Pelodiscus sinensisWiegmann, 1835

Chinese Soft-shelled Turtle

Photograph by 116916927065934112165, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A water-living, day-active, omnivorous turtle from the Oriental region, reaching 33 cm across the shell.

Reptilia › Testudines › Trionychidae › Pelodiscus

Grows to: 330mm; greatest recorded
Eats: Omnivorous
Active: Diurnal
Lives up to: 24years

Shell length across Trionychidae

Longer than only 28% of all species in Trionychidae anyone has measured.

28% of 25 species are smaller72% larger

54 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest1,800 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because shell length here runs from 54 to 1,800 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

31 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Conservation status: Vulnerable
Population trend: Decreasing

The animal itself

Colour on the back: Brown, Yellow
Pattern on the back: Blotched
Pupil: Round
Venomous: No
Fangs: None
Longest recorded life: 24years
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild: 28°C82 °F
Body temp in the wild · mean, when active: 17.8–40.9°C64–106 °F

Size

Shell length, front to back · greatest recorded: 330mm13 in
Largest female · shell length: 330mm13 in
Largest male · shell length: 270mm10.5 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed: 4329g9.5 lb
Body mass at hatching: 5.4g0.19 oz

How it lives

Diet: Omnivorous
How it hunts: Active foraging
Active: Diurnal
Where it lives: Aquatic
Habitat: Wetlands
Region: Oriental

Breeding

Reproduction: Oviparous
Sex decided by: Genes, ZW/ZZ
Average clutch: 14.5eggs
Eggs or young per clutch: 8–30eggs
Egg length: 25mm1 in
Egg width: 25mm1 in

Naming and history

Subspecies: No
Described by: Wiegmann
Moved to another genus · since it was first described: Yes
Described in: 1835

Keeping one

Chinese Soft-shelled Turtle is assessed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Species at risk in the wild are often covered by CITES and by national law, which decide what may be bought, sold, moved across a border or kept at all — and captive-bred and wild-caught animals are usually treated differently. Check the rules where you are before acquiring one. Nothing below is a judgement about keeping this species; it is what a published welfare standard says about space, and what the animal itself was measured doing.

No enclosure size is given here

The standard sets enclosure size for turtles and tortoises genus by genus, and this genus is not among the roughly sixty it lists. No figure is given rather than one borrowed from a different animal.

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 82 °F (28 °C).

Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.

Feeding

A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.

Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.

335kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 4,329 g, the heaviest recorded for Chinese Soft-shelled Turtle — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

Morphs

1 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 0 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.

Skin colourpeer reviewed
- Genomic features and tissue expression profiles of the tyrosinase gene family in the Chinese soft-shelled turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis). — Genes (Basel) 2025

Other inherited traits

Inherited characteristics and conditions recorded for this species. These are not morphs — nobody breeds for them.

Sex determination3 references

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

— Still living
— Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
— Length snout to vent · adult female mean
— Length snout to vent · adult male mean
— Length snout to vent · adult mean
— Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
— Female length · mean, nose to tail
— Length nose to tail · adult male mean
— Length nose to tail · adult mean
— Largest female · snout to vent
— Largest male · snout to vent
— Hatchling length · snout to vent
— Hatchling length · nose to tail
— Largest juvenile · snout to vent
— Largest juvenile · shell length
— Body mass · a typical adult
— Body mass · adult female, mean
— Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
— Eats arthropods
— Eats vertebrates
— Eats plant matter
— How the young develop
— Gestation or incubation
— Mean clutch · smallest reported
— Mean clutch · largest reported
— Clutches in a year
— Clutches a year · fewest
— Clutches a year · most
— First breeds from · youngest recorded
— First breeds by · oldest recorded
— Hatchling length · smallest recorded
— Hatchling length · largest recorded
— Age at first breeding · female
— Mature from · youngest recorded
— Mature by · oldest recorded
— Size at maturity · smallest recorded
— Size at maturity · largest recorded
— Limbs
— Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
— Red List criteria
— Biome
— Active season · shortest recorded
— Active season · longest recorded
— Density · lowest recorded
— Density · highest recorded
— Home range · largest recorded
— Suborder
— Infraorder
— Type locality
— Active in
— Mainland or island
— Lowest it lives · above sea level
— Highest it lives · above sea level
— Range size

Others in Trionychidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Pelodiscus sinensis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/pelodiscus-sinensis

@misc{pelodiscus_sinensis_2026,
  title  = {Pelodiscus sinensis},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/pelodiscus-sinensis}
}

Sources

Moura, M. R. et al. TetrapodTraits: a database of 33,281 tetrapod species. Used under CC BY 4.0. Observed values only; this encyclopedia does not publish its imputed predictions.
Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.