Species · Reptile
Eastern Long-necked Turtle
Chelodina longicollis
Australia’s snake-necked turtle, cruising farm dams and slow rivers down the east of the continent — and the classic Australian pet turtle.
The long-neck is the turtle Australians actually keep, and it is a magnificent, alien, watchable animal — a periscope-necked ambush hunter that learns feeding time and begs at the glass. It is also the biggest infrastructure commitment on this page: a turtle is an aquarium animal with reptile lighting on top, meaning serious water volume, serious filtration, a basking dock under heat and UVB, and a lifespan that reads like a bequest. The five-dollar-turtle era filled Australia’s rivers with dumped adults; this page exists so yours never joins them.
At a glance
- Lifespan
- 30–50 years
- Adult size
- Shell to 25 cm, neck extra
- Minimum housing
- 250 L+ water for an adult, plus basking dock
- Heat & light
- Water low–mid 20s °C, warm basking spot, UVB
- Diet
- Carnivore — whole aquatic foods, varied
- Handling
- Minimal — it is a fish you can’t cuddle either
- Company
- Fine alone
- With children
- Watch, don’t hold; it smells fear and empties bowels
- Daily attention
- 30 min — feeding, water checks; big cleans weekly
Morphs · 1 listed
No morph trade here, mercifully — a long-neck is a long-neck, and the variation that matters is the size of your filter.
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Wild type
Right for you if
- A 250-litre-plus heated, filtered system is genuinely on the table.
- You want the most watchable ambush predator legally available.
- Succession is a fair topic for a pet — this one may outlast the mortgage.
- The licence process is a step you will complete before purchase.
Wrong for you if
- The picture was a small bowl with a plastic palm. That era killed a lot of turtles.
- Filter maintenance will lose to busy weekends — turtles are heroic water-foulers.
- A child’s enthusiasm is the driving force behind a fifty-year animal.
- Any part of the plan involves eventual release. That is how rivers get sick.
Welfare and sourcing — read this part
- Metabolic bone disease is the most common bone disease of pet reptiles and turtles are named in its blast radius — calcium, vitamin D3, UVB and temperature are the levers.1 A basking dock under real UVB is not furniture; it is where the shell comes from.2
- Buy captive-bred from a licensed breeder and never from a bucket at a market. And never, under any circumstances, release one — a dumped pet turtle is an ecological act, not a kindness.
- Reptile keeping is licensed and restricted differently from place to place, including state by state within Australia — and for some species here that difference is the whole question. Check what applies where you live before you commit.
Sources
- Disorders and Diseases of Reptiles. MSD Veterinary Manual 2026. Accessed 2026-09-05. International MSD Veterinary Manual Secondary nutritional hyperparathyroidism — metabolic bone disease — is the most common bone disease seen in pet reptiles, driven by poor calcium-to-phosphorus ratios, insufficient vitamin D3, lack of UVB light and inadequate temperature, and it predominantly affects rapidly growing plant- and insect-eating lizards, turtles and tortoises. Respiratory infections including pneumonia are common in reptiles and are tied to unfavourable temperatures, poor sanitation and malnutrition. Treatment does not succeed unless nutrition, environment and sanitation are corrected too.
- Providing a Home for a Reptile. MSD Veterinary Manual 2026. Accessed 2026-09-05. International MSD Veterinary Manual Reptiles are ectotherms that regulate body temperature by moving around their environment, so an enclosure must offer a range of temperatures within the species’ preferred band — and exceeding the upper limit by only around 5°C can be deadly for some species. UVB light in the 290–320 nm range is essential in many species for making vitamin D3 in the skin, which enables dietary calcium absorption.
Every source here was checked, not recalled. Where this page makes a health statement and no source appears against it, that is not an oversight we have hidden — it means the claim is not yet sourced, and the build reports how many are in that state.
Availability, registration and keeping requirements differ from place to place. Check the rules where you live before you commit to any animal — we describe animals, not law.