Claude,

I've had a RES in my pond for two years now and he is great. They are
supposed to be more carnivorous when young and become more vegetarian as
they age. I don't know how old mine is, but I've never seen him even open
his mouth near a fish. In fact, they often swim right up to him and steal
his pellets. He is also no problem with the vegetation. The only mildly
annoying thing he does is he likes to dig in the lily pots after I fertilize
them. Must think the tablets are candy. Some gravel halted that issue.

Mine swims up to me to get his pellets and is a fascinating creature to have
in the pond.

They do, every once in a while, like to take a walk. If your yard is fenced,
he'll eventually just head back to the pond, if not you might want to think
about how to handle that. Also some dogs think turtles are balls, so be
careful if you have dogs. My dogs just bark at him.

Just shout if you want to know more.

Joe


On 4/28/04 2:36 PM, "Claude Rogers" wrote:

Hi guys, my friend has a red earred slider he wants to relocate. I have
goldfish and koi about 7 inches long and lots of plants in my pond. Will
the turtle destroy everthing and kill my fish or is it going to fit in.....I
know I will need some sort of island for it.....just really don't want
everything tore up.....and don't want to be mean to the turtle either...does
anyone mix turtles and fish and plants in the same pond.....Thanks in
advance Claude



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Wow, I must have an angel of a turtle. Do you have first hand knowledge of
this?

Joe

On 4/28/04 6:32 PM, "AZKalEl" wrote:

I wouldn't do it. Turtles eat everything! They tear up your plants
and do eat fish if the can catch one. Mostly lazy, if food is
plentiful they won't eat the fish but they're not shy about nipping at
them. At the least your koi will have shredded fins and bruises, but
if the opportunity arrises, Shushi is served.



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Wow!!! I was unsure before, but now am completely confused.....Joe you sound
like you love your turtle, I would love to have one too, just a little weary
about the obvious I guess, I would hate to take it and it not fit in....then
have to get rid of it....not very good at that...Love animals and think my
pond would be a good home as long as it plays well with others...Jim and
azkalel are you speaking from experience or heresay.....Thanks for the
feedback, all opinions welcome......Claude



"joe" wrote in message
...
Wow, I must have an angel of a turtle. Do you have first hand knowledge of
this?

Joe

On 4/28/04 6:32 PM, "AZKalEl" wrote:

I wouldn't do it. Turtles eat everything! They tear up your plants
and do eat fish if the can catch one. Mostly lazy, if food is
plentiful they won't eat the fish but they're not shy about nipping at
them. At the least your koi will have shredded fins and bruises, but
if the opportunity arrises, Shushi is served.



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joe wrote in message ...
Wow, I must have an angel of a turtle. Do you have first hand knowledge of
this?

Joe

Yeah I was gonna say, sounds like you got lucky. I've seen them
shred plants in a friends pond, and I know they put off tons of waste.
Of course with any animal related question, you can never say never,
so Claude might get lucky and have one like you do. I think the odds
are against it, let's see what other rec ponders have to offer...

I have a pond with three different turtles in. They often chase the smaller
feeder fish I put in. However they leave bigger fish alone. Although
somewhat cruel, its good exercise for the turtles to have something to
chase.
To avoid being flamed, I do feed my turtles stock food, and I offer many
hiding places for the fish, where the turtles cannot get.

--
Victoria Concordia Crescit

Claude,

Waste is a bit of an issue. I assumed that if you had several Koi you have
more than 1000 gallons in which case the load the turtle puts on the system
is less of a problem. I found this site that might help you research more.
Maybe you could email some people with turtles and see what they say:

http://www.tortoise.org/index.html


On 4/28/04 7:14 PM, "Claude Rogers" wrote:

Wow!!! I was unsure before, but now am completely confused.....Joe you sound
like you love your turtle, I would love to have one too, just a little weary
about the obvious I guess, I would hate to take it and it not fit in....then
have to get rid of it....not very good at that...Love animals and think my
pond would be a good home as long as it plays well with others...Jim and
azkalel are you speaking from experience or heresay.....Thanks for the
feedback, all opinions welcome......Claude



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In , on 04/28/04
at 06:45 PM, joe said:

Wow, I must have an angel of a turtle. Do you have first hand knowledge
of this?

My painted turtle chases the fish occasionally, but can't catch them (they
swim circles around him - it's fun to watch.) I assume he could catch a
fish if it was sick, but that's how nature works.


Alan

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I have had two painted turtles and one red-earred slider in my 3,000 gallon
pond at the same time. I never noticed any plant or fish damage.

I did keep a lot of plants in the pond, had lots of baby fish. I really didn't
care if some of it, or them, got eaten. But I never noticed them eating them.

I ran a 150 gallon stock tank mech/biological/plant filter. Kept up with koi,
goldfish, turtle and bullfrog business.

I have an island in the middle of my pond for safe sunbathing (important for
turtle health).

I never fed them. They ate koi food, plants and fish (I'm sure) and I made sure
they had lots of garden snails tossed on their island.

It worked for me!


kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

Hello!

I am an expat Brit living in Tokyo and I have a slider in an indoor aquarium that is getting big!
How does your RES deal with the cold climate? it rarely gets below 0 here but all sites on the subject say the water needs to be at least 20 degrees! Which seems overkill to me.

Any advice would be appreciated