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Impossible-Award3595 t1_j9u9mdu wrote

Reply to comment by Master_Winchester in A dying baby turtle survived after drifting 4,000 miles to Ireland by KatzMwwow

I was wondering about that too!? I know that some domestic turtles grow to the size of their tanks so maybe because it was so malnourished, it didn’t grow? I’m no turtle expert though.

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Gloomy_Possession-69 t1_j9um805 wrote

Turtles do not grow to the size of their tanks, that's a myth similar to the one about goldfish and is unfortunately used to sell or justify keeping animals in environments too small for them. They will all keep growing as normal regardless of if it results in them having no room to even turn around.

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evil-rick t1_j9v0iae wrote

This. I worked at a petstore and constantly had to warn people that the bowls were trash and it WOULD outgrow the bowl. Nobody listened and they either ended up having to buy a bigger tank later or it died.

I also had an old customer who had one single goldfish in a large tank. He told me he had it 20 years after winning it at a carnival and he was a full foot long and loved bloodworms. I love people who treat fish like living things and not expendable.

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TwoCagedBirds t1_j9vgkvk wrote

My sister won a goldfish at an elementary school fair when she was like 8 or something. We had that fucking fish for like 7 or 8 years, it got to be pretty big.

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ButtsPie t1_j9uqc36 wrote

From what I gathered, it's possible for their growth to be stunted, but it's less about tank size itself and more about the terrible water quality, lack of oxygen, high stress, inadequate temperature (etc) that usually come with small tanks

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Master_Winchester t1_j9ugx8c wrote

Being so paralyzed by cold that it doesn't eat for months may be why it's small. Or the body eating itself to stay alive.

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