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I got a turtle today for mother's day for my pond outside (MI). It is approx 1100 gal and there are plenty of rocks, hidey holes etc for my koi and my goldfish. I have large koi and a lot of comet goldfish and a couple fantail goldfish (most of my fish were the 10 cent feeder fish I thought were pretty and needed to be 'saved' from certain death - most are now about 6 - 8 years old!)

Anyhow, we got some pellets from the pet store (I didn't realize turtel farms were like puppy mills - I know I should read up before I buy, but now I am educated!) for him (I think it 's a him).

He sat on his log for about 5 minutes when we got him home, dipped into the water and we have seen him swimming a couple times and once he poked his little head out of the water, but we haven't seen him since!

My question is this - how long can he stay underwater? Reading some of the other posts here, I see he needs a rock (has several to choose from) with some of them partially submerged, some out of the water and a large peice of driftwood in the middle. I'd hate to think Tuttle is in danger. He is really active and nosy as heck.

The fish don't mind him and they all swam around him for about the first hour checking him out and he didn't bother them at all. He checked out the entire pond length and width a couple times, but like I said, we haven't seen him since.

Do they sleep underwater? And again, how long can he stay under? He has plenty of places he can crawl on and some as I mentioned are partially ubmerged and others are clear of the water totally. he can't get out of the pond unless he can jump...

thanks in advance for any advice.

Turtles primarily sleep underwater, especially in an outdoor pond. They come to the surface a couple of times per night for air. They can stay under for a couple of hours I would imagine.

Don't worry about not seeing them for a while. After we put our two turtles in a toy pond, we couldn't find them for a week. Expert hiders.

Turtles are also MASTER climbers. Just because it looks too high, doesn't mean he can't get to it. Once I scared my turtle so high, it jumped literally two inches, so they're not incapable.

Thanks so much for letting me know this!!!!!! We were really starting to get worried. I figured he was just acclaimating himself to his new surroundings, but thought we should at least see his head pop up once in a bit....

I am so relieved with your answer. Thanks so much for taking the time to write.

As far as jumping or climbing - the pond walls are smooth and we put all his basking areas towards the middle.

He was really active for the first hour or so we had him and then he just vanished....hopefully found a new hole. He was swimming and walking along the bottom just like he owned the place.

Now, one more dumb question - can they get stuck? My daughter is all worried he may try to fit in somewhere and then not be able to get out.

Yes. That is probably one of the biggest causes of turtle deaths (next to RI and escaping the tank). I've seen quite a few posts where the turtle got his head stuck in a decoration hole or his shell stuck in a log. They can sometimes push their way out of it, but it's rather rare.

I'm not sure how you would go about checking all of the rocks and logs in the pond; it would be a huge ordeal.

P.S. Turtles eat fish; fact of life, so you might want to count your fish.

Were about are you in MI

When we first got our res we didnt see them forever either. Remeber turtles are wild animals and are not used to humans and their experience with humans thus far has probably been horrible. When you add them to a wild feeling pond they want to do the best they can to stay there.