Hello, this is my first post to Dave's garden. My husband and I will be making a pond in our backyard in the next few months. We plan on having goldfish (shubunkins?). A friend of mine has 2 red ear slider turtles that are too big for her fish tank, and is looking for a new home for them (2 females). Can they peacefully coexist with the goldfish in our pond? The pond is open to our yard, but the yard has a standard closed cedar fence. I wanted to ask before I gave them a new home....
We live in south-central Texas, so I'm not too worried about temperatures.
red ear sliders?
You might have to ask the turtles if they want to live in your pond. If they don't, they will escape to parts unknown. I had a pond of sorts once upon a time.... long long ago before there was an internet, or arpanet for that matter. We got the idea to go to the river and catch turtles, 94 of them as a matter of fact. But none of them stayed very long in our pond. I think the neighborhood thought there was a plague or something.
I kinda doubt they will bother the goldfish, but have no pratcical experience in the matter. We were in south central Texas at the time of the turtle fiasco.
BTW... Gig 'em... "78(silverfluter's DH)
This message was edited Apr 26, 2005 9:59 PM
The goldfish may well run rings round the turtles most of the time, however if the turtles are a bit on the hungry side and the goldfish are a bit dozey, temptation may lead to nipped fins... Underwater, fish are definitely more agile and maneuverable than bulky turtles in their less than nimble overcoat
As turtles get larger, they tend to have a sweet tooth for waterlilies and other aquatic plants which are likely to be selectively reduced to stumps, I fondly remember watching a fine stand of thirty or so quite impressive large arrowheads being scrunched and munched to shreds by the one turtle with a 12" shell length the one morning
If the plants massively outnumber the turtles by a wide margin, a pond might cope with a turtle or two
Regards, andy