Habitat - Outdoor :: New Pond

[TexasJagsFan]

I figured I'd start a new thread about the turtle I adopted last week. This is the proper forum now.

I finished up some of the pond matience this morning so for right now it's completely finished. All I have to do after I do a full clean of my 55 tomorrow is to go out and find some rocks to put around my cascade bowl, right now I just threw up some rocks around it, so the turtle couldn't crawl underneath it. For the most part the turtle keeps traveling around the fence trying to get out, but he's not going to be able to.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, ask them.



On the bottom left, near the corner fence post, you can see the turtle on the sod.

[GunnerMan]

I wonder why he wants out so bad. Our new guys we just put in seem to have zero desire to leave their pond, and the pond itself isint even fenced, just the area the pond is in. It looks good, I read they like water lillies to eat and lilleys are great water covering plants so I picked up a more "bite" size one for our guys today as to try and distract them from our larger lilleys. A good rule for a healthy pond is to have it 70% covered by plants or shade. Keep us posted I love lookin at ponds!

[SpotsMama]

Looks nice! Your turtle will love it!

Could it be that he's trying to get to a cooler spot? I notice he's in the shade. How high does the water temp get in the direct sun? I think GunnerMan has excellent suggestions to provide some shade and hiding places for your turtle in the water.

[DavidY]

you should try planting some shrubs or something next to the pond to give it some more shade. May it's just being out in the open like that that has your turtle spooked?

[TexasJagsFan]

He has been swimming around, but he'll come up out of it and go along the fence bottom nosing it. I went out to eat and when I came back he was swimming along just fine. Now he's hanging out underneath the waterfall. Right now I wanted to get it up and going and add more as the time passes. The sun shines in the backyard from sunrise to about 3pm everyday. There is a large tree nearby and the eave of the roof extends over a little bit. The backyard is usually pretty cool in the afternoon.

Right now I don't know how high it gets, but I'll stick in a thermometer.

[GunnerMan]

My box turtles sometimes "walk the fence" when they are outside. I Think it is because they see outside the fence and want to go there. Kinda like putting you in a glass room and putting your favorite thing on the outside of it. Some rocks and bushes may help so they can't see so much of the outside area, keep em more focused where they will be living. Thats just a speculation though, he may just get used to the fact he is not getting out and be perfectly happy? It looks right now he dose not have much to hide under or by, he may just feel vulnerable.

[DavidY]

Ha ha, they always want to go where they can't. I think all of us can attest to their determination to swim through the tank glass to explore the rest of the room.

[TexasJagsFan]

How high does the water temp get in the direct sun?

The highest the surface temp got today was 78. Tomorrow I'll sink the thermometer and see what the bottom averages at. The rest of this week it's suppose to be in the mid 90's dang it. Right now I have a fleet of about 3 dozen frozen water bottles, looks like I'll be breaking them out for the pond.

[GunnerMan]

Surface temp is usually always much warmer than the bottom of the pond.

[DavidY]

If you can shade half of the pond with a screen or something that should keep it cooler.

[marisa]

It looks nice. Something for shade and some aquatic plants for cover (to help prevent algae and keep the water temp down) would be good. Perhaps if there was more cover he'd be more apt to stay in the pond.

[tnt31]

How long have you had him in the new pond? I think I have the opposite proplem. mine won't get out of the pond to do any basking. He just sits at the bottom and hids. He has been in there for a week and a half now and I'm a little worried.

[GunnerMan]

tnt we just got two res a few days ago and put them directly into our pond. They may be basking and you just don't know it. Our turtles will not be seen if they can help it if we are around. When I am hiding or watching from inside I see them climb out and bask. Try and sit far away from your pond and be very quiet and still, wait for about 20 mins or so and see if they come out. if it is not a warm day, cloudy, windy our turtles wont come out to bask.

[TexasJagsFan]

Since I put him in the enclosure on Sunday we hopped in.

But I've noticed now we do the total opposite. All he does is swim around the bottom of the pond and hide in the shaded areas all day. He does come near the surface near the waterfall and sits under that. But I have seen him trying to get out of the pond and failing. He gets his front claws on the edge but he can't pull himself out. Right now I have the pond filled about a half inch from the top and the ledges pulled and rocked right up against, so he doesn't have to pull himself up really at all, the rocks come right to the water. But the only time I've seen him out of the water is when I pull him out of the water everynight. We go to sleep on the sod and when I wake up in the morning we are already swimming around. I'm just a little concerned and probably overeacting. But does anyone have any ideas about making it where the turtle can get out and bask very easily without having to do much? I mean so it's so easy even a caveman could do it. I believe what I have is good, but I can't put real pictures on here until I get a digital camera this weekend. The cellphone pic IMO does not do it justice.

On another note, I cleaned the pond bottoms with a shop-vac, that worked really well. I added about 2 dozen feeder guppies and several anachris(sc?) plants that I weighted in pots and sunk to the bottom. The frozen water bottle fleet helped cool the pond today. The only thing I'm having a problem with is keeping the surface clean, there is a lot of skin that floats on the surface with other crap. Does anyone know of an effective way to clean the surface without having to use an aquarium net. Tomorrow I'm going to put in a small filter that I have in my 55 that sits on the side of the glass. I'm going to put that near the surface on some side and see if that helps keep the surface clean.

Oh yeah, I'll also take ideas for a name. I can't think of anything.

[DavidY]

You can try putting some rocks in the pond up against the side so the turtle can climb out more easily. You also need to have a much more powerful filter for a pond since you not only have to filter out the turtle waste, but now you're going to have debris that falls in or gets blown into the water. Plus decaying leaves, bugs, etc. The water movement will also help keep stuff from accumulating on the water's surface.