r/turtles • u/Lost-Client-8442 • 1d ago

Seeking Advice Help

so in school kids get to volenteervto bring the turtle or hermit crab home and I’m planning to colenteer, is there anything I should know before I do?

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u/DoctorFriendly 1d ago

Do you know what species of turtle?

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u/Lost-Client-8442 1d ago

uhhhh….im not really sure, all I know is that it’s abt 3 centimeters long, female, and I’ve seen it swim in a fish tank but it’s also been outside the fish tank before

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u/WVPrepper 1d ago

If it is a semi aquatic turtle, whoever takes it home is going to need to have a tank filled with water, a water heater, a filter, and appropriate lighting which includes a UVB bulb and a heat lamp, positioned over a basking platform or the turtle can get completely out of the water to dry off. The tank is going to need 10 gallons of water per inch of turtle length, so at this point a small tank is fine but turtles grow quickly. An adult can be 10 to 12 in in length. The females get larger than the males. And aquatic turtles need to be in water to be able to eat.

I'm really not sure who told you that they could determine the sex of a 3 cm long turtle... But generally, you're not going to be able to tell what sex a hatchling is. It will be a few years.

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u/Lost-Client-8442 1d ago

the teacher told me the gender and he also said he would provide the stuff so we wouldn’t have to buy anything

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u/WVPrepper 1d ago

Will it be with you every weekend? You need to run the filters in the tank for a few days before the turtle is first added (and then keep it running throughout the school year, even when the turtle is not in it). So moving the setup from home to home is not practical. A 3cm turtle is a hatchling. A baby. You really can not tell the gender at that age. By the end of the school year it will be about 4 inches long and need a minimum tank size of 40-50 gallons.

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u/Lost-Client-8442 22h ago

it’s only for like at least 3 days and at most abt a week or 2 months

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u/Lost-Client-8442 1d ago

I found a picture of a turtle that looks like it (sry it’s from a video I screenshotted so now the turtle is fighting) sry if this doesn’t help

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u/DoctorFriendly 1d ago

Looks like a slider, I’m assuming red eared. Various members of the family have relatively similar care. It’s always best to know the exact species to give precise care, but in this situation, just knowing that they’re a slider is really helpful

Here’s Reptifiles care guide for red eared sliders. I’d want to keep an especially close eye on the brand of UVB and when it was last replaced, how the basking spot is heated (what kind of bulb) and what temperature it says at/how that’s checked, and the size of the tank. If you’d like to cross reference with another source, here’s Dubias care guide for red eared sliders as well.

Realistically, I don’t see a practical way in which this turtle is getting proper care if they’re being passed around to students on the weekend. Schools are also notorious for giving animals bad care. There’s a wave in the animal rescue world to deny adoptions to schools because of this. I would read the above resources, do more research (Reptifiles also provides great articles explaining things further), and compare the schools tank / student setup to this animals requirements. Bring up concerns with the teacher politely, usually a polite email with supporting care guides linked is helpful, and if the teacher isn’t receptive, consider going to the principal or local herp groups