African Dwarf Mud Turtle

Description

Overview

What a cool little turtle!

Super friendly and outgoing & so small that 2 or 3 can live permanently (and happily) in a 20 gallon long aquarium.

Some hatch out with black and brown skin, and others hatch out with yellow skin… All of our adults have yellow skin with black speckling. African Dwarf Mud Turtles (Pelusios nanus) have only recently been bred in captivity. Easily the smallest of all the African turtle species, “Nanus” as they are usually referred to, are actually one of the 3 smallest turtle species in the world. (The other 2 are Stink Pot Musk turtles and Muhlenberg’s Bog Turtles.) All 3 species barely reach 4 inches as full grown adults. Our largest breeding adult Nanus are only 3.75 – 4.25 inches.

Nanus are found in southern Africa, in Zambezi, the Congo and Angola. They live in slow moving rivers, calm waters, ponds and flooded savannas where their diet is omnivorous. Our’s love pellets, small pieces of fish and meat, and worms and insects. Very little is known about their breeding habits. We have been working with our group for 6 years now and we have only hatched eggs the last 2 years.

They’re fine in shallow water and need only minimal basking areas. Until recently, Nanus were super rare and not available in the US. Today, breeders are only starting to hatch them in very small numbers.