I have 3 turtles and just moved to FL. I figure itwould be nice to build them an outside pond. Right now they are in 3 seperate tanks since they cant get along. What are the odds of them not fighting if I built a big enough pond? How big is big enough? Would it be safer to just build each a 2-300 gallon pond for themselves?
Building outside turtle pond
- Thread starter nickolbag
- Start date
How big is your property? Personally I would simply build one large pond and call it good. I am thinking upwards of 3000 gallons.
red ear slider (Trachemys scripta elegans)
Eastern painted turtle (Chrysemys picta picta)
yellowbelly slider (Trachemys scripta scripta)
As far as property goes I do not have a whole lot to work with. Pool/patio take up most of the back yard. I can do 1500-2000 gallons. If I do one pond I want to be sure they will get along, if not I will have to do 3 seperate smaller ponds and tie them all into the same filtration.
Eastern painted turtle (Chrysemys picta picta)
yellowbelly slider (Trachemys scripta scripta)
As far as property goes I do not have a whole lot to work with. Pool/patio take up most of the back yard. I can do 1500-2000 gallons. If I do one pond I want to be sure they will get along, if not I will have to do 3 seperate smaller ponds and tie them all into the same filtration.
Those species will be fine together in a large pond. Now if you were dealing with softshells or snapping turtles, it'd be another story. Do you know the sex of your Yellow-bellied and Red Ear Sliders? Because technically they are the same species (just different subspecies) and they can breed together so you'll want to include a nesting site if any of your turtles are females. Female turtles can lay eggs even without a male around and if they aren't able to do so they can become egg bound and die.
I'm guessing that the male is harassing the female? Males are notoriously known for being horny animals. If given enough space the female can avoid the male so it will help to cut back on this behavior.
Excellent point. You have to make this pond escape proof because they WILL escape pretty much as soon as they are given the opportunity. It's extremely hard to get adult turtles to stay in a pond that doesn't have a fence around it.
i would make a 2ft tall rock wall around the pond so they cant escape and it looks nice. also, you might have to deal with pesky animals like, coyotes, heron, and racoons that try to eat them. this is going to be difficult.
