Looking for unusual fresh water turtle

Looking for unusual fresh water turtle

Boy, I am impressed with all the "Fish Folks" here, and I am hoping someone may have a lead on a turtle. I bought this really neat turtle about 10 years ago from a local (Reno, NV) fish store that went out of business. Due to my living situation a few months later, I had no room for the 30 gallon tank I had up, and I moved my fish...and the turtle...to new homes. I am hoping someone will recogniz this turtle and tell me where to get another just like him, as he was a real HOOT!!

He was chocolate brown with dark chocolate brown spots all over his body. He was the size of a 50 cent piece, with a serrated edge (like a cartoon saw blade) all around his shell. He also had a ridge of these serrated ridges going up his shell from tail to head. His "tummy" was a golden yellow-he was a fresh water turtle, and his bottom jaw was triangular shaped-indicating he was a snapping turtle. (He snapped at me a couple of times-when I first got him-but he quit doing it when he found out I BROUGHT LIVE FOOD!! ) That little critter could really suck down live brine shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, small, stray guppies, soft chunky fish food-like burger bits-but for fish-and I havn't seen this food around in a while. I hung him a shelf off the inside front of the tank, so he could get out of the water. He would sit there-then all of a sudden-dive in, and swim areound the tank, snapping madly at- any choice morsels where hiding there. I had "fry grass" so the baby guppies could get away from him. The grass blades were too close together for him to get in, so he would hike around the grass, hoping something would come out. He could stay under water like that for several minutes, then he would come up to the surface and take a breath and go back down, or climb on his shelf and wait for room service.

If any one knows what kind of a turtle he was, and more importantly, knows where I can get another one...please let me know! Willing to buy another one and pay shipping.
THanks, Worgle1

 

Worgle1 here. The Turtle was a hardshell. His shell was the same chocolate brown as the rest of him. I had him over a year, and he stayed the same size. When I spotted him at the fish store, he was in the tank the dealer kept live plants in-the guy had just gotten in some new plants, I stopped to look, and suddenly a miniature hockey puck rocketed out of the plants and grasses, did a couple of laps around the tank, then disappeared back in the grasses. It was love at first sight. The dealer said he was in with the plants when they arrived-and he didn't know what he was. (But he was happy to ask $5.00 for him) The dealer actually wasn't very knowledgable, but he took excellent care of his stock...and that's worth a lot. The only dealer in Reno now-well, his tanks are full of hanging algae, they tanks are dirty, and every tank has either ick or fin/tail rot.
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I havn't seen another turtle like him-but, considering the one-horse area I live in-that's NOT unusual. Since he did not grow in the year I had him, I suspect he was fully grown at the size of a fifty cent piece. I saw an ad on Craigslist for a painted turtle-I just looked it up-and from the ad, the turtle was more the size of a red-eared slider, because the owner had the painted turtle in a LARGE tank, let him run around the house, and the owner stated in his ad that the turtle hibernated in the winter. My little bugger DID NOT hibernate. and if I forgot, and left the tank lights on all night, he would be sitting on his shelf, scratching the glass for Room Service...or trying to sneak up on a sleeping fish.

I will look up Eastern Painted turtles on the internet and see what I get. Thanks for the info.

 

Worgle 1 here-well I went online just now and looked up the Leatherback Turtle-the heading said that Leatherbacks are the Largest turtles, and are a protected species-I believe they were Marine turtles. I also looked up the Eastern Painted Turtle.

The Eastern Painted Turtle, and the regular plain old Painted Turtle looks more like a Red-eared slider turtle, and they are oblong, not perfectly round-and they are the size of a red-eared slider.

Thanks for the info-I learned about two other types of turtles out there, and knowledge is never wasted.

20 Gallon tank

six feeder gold fish (because I'm too chicken to put Ammonia in the tank.)
(The feeders are rather nice, actually-they came from Petsmart...the only chain pet store in the area that properly maintains their fish and their tanks. I, too have seen the "Mutant Fish" at both area Wal-Marts. I actually live in Carson City, Nevada, but I usually go to Reno to buy stuff...the Carson Petsmart takes better care of their stock than the one in Reno. I will probable buy some of their Lime-Aid Danos after the tank cycles)

 

Hmmmm....I went back on the internet, and looked up Hard Shelled Turtles, and according to the description, they have stripes, not spots...but I pulled up a Turtle sales site that I hadn't seen before, and I will go back to the poster that mentioned another kind of turtle and see if it it THAT turtle.

 

Went online again, tried Map Turtle...Nope, it's not a map turtle either...too big, no spots-I am going back to the turtle sale website-turtlesale.com, and I'll see if I can find him there.

 

So much to do...so little time.

No, the photo at the turtle site is NOT the little guy I had-he was definately a hard shell snapping turtle...and with my luck, he probably jumped ship off a Japanese freighter somewhere and swam to where ever he was scooped up from.

 

alligator snapping turtle

 

heres the link

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167384" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... p?t=167384</a>

 

Have you got any pictures or videos of the turtle you had?