Just found some turtles in my pond!

[ben32hayt]

Hi everyone so today when I was feeding my koi I noticed three baby turtles in my pond. We had one very large yellow belly slider about 6 months ago which was on the road so we saved her before she was hit. But she disappeared one day and was never found which is odd because mostly everyone in my neighborhood knows I own some tortoises and turtles. I am almost certain they are her offspring. I decided I am going to raise them myself and set up an 150 gallon stock tank for my baby koi and turtles. Here are some pictures

 

[pugsandkids]

How fun! Will you keep them in a tank, then release them back into the pond when they are bigger?

 

[wellington]

What a nice cute surprise.

 

[Millerlite]

thats pretty cool. Man how hard were they to catch? lol how bigs your pond?

 

[ben32hayt]

My pond is 12000 gallons but they were in the bogs so all I needed was my koi net and in one swipe I caught all three. I plan on releasing them into my pond as adults but I assume I will end up getting to attached and end up raising them throughout their entire lifetimes. Does anyone know what to feed them because the don't eat pellets and will only eat water lettuce. -Ben

 

[Millerlite]

keep offering pellets, they will eventually take a nibble and get use to eating them. You can try other types of lettuce and raw shrimp, or fish

 

[ben32hayt]

Here are some pictures of their setup

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I will try some feeder goldfish I can buy the for very cheap I am hoping they won't hurt my koi which are pretty high quality but the koi are all about 4 inches so I am almost certain that the 1 inch turtles can get a hefty chunk from the fin ect.

 

[kathyth]

That is very cool!
They are so darn cute!

 

[Millerlite]

That's a sweet little setup, how's that filter work? That the pump? Sorry off track lol.

Turtles shouldn't hurt your koi, not yet anyways when they get bigger they might. Try minnows, they are less fatty then gold fish. Also cut the back fins off this can give the little ones a better chance of catching them

Kyle


Check out my site and channel:
Www.tortoise-spot.webs.com
Www.youtube.com/tortoisespot

 

[ben32hayt]

There is a bottom drain which leads into an iwaki pump which pump 19 gallons per minute then leads to the new-clear canister (20 microns) which can handle up to 900 gallons then back to the stock tank via a PVC tower. I am thinking of a adding an additional pump and heater just for the fun of it. I will go and buy some guppies later this week and see if they eat them.-Ben

 

[Anthony P]

Those aren't Yellow Bellies, they're actually Pseudemys.

Pretty little things

 

[ben32hayt]

Are you sure because I have some pictures of the adult and I could have sworn it was a yellow bellied slider. Also the bottom of the shell was pretty torn up when I her I was assuming she was crossing the road and scraping her belly for a while. Here they are:

 

[Gerards]

That's a big, beautiful pseudemys.

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Also, make sure the turtles can't come in contact with the intake, they don't like that.

 

[diamondbp]

The babies are without a doubt River Cooters cocinna....but that adult is a female Yellow Bellied slider scripta scripta. I'm pretty positive. Congrats on the find

 

[Millerlite]

and the mystery continues... lol

 

[nate.mann]

i love your tank set up, i may adopt that system for future tanks of my own.

 

[ashbelys]

The babies look a lot like my baby painted turtle. Your setup is sweet! And they are so super cute. My little guys are about quarter sized and at first, they didn't touch the pellets, but after a few days of adjusting to the new tank and such, they started eating them and now I can hardly keep up, they eat so much. I would keep trying the pellets for at least a couple more weeks. I have the zoo-med natural pellets for hatchlings, which are supposedly some of the best so maybe try those.

 

[Deb82]

Def agree with diamondbp. The babies are all Cooter and BEAUTIFUL!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using TortForum mobile app

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

You can feed tropical fish if you want
But I feed my baby turtles are insects
Beetles , mealworms , and they love
Mosquito larva and so will your Koi

 

[ben32hayt]

When I kept them outside in a koi show tank bowl there was mosquito larvae so I am assuming they got a fair share of that and I would feed them bloodworms which I never have seen them eat. I will do everything for my baby river cooters suggested I am thinking maybe they made their way into my pond for the winter.