I saw hatchlings for sale (i'm pretty sure) on vacation
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 1:56 pmThis was my first experience with this! I've only seen bigger ones for sale in the pet stores, or if they were not big enough they would not be for sale.
These turtles were TINY! Maybe the size of a silver dollar or a little bigger. The plus side was there conditions were much better than the ones i've heard described on here. There were maybe 15 or so in a 20 gallon tank with a basking dock with some small feeder fish (which were the length of the turtles lol). They had plenty of room to swim, and fake plants so they could rest on them. The tank was about 2/3 full of water. The only problem I saw was there was no basking light for them.
I'm also not positive they were for sale, although I don't know why they would be in a souvenior shop in the front of the store if they weren't! There was a rubber duckie with the bottom of it attached to the front of the tank that had a 2 on it. I was assuming that meant they were $2. I was going to say something to someone in the store, but there was no one in the store. Yes, absolutely no one! I was only in there maybe 5 minutes or less, and a guy came in and said he was closing the store becuase he had no one to run it. It was first thing in the morning, and apparantly he also owned the store next door and had been over there. I didn't really have a chance to say anything to him, and he was foreign and both of us were in a hurry to leave or close shop.
The weird thing is that this is in a touristy strip near the beach, on an island right next to one with a Sea Turtle rescue/information center. I just found it hard to believe that he was able to sell them without anyone knowing or saying anything!
These turtles were TINY! Maybe the size of a silver dollar or a little bigger. The plus side was there conditions were much better than the ones i've heard described on here. There were maybe 15 or so in a 20 gallon tank with a basking dock with some small feeder fish (which were the length of the turtles lol). They had plenty of room to swim, and fake plants so they could rest on them. The tank was about 2/3 full of water. The only problem I saw was there was no basking light for them.
I'm also not positive they were for sale, although I don't know why they would be in a souvenior shop in the front of the store if they weren't! There was a rubber duckie with the bottom of it attached to the front of the tank that had a 2 on it. I was assuming that meant they were $2. I was going to say something to someone in the store, but there was no one in the store. Yes, absolutely no one! I was only in there maybe 5 minutes or less, and a guy came in and said he was closing the store becuase he had no one to run it. It was first thing in the morning, and apparantly he also owned the store next door and had been over there. I didn't really have a chance to say anything to him, and he was foreign and both of us were in a hurry to leave or close shop.
The weird thing is that this is in a touristy strip near the beach, on an island right next to one with a Sea Turtle rescue/information center. I just found it hard to believe that he was able to sell them without anyone knowing or saying anything!
So they would need a 150 gal. tank minimum. Which is to unpractical for a pet store. That is why they bank on selling the turtles as fast as they can, so they have as little stress as possible.
