutes to prevent and treat common bacterial diseases; use concentrated kelp extract (made by soaking 100g of chopped dried kelp in every 10kg of water for several hours) to soak the whole pond or shower the turtle body for 1 minute—10 minutes to prevent and treat Golden Coin Turtle big-neck disease.

II. Is the Golden Coin Turtle a Precious Turtle?

The Golden Coin Turtle is a relatively precious turtle. Due to reasons such as scarce wild numbers, high medicinal value, auspicious symbolism and difficulty in breeding, its price is relatively high. Although it is not the highest, it is one of the hottest-selling on the market. Its price is calculated in tens of thousands of yuan: Hainan Golden Coin Turtle hatchlings are 20,000-25,000 yuan each, Vietnamese Golden Coin Turtle hatchlings are 30,000 yuan each, Hainan-strain male Golden Coin Turtles are around 180,000 yuan, and Guangdong-strain Golden Coin Turtles are around 120,000 yuan; moreover, the larger the Golden Coin Turtle, the more expensive it is, and some adult Golden Coin Turtles can reach hundreds of thousands of yuan.