Robert & Tinfoil I think those two fish would get along great together, Robert's would forget he was a predator & fall head over heels in love! Tinfoil, swamp I went in was real, no cement bottom just muck & wasn't until I was in H.S. that I found out there were areas around town where there was quicksand, so I could have just disappeared. We were coming home from a movie when I was in Jr. high, I saw a car go off the road right before the bridge, I had said on way into town that we were going to see 3 things,fire, car accident & man drown. I was shocked at myself & said I didn't know where that came from. Forgot it until Mr. C. driving us home said, there's the fire, old shed in field was burning. Seconds later we saw a car going off next to bridge & Mr. C. yelled, ask that man in the yard for a rope, guy's going to drown, I'll bet there is quicksand down there, car was going down very fast & they threw rope out to the guy while we all held on to it(attached to front of car too,we pulled like crazy & got him out as car completely disappeared. Wow was I shook up! I'm not into knowing the future at all. Mr. C. said that was what saved the guy is knowing what was going to happen, guy was drunk but we told him what had happened. Man in yard said he didn't even see the guy go in the river as he was watering. I don't think they even tried to get the car out, By time we left you couldn't see anything was there except car tracts into river. Quick lesson on how dangerous quicksand is tho. Jan

It's hard to say exactly what the minimum amount of basking turtles need to stay healthy, but I don't think once a week would be sufficient. I would think more like 3-4 hours a day would be more like it. My turtles bask up to 8 hours a day in the summertime, but of course they don't bask at all in the wintertime when the pond is frozen over. I would suggest you try to get at least one of the ponds in the sunniest area you can find in your backyard and keep the turtles in there. Of course they is also a danger of small pre-forms getting too hot if they are in direct sunlight all day long. Turtles prefer to bask right at the waters edge, on a log or a rock, so they can easily (and quickly) slip into the water at any sign of danger. When turtles wander it is usually a symptom of stress or that they just aren't happy where they are, it would not be normal behavior for them to climb out of the water and wander any distance away from the water, with the intention of basking for a while, and wandering back.

funny- i didn't plant mine- i just found it growing! a freind had bought one one time we were at bb's and i was gonna get some from her but never did. the 2 places i have it are both fairly shady. one is quite moist, but well drained, alongside the stream where it gets splashed and the plants are growing on porous rocks with moss, the other is on not so great clayish soil, but it's close to the pond so it stays humid, but not necessarily real moist or wet. the rocks closeby are sandstone, so there's nearly always a layer of sand there, and it may stay mostly in it rather than the clay. it hasn't gone spreading all over, but has made a nice 1' patch in both places for a few years now. i'll bring you a start. thanks! tam

Hi! I'm hoping somebody else has seen these beauties... I was drinking coffee by the pond this morning, watching my fish eat breakfast, when a big purple dragonfly zoomed by. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a purple dragonfly! I took some pics and got online to try to ID it. Turns out its listed as a vulnerable species in its native Florida. So, what's it doing in Central Louisiana?!? There's more!... It flew around in circles at the perimeter of the pond, and then I saw it hitch up and mate with a yellow-brown dragonfly. I read on the internet that the female of this species is that color. I have green dragonflies, blue dragonflies, and now this purple one. I hope it stays. I'll try to link the pics I took this morning. Has anybody else outside of Florida seen this dragonfly? Here is a link that might be useful: Purple dragonfly pics