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Macrochelodina rugosa siebenrocki
Siebenrock's Snake-necked Turtle DISTRIBUTION: The southern coast of West Papua New Guinea and Papua New Guinea. EMPIRE STOCK: WC exported from Indonesia that most likely came from West Papua New Guinea. SIZE: Up to 35cm, possibly bigger. HABITAT: They inhabit streams marshes and swamps. DIET: Fish, shrimp, Mazuri and Aquamax 500 & 600, and pinkie rats. I start hatchlings on bloodworms before moving onto chopped shrimp, smaller fish and pellets. SEXING: Males have longer thicker tails. BREEDING: In my collection outdoors in Central Florida eggs are deposited during October and November. Chelodina rugosa in Australia have been found depositing eggs in underwater nests. The eggs remain dormant until the waters recede then they develop and hatch normally. My animals are of New Guinea origin and all nests have been deposited in the upland section of the pens. NOTES: This is the most commonly imported Snake-neck in the United States. |
This adult female looks bloated, but she is full of eggs. 18 days after this picture she laid 16 eggs.
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Suggested Reading Booth, D. T. 2002. The Breaking of Diapause in Embryonic Broad-shell River Turtles (Chelodina expansa). Journal of Herpetology. Vol 36(2): 304-307. Fordham, D., A. Georges, and B. Corey. 2006. Compensation for inundation induced embryonic diapause in a freshwater turtle: achieving predictability in the face of environmental stochasticity. Functional Ecology 20: 670-677. Georges, A., Mark Adams, and William McCord. 2002. Electrophoretic delineation of species boundaries within the genus Chelodina (Testudines: Chelidae) of Australia, New Guinea, and Indonesia. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 134: 401-421. Kennett, R. 1999. Reproduction of two species of freshwater turtle, Chelodina rugosa and Elseya dentata. from the wet-dry tropics of Australia. J. Zool. Lond. 247: 457-473. Thomson, Scott. Long Necks, Flat Heads and the Evolution of Piscivory. |
