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Just wondering if anyone could recommend some pond plants that work better than others for outdoor ponds with turtles. We are looking for plants that the turtles are less likely to eat, but are not poisonous.

When we first got our baby turtles, we had water lettuce in with them. Not sure if they ate it or not, but the plants flourished.

Water Hycanith might work.

Maybe Duckweed.

Definitely water hyancinth, especially if there's a lot of sun. Your turtles may develop a fondness for eating the bulbous areas. They do provide good coverage and help keep the water cooler, though (and their blossoms are beautiful).

Water lettuce has always faded away in the heat and sun for me, as has duckweed (although if it has water hyacinth to partially shade it, it's likely to grow some).

You might try some of the "---wort" plants, especially cabomba (fanwort). I put a big bunch in each of the stock tanks I had outside last summer (3), and put them in the tanks when my turtles came in for good early last fall. The bunches were ripped apart in two of the tanks, but one bunch survived surprisingly well, and is waiting to go outside again. Turtles can have different tastes.

well I should have said currently I have water hyacinth, duckweed, and a very large arrowhead plant in my filter. I stir the surface of the filter from time to time so that some duckweed goes down into the turtles container. They love to eat it. Sometimes I throw a couple of hyacinth in there for them also and they eat those quickly in a few days. One time I made the mistake while cleaning of putting the arowhead in with them overnight, and the next day it was almost completely gone. I can't believe what pigs they were.

I was hoping that if I plant a whole bunch of plants around the pond, there will be some they don't eat. I was thinking of trying a lot of the horsetail and other reed type plants. something to provide some shade that they won't destroy overnight like that arrowhead.

here is my filter:

Yes, that would have helped (and saved me some typing ). Having a lot of plants would increase the chances of some surviving. Last summer one of my stock tanks had a number of water hyacinth in it, and in spite of my painteds nibbling at them, they expanded to cover the surface of the tank.

I have a post up right now, i bought something called creeping jenny, i like the way it looks, and it provides a nice color, and shade, my post is up asking other members if they know if it is harmful or not, i dont believe it is though, you could check into that.

On ilcapo21's post on "creeping jenny", I talked about our experience with duckweed on our turtle's pond, which has been very positive.