Want to help baby turtles

I know NOTHING about turtles, but went to a Chinese food place that had a 55 gallon fish tank with WAY too many big Shubunkin gold fish and about 5-6 little baby turtles. They couldn't have been any longer than about 3 1/2 inches. The thing that bothered me was they had no dry "land" or a resting place to get out of the water on. I tried to voice my concerns to one of the employees there but the language barrier didn't help much and she didn't seem to get it. I did manage to find out she got them from New York somewhere. They had a small red mark next to their head and their body was pretty much olive green. I was thinking they were baby painted turtles, from what I've seen fishing but not sure. Also wondering if there are any legal issues to owning turtles this small? If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it. I feel bad for the little guys.

Edit: Just did a google search and now thinking they are possibly Red Eared Sliders.

Yep those sound like red eared sliders to me especially if they came from NYC. Yea they need a place to haul themseleves up onto land, as well as UV light/ and a heat sourcs. I think the limit is either 4.5 or 5.5 inches when it comes to shell length. You could easily google your state laws and find out the limit on turtle shell length. Though i don't think the problem is owning turtles with small shells the problem is with selling them. But you could even print out a care sheet and give it to these people so that they can make some changes, and if they dont give them light, and a dry landing after you give them the info sheets, then you may want to contact someone like a local ASPCA or something like that.

hope that helps a bit

~mike

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Originally Posted by wildlifewarrior

Yep those sound like red eared sliders to me especially if they came from NYC. Yea they need a place to haul themseleves up onto land, as well as UV light/ and a heat sourcs. I think the limit is either 4.5 or 5.5 inches when it comes to shell length. You could easily google your state laws and find out the limit on turtle shell length. Though i don't think the problem is owning turtles with small shells the problem is with selling them. But you could even print out a care sheet and give it to these people so that they can make some changes, and if they dont give them light, and a dry landing after you give them the info sheets, then you may want to contact someone like a local ASPCA or something like that.

hope that helps a bit

~mike

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Thanks for the response wildlifewarrior. That was pretty much my game plan anyways (contacting the ASPCA). I don't think they care too much about "caring" for their animals. They had about a dozen 4-6 inch Shubunkin goldfish and a big Pleco algae eater in the 55 gallon, along with all the turtles. I'm sure the ammonia levels are sky high and there was only a fluorescent light and no heating source that I could see. I'm sure the tank is more for show than it is to properly display and show how to care for animals. I can think of at least 3-4 Chinese restaurants that have fish tanks that are just packed with fish, way more than what is normally required.

aww poor little guys. i know down here in FL you can be fined a whole bunch of money for selling a turtle that is too small. i would say contact the ASPCA, the reasturaunt employees also sound like they dont speak very good english, which would make a caresheet pretty much useless.

keep us posted!!

*somewhat off topic*

I remember a Chinese restaurant in my home town that had a tank packed with fish.
The building 'caught fire' and everything was lost. When they were researching what caused the fire they saw that surprisingly the tank was gone.

At least they cared enough about their fish to take them out before setting their business on fire for insurance money ;) ;)

UPDATE

We went back to that Chinese restaurant yesterday (the buffet is so good) and believe it or not, the little guys had a little dry floating land piece in the tank and one of the turtles was resting up on it. Maybe the employees actually understood what I told her. The turtles looked much happier though, although when my girlfriend asked how I knew they looked happy, I told her they winked at me and gave me a little turtle thumbs up :sweeet: