Abstract:The Asian yellow pond turtle, Mauremys mutica Cantor, is a member of the family Bataguridae, native in China, Japan and Vietnam. It has become a potential aquaculture species and its husbandry and management have been a focus of aquaculture practice recently in China. One mature female turtle lays only 2.8 eggs on average per clutch and has only 2.1 nests on average per year. Therefore, it is very important to determine how to artificially incubate those eggs under optimal incubation conditions to achieve best results for aquaculture. Yellow pond turtle does not protect its eggs and leaves the embryo development of the turtles to the mercy of environment where eggs are laid. Hydric environment is an important ecological factor, and incubation under hydric environment has been proved to have profound effects on embryonic development and husbandry outcomes. In this paper, the effects of different hydric environment on embryonic development of fertilized eggs and hatchling traits of yellow pond turtle have been studied in comparison to unfertilized eggs. The eggs were incubated in wet (-12kPa), humid (-150kPa) and dry (-300kPa) conditions at constant temperature of 29℃, data on the egg mass change, embryonic development duration, hatching success ratio, egg shell crack ratio, egg-shell white ring change and hatchling morphological traits were collected and analyzed. Eggs mass increased from the middle to the end of incubation period under the wet (-12kPa) and humid (-150kPa) conditions, whereas eggs mass for those incubated under the dry (-300kPa) condition decreased. The hydric environment significantly affected white ring change on the eggshell. Under the wet (-12kPa) condition, white ring folding was significantly slower than that under the humid (-150kPa) and dry (-300kPa) conditions. The ratio of fertilized egg shell crack was positively correlated to the hydric environment. The effects of different hydric environment on body weight and carapace width of hatchling were significant, but were not significant on body height, carapace length, plastron length, plastron width, and trail length of hatchling. The effects of different hydric environment on duration of embryonic development and hatchling moving were not significant. The results confirm that appropriate moisture is important for the incubation management and the optimal incubation conditions for eggs of Asian yellow pond turtle are from -12kPa to -150kPa for aquaculture.