Florida pond

[addy1]

I have a couple of algae eaters in with the sliders and they dont bother them.I think they are mostly vegitarians

The net says they will eat fish, eat anything they can get in their little mouths.

 

[mountaindew]

Ive never had a problem.I just got finished feeding them lettuce

 

[addy1]

Great, just did a search and that is what it said lol

 

[taherrmann4]

I found one on the side of the road by the river, brought him home and put him in my pond, next day he was gone. I guess he didn't like it. Same thing happened a few years ago with a box turtle I saved from being run over on a busy road, as soon as I put him down in the yard he started booking it up the hill and was gone before I knew it.

Nice looking pond.

 

[fishin4cars]

Thay can and do eat fish! In a large enough pond if well fed they will usually leave most fish alone. Pleco's are armored catfish and unless your turtles get VERY hungry they should be just fine with your tutles and actually should help balance your water by removing unwanted alge's, Be carefukl to monitor water quality. Turtles put off as much waste as any fish if not more and your pleco's will be first to succumb to low water quality. Those turtles are omnivore, they eat plant and animal product. Koi food should be a fairly good staple diet as it has about the same nutrition values as standard turtle food. Water hyacinths would help give your turtles natural vegitation and it will help water quality too. I would recommend feeding them frozen silver sides as a treat. You can get them at your local petsmart or petco and they can be kept in the freezer until ready to use. We have about a six inch softshell turtle in our koi pond. It's about time for him to come out. I just noticed this past weekend a mark in one of my koi's fins that could have been caused by a turtle bite. I like the jacuzzi idea, I'm thinking of building a box that the turtles can live in and have land and a small kiddie pool for their water. The soft shell rarely gets out of the water but when it does it loves to dig in the sand. my painted only feeds and sleeps, So far I don't think he even knows what a fish is. He is only about 3 inches across and less than a year old.

 

[CountryEscape]

This turtle I acquired was found in the person's yard about 3 years ago. I found an alligator snapping turtle infant and had it for 4 years. It was not near as large as this turtle I have. I will likely put mine in my farm pond. He will be the king of that pond. I'm sure there are other turtles, so he/she should be very happy out there, once it warms up and stays that way. Oh, and have any of you ever heard of or seen 12" long leeches that are big around as your thumb? I saw them when roads out here by flooded last sping! Guess they live in the ditches . .. and my pond!!! YUCK! Hope they don't make their way to my fish pond when I build it. Will have to deter them with large rocks and rough terrain.

 

[sissy]

I am still try to find someone that has a garra pingi pingi and how it is working out as they are algae eaters for ponds but heard from some sights on the internet that they can sometimes hurt fish

 

[addy1]

YUCK to leeches.............lol get some real hungry fish to eat them

 

[j.w]

I had a leech in my aquarium once that came on a plant that I bought. I was always afraid to stick my hand in there to do anything but I couldn't bare to kill him and he never bothered my fish. One day he just disappeared. I think a fish ate him as he wasn't very big but it made me shiver when he came up through the gravel and wiggled around in there :yikesu:
Went to E. Washington to a river once and waded in to grab up some pond plants and came out with itsy bitsy ones all over my feet and ankles. I didn't freak out tho like I thought I would if anything like that ever happened. I just stared and studied them for a bit and then brushed them off w/ river water. I was quite proud of myself :lol:

 

[mountaindew]

I wanted to do the same thing with a separate land and water.The only prblem is the fence around it has to be at least 6ft tall because they can climb.It also has to go down in the ground so far so they cant dig under it.So thats going to take some planning on my part

 

[CountryEscape]

Addy, I've heard that frogs there were gigged on my pond (before I moved year 1.5 yrs. ago) came out with leeches in their mouths. Now, I'm wondering who was eating/feasting on whom! I wonder if the leech was possibly attached to the inside of the frog's mouth! Fish will eat them, but the size I saw on the road during flooding would take a very large fish! I had a similar experience wading into a pond with a group of "Brownies", about 7 or 8 years old. I was trying to catch the minnows. Once the adults saw the leeches, that nixed our pond water playing. LOL I caught an 8" and 3 - 4" ones and put them in a quart jar, and daughter (she's a Jr. Science teacher) took them to school next day. Kids thought they were snakes. Biggest one was gone when I got back there with a container to put them into. LOL

 

[addy1]

ewwwwwwwwww, but part of nature lol. I don't think we have them here, at least I have seen none.

 

[CountryEscape]

Addy, I would never have guess I had leeches that size around here either. But, riding my horse down the road, flooded from the rain, saw something wiggling wondering why a snake was on the road in the flood water, realized the leech was attached to the road! Horse didn't mind it, but I sure did. Such is life in the country! Told neighbor, whose grandson plays in the same ditch (when not flooded), and they are the ones that told me about the bullfrogs with leeches in their mouths from my pond in the past! They ARE really cool to look at in a jar, though. LOL

 

[addy1]

Everything is cool to look at, but attached to this body? nooooooooooooo !

I even like looking at spiders, there are some neat ones here, just keep them and their webs off of me. Have some cool bugs too, nature is just so wonderful!

Have always wanted a horse, now have the land that could handle multiple horses, but age and wisdom has taken over lol

 

[sissy]

horses