Hi everyone!
So I am a total goldfish/koi nut, and recently decided to start building a large pond of 1,500 gallons in my garden to house goldfish and a couple of koi. I am in Dallas, Texas. I then started wondering about adapting the pond (it is in an area that's going to be easy to enclose against escapees) to take on a few rescue turtles and give them a nice life. In my mind, it was going to be painted, or RES or others that seem to appear in rescue all the time.
However, I absolutely love Reeves and then had the opportunity to get two yearlings, which I did, and which currently live indoors in a large tank.
Then someone asked me if I would take three TINY pink belly sidenecks that their son had bought without permission, as they were going to just "put them in the river" if he couldn't get rid of them quick.
I don't know how anyone could look at those tiny faces and say such a thing, but there you go. So I now also own three pink bellies. I adore them. They are the sweetest, friendliest little characters.
Back to my question. I can't really keep any of these guys inside permanently or husband will probably divorce me! He is hard enough to persuade with my fish tanks, he is not keen at all on the turtles. Texas weather is generally pretty good, however I worry about the few weeks where it can get cold - it can get as low as 40 and last year we had a couple of days where it was bitter cold and actually had a little bit of ice.
Now, if I adapt the pond to make it more turtle friendly - shallower areas for the Reeves, deeper for the pink bellies - I am aiming for a depth of 4 ft for the koi anyway - and add lots of plant cover, and underwater hides, a couple of land hides, a waterfall for circulation, filtration and oxygenation, do you think the pink bellies would be able to cope with the colder weather in Texas? I am pretty confident the Reeves will be ok from the research I have done. The pink bellies I am not so sure about. Would they be ok as long as the water doesn't freeze? I know they don't hibernate, but will they go into "shut down" and stop eating like a lot of species?
I will probably set up something in the garage for those very cold days though, a plastic paddling pool or something with a basking light, heater etc, which husband is tolerant of, as long as it is not for long periods of time. So that's an option for the coldest times.
I can't heat the pond itself - it's going to be over 1,500 gallons and there is no way I can afford that I did wonder about adding a smaller, shallow pond for the Reeves, so waterfall flows into that first and then into the deeper one. Perhaps I could add an outdoor safe heat bulb over part of that? Or would that be madness and I will burn my house down?
I should also add that this isn't a worry for this year, it's next year's winter. The Reeves are adapted to being indoors now, and the Pink bellies are about 2 inches in size, if that, and were a bit uncared for - I really thought I was going to lose at least a couple of them at first - and it took me over a week to get them eating. They are growing like weeds now though so I think they will be big enough in a few months to start doing day visits to the pond and then hopefully move out permanently in summer.
Secondly, the pond isn't even built yet Depending on the weather it probably won't be done until December or January anyway so it will be too cold for them to adapt.
Thirdly, the goldfish and koi are in a different tank and are pretty small themselves so they will pose no threat to the turtles when they do go outside.
Any thoughts? If I can't keep the pink bellies outside for most of the year then I may have to rehome them, which would be very upsetting, but if it is best for them then I will.
So I am a total goldfish/koi nut, and recently decided to start building a large pond of 1,500 gallons in my garden to house goldfish and a couple of koi. I am in Dallas, Texas. I then started wondering about adapting the pond (it is in an area that's going to be easy to enclose against escapees) to take on a few rescue turtles and give them a nice life. In my mind, it was going to be painted, or RES or others that seem to appear in rescue all the time.
However, I absolutely love Reeves and then had the opportunity to get two yearlings, which I did, and which currently live indoors in a large tank.
Then someone asked me if I would take three TINY pink belly sidenecks that their son had bought without permission, as they were going to just "put them in the river" if he couldn't get rid of them quick.
I don't know how anyone could look at those tiny faces and say such a thing, but there you go. So I now also own three pink bellies. I adore them. They are the sweetest, friendliest little characters.
Back to my question. I can't really keep any of these guys inside permanently or husband will probably divorce me! He is hard enough to persuade with my fish tanks, he is not keen at all on the turtles. Texas weather is generally pretty good, however I worry about the few weeks where it can get cold - it can get as low as 40 and last year we had a couple of days where it was bitter cold and actually had a little bit of ice.
Now, if I adapt the pond to make it more turtle friendly - shallower areas for the Reeves, deeper for the pink bellies - I am aiming for a depth of 4 ft for the koi anyway - and add lots of plant cover, and underwater hides, a couple of land hides, a waterfall for circulation, filtration and oxygenation, do you think the pink bellies would be able to cope with the colder weather in Texas? I am pretty confident the Reeves will be ok from the research I have done. The pink bellies I am not so sure about. Would they be ok as long as the water doesn't freeze? I know they don't hibernate, but will they go into "shut down" and stop eating like a lot of species?
I will probably set up something in the garage for those very cold days though, a plastic paddling pool or something with a basking light, heater etc, which husband is tolerant of, as long as it is not for long periods of time. So that's an option for the coldest times.
I can't heat the pond itself - it's going to be over 1,500 gallons and there is no way I can afford that I did wonder about adding a smaller, shallow pond for the Reeves, so waterfall flows into that first and then into the deeper one. Perhaps I could add an outdoor safe heat bulb over part of that? Or would that be madness and I will burn my house down?
I should also add that this isn't a worry for this year, it's next year's winter. The Reeves are adapted to being indoors now, and the Pink bellies are about 2 inches in size, if that, and were a bit uncared for - I really thought I was going to lose at least a couple of them at first - and it took me over a week to get them eating. They are growing like weeds now though so I think they will be big enough in a few months to start doing day visits to the pond and then hopefully move out permanently in summer.
Secondly, the pond isn't even built yet Depending on the weather it probably won't be done until December or January anyway so it will be too cold for them to adapt.
Thirdly, the goldfish and koi are in a different tank and are pretty small themselves so they will pose no threat to the turtles when they do go outside.
Any thoughts? If I can't keep the pink bellies outside for most of the year then I may have to rehome them, which would be very upsetting, but if it is best for them then I will.