I am turning my 12,500 swimming pool into a pond habitat. The majority of the pool is three foot deep but about a fourth of it is 6ft deep. The top step of the pool is only submerged 5 inches. I live in Jacksonville, FL where we get lots of heat but some freezing nights in the winter. The pond gets full sun from about 11am on when the shade from a neighbor's tree moves into his yard. Obviously the pool never freezes.
So far the pond will be shared with 8 gold fish, 2 Plecos, lots frogs and tons of tadpoles. I had a friend offer me 2 red ear sliders that are outgrowing the habitats she can provide. I have looked on line but I can't find any resource that says these turtles like deep water ponds; they just say "deep enough". Well how deep is "deep enough" and how deep is "too deep". I plan on floating driftwood on the pond for frogs and turtles to sun themselves on. I did find their preferred plants to eat in time to incorporate those into the plant part of this pond equation.
I was wondering if anyone had tried red ear sliders in a deep water pond and if so could you please share any lessons you learned in the process? If not, has anyone tried other turtles from the SE USA in deep water ponds and again, could you please share any lessons learned?
Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.
