I recently fell in love with a friends (hand fed) turtles and decided to add some to my 11,000 gal. pond. There are koi and frogs there now. I rescued two RES from the local humane society. After adding them to the pond I would catch sight of them every so often for 2 or 3 days. Now it's been 3 weeks and I haven't seen them. Water too cold? 72 degrees. They didn't escape because I have a chain link fence around the pond.
Two days ago I added a painted turtle that a friend found. I'm assuming he was a pet that was turned loose because he would eat from my from my hand and he was found very close to the city with no water anywhere nearby. He swam around a bit and then he also disappeared.
I've noticed that my water hyacinths are really being chewed up at night. I don't care because there in an over abundance anyway. The koi never did this much damage, so I'm assuming it's the turtles. (Do they like them?)
Now that you know the basics, my question is, is it normal behavior and how long does it take to become acclimaed?