8 replies to this topic

[Chuck Lewis]

Are there any advantages/disadvantages to having turtles in your ponds?
We have a resident population of Red Eared Sliders... Not just in our ponds but all over Northwest Montana...
Chuck

[undrtkr_00]

They are dirty and will eat small fish. But they are pretty cool, too.

[Chuck Lewis]

undrtkr_00 said:

They are dirty and will eat small fish. But they are pretty cool, too.

Sooo... Would you / do you keep them in your pond?

[Chuck Lewis]

They don't bother the Brook Trout and I don't find them particularly interesting...
Just wondering if I should enter them onto my eradication list along with magpies and pigeons or leave 'em be...

[DrCase]

I had one small painted turtle that stayed around a while
But one day he walked away
He never caused any problems

[oldmarine]

As a rule, turtles will typically eat anything that they can get in their mouth, and anything slower than them. Just from my own observation, I think that they would do well in a large pond where they have a lot of room to move around and safely sun themselves.

Happy ponding,

Rich :helm2:

[undrtkr_00]

Chuck Lewis said:

Sooo... Would you / do you keep them in your pond?

We had a couple of red-eared sliders in a large aquarium. We eventually gave them to someone who had a pond. I currently just have water and a few plants in my pond. Still under construction. Haven't decided whether we'll go out and get some turtles and/or frogs or not.

[cudamank]

I have several Red ear Sliders (8), all in aquariums at this point. They will eat fish if they can catch them so I wouldn't suggest putting them in with any fish.

[chilligirl]

I have a Yellow-Bellied Slider. Got him initially intending to eventually put him in the pond. However, I've since decided he's an indoor-only pet for a variety of reasons.

- while YBS and RES overwinter just fine here in our city pond, I was worried about him not pulling through the winter - he was kind of expensive to risk it. I was also worried about predators getting him.
- after seeing what he does to his tank and the veggies I feed him, I don't want him anywhere near my pond plants lol. Turtles will eat just about anything. They especially love hyacinth and water lilies and will eat your pond plants.
- RES (and YBS) get pretty big and can and will damage and eat your fish.
- they are EXTREMELY dirty/messy - make koi and goldfish look tidy

If you've got a wild RES population, unless you're okay with them eating your plants and some fish, I'd probably try to discourage them from the pond area. Looking at your pond sizes, they probably wouldn't have an impact on your big pond, but might be a PITA for your small one.