Turtle Power !

18 years ago

My parents were sitting in their garden yesterday afternoon when a terrapin (yes, a terrapin !) trotted up the path and climbed into their pond. After a few minutes of chilling, it climbed back out and beat a hasty retreat to the borders. My dad said it was four to five inches across the shell and had a green and yellow striped head. I know terrapins can get quite large when fed the right food as a friend of mine used to buy them when they were the size of a 50p piece, he then fed them on mussels loaded with vitamins and they grew to about eight inches across. The lake in the local park is a favourite 'dumping' ground for unwanted terrapins. You can see them basking in the sun on the islands in the summer. Enough rambling, if my dad's new addition to the pond gets comfortable, will it harm the fish ?

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Comments (5)

Sean_McKinney
18 years ago
I thought I was on the american side of this forum when I saw the title, cant answer the question though sorry, if no else can ask on the US side.
AJC_1
18 years ago
They will attack anything that moves when they are hungry, even fish, those jaws can leave a bad wound on a human finger let alone anything else, they are after all predatory and meat eaters.
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chippewacat
18 years ago
Wow, goes to show nature finds a way! While procrastinating before having to write another report, I found the website below which may be helpful. It also includes rescue information.

Love to hear more about it if he sticks around.

Here is a link that might be useful: terrapin info
Aitch
18 years ago
Hi,

I have to agree about the 'eats anything' bit, they can get enormous and even when small will eat anything. Attacking ducks and depleting a pond full of ducklings are one of the more newsworthy antics they get up to. Don't hold out much hope for fish survival if it does get comfortable!!!

Cheers,

Aitch
fishmaduk
18 years ago
hi
all.
i have two turtles.
1 is a map turtle he is 12 inches from head to tail and the other 1 is 17 head to tail.

the larger of the 2 is a red eared it feeds on worms,maggots ,and some veg aswell as fish pellets.
they have there own pond and compound where all there needs are catered 4.

this pond has a 3 feet deep end under a leadge where they can get the best protection in the winter.
there have two beaches so they can climb out with ease.

most days they will be out barskin in the sun.

the map turtle was in my pond up to feb of the year but and it wasn,t intrested in my fish but the red eared chased the fish all over the place so beware the beaks on them r powerful.

also u must be very careful handerling them because the r carryies of salmonella.

i fish in the local area and there r many lakes and pond where they can be seen,where they get to big for there owners but this act of putting turtles in our waters is illegal.

if the pond is deep they will survive but the bigger they get the more damage they can cause to the fish stocks.

most don,t survive due to them being cold blooded but due to the mild winters we have now more+more live to grow good sizes.

-----------David---------fishmaduk-------------------

Turtle Power !

Comments (5)

Sean_McKinney

AJC_1

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