Pond construction and culture of juvenile Shiqian turtles

Stone money tortoise is the most primitive and oldest species of water turtles, known as "ancient stone turtles". Next, let's take a look at the pond construction and culture of stone money turtles.

I. Construction of juvenile turtle ponds

Juvenile turtle ponds are mainly used to cultivate young turtles and young turtles. The juvenile turtle pond is surrounded by a 50-centimeter-high wall, the inner wall and the bottom of the pond are battered with cement, and the surface is smooth to prevent young turtles and young turtles from escaping. The area of juvenile turtle pond depends on the scale of breeding, generally about 10 square meters is better, convenient for management, but also conducive to the growth and development of juvenile turtles and young turtles. The juvenile turtle pond is composed of two parts: the pool and the land. The pool accounts for 3 to 4, and the land accounts for 1 to 4 of the whole pool, in order to adapt to the living habits of the stone tortoise. The two parts of the juvenile turtle pond and the land are connected by a slope of 30 °, which makes it convenient for the young turtles to come ashore and forage. The pool part of the juvenile turtle pond must have inlet and outlet, and the inlet and outlet must have anti-escape facilities. The juvenile turtle pond can release some plants such as water lotus, provide a hidden underwater activity place for young turtles, and can also purify the water body. The top of the juvenile turtle pond is shaded by a sunshade net, and the pool surface is covered with an iron net to prevent the attack of the enemy.

2. Juvenile turtle culture

When the stone money tortoise came out of its shell, it weighed more than 6 to 12 grams. At this time, the navel plates of most young turtles were not completely closed, and some young turtles still had obvious yolk sacs, so they could not come into contact with water immediately. Wait for them to rest quietly in wet, dim sand (soil) for 3-5 days and then be disinfected before they can begin to attract food. At the beginning of feeding, egg yolk or chopped pig liver should be used as bait, which should be fed once in the morning, at noon and once in the evening. At the beginning, the daily feeding amount accounts for about 3% of the body weight of the juvenile turtles, and then with the acceleration of the growth of the juvenile turtles, the daily feeding amount can be increased to 7%-10% of the body weight of the juvenile turtles. Water must be changed before and after each feeding to stimulate the appetite of juvenile turtles and ensure their health. After 10 days of trial culture, the types of bait should be diversified, such as lean meat, fish, small fish and shrimp, and the bait must be fresh and chopped. At this time, the young tortoise can be transferred to the juvenile turtle pond for breeding.

The speed of growth and development of juvenile turtles is closely related to individual size and feeding techniques at hatching. Young turtles that are large when they are hatched generally grow and develop faster than those that are small when they are hatched if they are raised properly. If the type and quantity of feed fed every day meet the feeding requirements of young turtles, their growth and development are also faster. After 3 months, the average body weight of juvenile turtles fed on chilled fish increased from 9.75g to 23.14g, the net weight gain was 13.39g, the average daily weight gain was 0.15g, and the largest individual was 40g.

Young turtles need to be strengthened before overwintering to make their physique strong, store enough nutrients, meet the energy consumption during overwintering and improve their overwintering survival rate.

3. Juvenile turtles are raised in greenhouse

Young turtles raised at room temperature basically stop feeding and grow slowly from November to March of the following year, and generally do not enter the rapid growth period until the third or even fourth year; if the artificial temperature control method is used to raise young turtles, if the young turtles are kept growing at the same temperature, the growth cycle of the young turtles can be shortened. Manual temperature control, can use hot spring water heat preservation, electric heater heating, factory residual hot water heating and other ways. Young turtles are raised in greenhouses. Due to factors such as closed space, dense young turtles, large food intake and high room temperature, young turtles are very easy to get sick, so they need careful care.

The key point of nursing is to feed feed regularly, orientated, qualitatively and quantitatively to keep the water quality good; change water once a day and disinfect once a week. Young turtles do not like to eat plant bait and seldom bask in the sun, so appropriate amounts of vitamins and calcium tablets must be added to the feed.