Habitat - Outdoor :: RES In New Mexico

[GunnerMan]

Hello, I live in Santa Fe NM and have been caring for box turtles for years and years, successfuly breeding and hibernating so I am not too new to the turtle scene. So we have a 1550 Gal pond in our yard full of plants, rock outcropings, and a large shallow beach. Today we went to the pond store to pick up our spring supplies and they had about 10 of RES there(3 left when we left). We asked the owners about them and they said they do great in ponds around here and gave us pretty good detail on care. I also talked to others in the store who said they had RES in their pond and they were great. Soo I picked up two of them, male and female, both seem very healthy.

I put them in the pond and they took to it really quick, they are very shy and seem to only surface when they need to. The pond itself is not fenced but our yard is so if they get out they can't get far, most of our pond rocks are to high for any turtle to climb but a few are perfect. We have another pond out front that is about 600 gals and another 1200 reflection pool in the works so there is no shortage of water areas for them here. So this will be their first night, now that I have these guys I want to care for them as best as possible so I got online and started reading all the info I could. I found they like 70-80 degree water, that should not be a problem for most of the summer here but may be a tad cooler right now by a few degrees. I hope this is ok for them. I found they love to come up around my bull rush plants and there is a nice rock that seems well suited for basking on. Tomorrow I am planning on making them a log they can get on in that area also. I left some lettuce and carrot on the rock for the night, our fish in the pond spawned like crazy this spring so we have about 20 small fish just waiting to be eaten as well. I have only had them for a number of hours and since my UV lamp has been out for the winter my water is still quite murky so I can not see their actions underwater yet. The UV has been put back in tonight, also I am planning a 90% water change as per usuall for the spring. So I came here for a few reasons, Incase something strange happens I have a base to go to, any suggestions on what I should do to my pond to make it more turtle happy, and does what I have setup now sound OK for them? Thanks a lot!

I also forgot to tell yall that these res seem to be adults. I would say one is about 5" long and the other is about 4" long.

[GunnerMan]

Well the morning has come and even with the UV light the turtles seem to have spent the night sturring up the bottom so it is even worse today. They seem a lot more friendly this morning and will surface right by us. I think they are asking for food, I threw them some pellets and one ate a few of them. They didn't touych the carrot and lettuce but im not surprised after reading how hard it was to get some ppls res to eat lettuce. I never see them surface around our sitting area, probably because there are not very many plants they can hide by. I am going to put in a modified log today so they have a full area to rest on back there. I will try and get some pics of our area soon.

[DavidY]

Wow that sounds like you have a really nice yard! Your turtles should be very happy in that huge pond. How deep is the water? As for eating lettuce and carrots, if you have a variety of aquatic plants in the pond, your turtles will be fine with those. It's also good to feed them some good quality pellets a couple of times a week since they provide good balanced nutrition, but with all the baby fish, insects and plants, they will have plenty to eat. Feeding pellets will also help them learn to associate you with food so they will be more likely to come to you.

Turtles definitely like to stir things up and they also poop a lot too, so keeping the pond really clear will require a hefty filter. But turtles naturally like the water a bit murky with mud at the bottom so it's probably more for esthetics if you want to keep it clear.

I doubt you are going to have any problems with your RES as it sounds like a very natural (and large) setup. The biggest thing to watch out for would be predators or the turtles escaping.

I can't wait to see some pictures of your ponds!

[GunnerMan]

Hello and thanks for the kind words but what I said is what we try and make it, it never seems to look the way you plan our pond depth is about 3' 10" at it's deepest point. We dont have much in the way of edible plants because we just havent picked em up yet, right now we do have a small patch of water lettuce growing. I don't think they will eat any of the other plants we have.

We use the large SAVIO Skimmerfilter without the waterfall setup(because we don't have a fall) Also we have a hottub pressure filter we run in it every once in a while to take out any floating debris that the skimmer does not catch. We would like to keep our pond pretty clear, we can stand a little murkyness but we like to be able to see at least 3/4 of the way down. We try to vaccum most of the seddiment out because it looks better, and causes pH and other things to go haywire. We did have a lottus in there but I think it died over winder, it was just not healthy enough going into the winter so they have a huge bucket of mud down there, could be what they are stirring up digging for worms or something.
Vaccuming might end up beeing at two or three time deal now that we have turtles crappin everywhere

I will try and take some pics when the sun comes out, maybe I will be lucky and catch one basking, they seem to have found two rocks of choice they like to climb on, my log setup is beeing ignorned, they seem to like the rocks better.

[steve]

Hi, sounds like you have a real interesting setup (pics???). They will eventually go for that lettuce and anything else they can get at. If there is the slightest chance they can get out, they might be able to. They can also "stack" above each other for a boost, so I would make sure there is no way they can get out of the yard. They are exceptionally good climbers and diggers as well.

[GunnerMan]

I posted pics in the Photo area http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewt ... 1064#91064

[GunnerMan]

Ok I hate to keep my thread alive because other people have things to say also but it is storming here now and I have a feeling it is going to get a little cool tonight. Im estimating a drop in water temps to about 65 degrees F. I have been reading that they should be in water that is in the 70s anything lower than that is considered the "death zone" where they will enter a pseudo hibernation. They made it well last night in the pond and were out basking regularly this morning but it may get a little cooler. I think I will need to get a heater at somepoint this season so I can try and regulate the temps. As I have been reading New Mexico is in thier native range so theoreticaly they should be fine but now I am getting a little nervous after all this reading about 76 degree water. Really there is nothing I can do rigth now because shy res + 1500 gals = uncatchable but what are your oppinions and a good place to buy pond heaters for large ponds?

[SpotsMama]

What's the water temperature? Ponds as large as yours should hold temps steady pretty well. In the wild they normally endure temperatures in the 60's. I believe what's called the "death zone" is temps in the mid to low 50's. At that point their digestion slows to a stop so any food they've eaten will spoil in their gut with bad consequences.

I don't know about pond heaters. Most people here bring their turtles inside for the winter. A few will hibernate them in their man-made ponds. Does it get very cold in winter where you are?

[DavidY]

With 4ft of water I don't think you need to worry much at all about your turtles. If the temp falls briefly into the 60's they should be okay as long as they are healthy. And like SpotsMama mentioned, you may want to avoid feeding them before a cold front is expected if you think it's going to cool the water down much. Trying to heat 1500 gals of water would probably get pretty expensive.

[GunnerMan]

Ok well last checked the temp was 69 degrees. It wont go below 60 I am sure, as you said it is large enough to hold a temp. It does get pretty cold here in winter, ranging from 28 - 40 degrees. Our pond has an 1800 GPH pump that runs year around, keeping freezing depths to about 4", so I am planning on hibernating them as long as they stay very healthy throughout the summer, I was planning on a heater more for the winter months to try and keep the water at around 35 degrees or so. I will worry about what I need to do with them when winter comes when we get a little closer, I am just making sure they can withstand the cooler temps of early spring because as the day gets later and cooler, they become a lot less active and are hardly seen and I got worried after reading all these post about making sure the water is in the mid 70's.

Also for anyone else out there looking for a pond heater to heat large ponds I found some heaters that go up to 3000W, also they sell a multi heater deal that can do 6 x 4kW heaters here: http://www.azponds.com/pond_heaters.htm?source=google made by clepco They have a calculator on thier site that will tell you aprox. kW for your pond to attain a said temp.

[GunnerMan]

Well we are cleaning the bottom of our pond, I used a net methot this time around and my first scoop produced a turtle that was hiding in the mud. I put him back in and proceded cleaning. Then I saw him come up and he let me pick him up and take him out. I put him in a 10 gal bucket untill we finish. Now that got me worried, these guys must be rly scared, I have not seen the male even surface. I hope he is ok :S I have a few more scoops and then plants go back in. To let you know of the urgency to do this I took about 50 gallons of goop out of the pond. The turtles love it but it is unhealthy. I hope I see em both tomorrow in a hopefully clear pond.

[DavidY]

Wow, thats a lot of goop! Yea, that's an awful lot of disturbence for the little guys, but hopefully they'll be okay once things settle down. It's definitely for the best.

[GunnerMan]

Well, we finished just before dark, took out all plants that did not make it over winter, got almost all goop and stones out. Put plants back in in a way so the back area where they like to bask is a lot more protected, put our largest lilley in the center of the pond. I think once the dibris we stirred up is settled it will be pretty clear. At 9 Am here the sun is usually out in full force but they still are inactive. When I come home for lunch I see em basking like crazy. I can't wait till tomorrow when I can see how well they fared. I got a good look at the females shell today, it was sort of white and flaked off in some spots. We were told this is natural for it to flake off like that when they grow. I didn't think to get the camera because I was so sad for the little guys. If I can get pics I will but I will try and keep their diet high in minerals and calcium for a while to make sure there shells are doing good.

It is hard for me to know whether they are eating or not. The only time I have seen them eat is their first day when we fed the fish they came and started munchin the fish food. I have put some lettuce, earthworms, pellets in the pond. I also left lettuce, carrot, small piece of bannana, and pellets on their basking rock all day and night. I know this is not the proper way to feed them but my pond is to big to get a really regulated feeding. All the things I leave on the rock seem un-touched. I need to think of a feed containment system that will keep the food in the water, allow for turtle easy access, and keep the fish from getting to it. I will continue to leave a daily ammount of food out on the rock and putting pellets in the pond. I know box turtles but these aquatic type are a lot different and have me asking and thinking about a lot of questions :S

[DavidY]

If you can, try to find some Anacharis aquatic plants at places like Petco. Turtles love that stuff and it grows well in ponds and aquariums. How big are your turtles again? I wouldn't worry too much about not seeing them eat just yet, as long as they aren't hatchlings. Hopefully tomorrow will "shed more light" on the subject.

[SpotsMama]

So I gather you found the male in all the goop?

Its normal for them to be skittish when their living quarters are disturbed. If they have a few days of peace and quite they should start eating normally.