oO SKIPPY Oo

hmmm that could be a goer - that way i can just get some large chunks or wood.... that would be my wifes preference as well - is it easy to tell when they are looking for a place to lay ? like would they be frantic for hours on end and be really noticeable ??

thanks donna - is that the type of straw they sell at animates for use in rabbit hutches et ?

my plan is to use a fish bin or similar but i wanted to use wood around the outside so the turts can climb up it...and to hide the uglyness of the plastic....i was just going to do a bridge type things between 2 plastic planters but we dont think that idea is going to work and wouldnt be enough area for basking / egg laying. also thought about using smooth round river rocks in a volcano type shape and have the center hollow with pond line then fill that up with sand but then we dont have enough rocks for that idea and it doesnt guarantee the rocks wont move about with earthquakes etc..

like macrocarpa ?

all my ideas for my turtle basking location have come up with issues so i thought maybe i can make some sort of timber island with dirt or sand on top - so is there any timber that anyone knows of that i can fully submerge that wont leak toxic stuff into the water ? cheers Skip

chimpanzee

if they ever had babies maybe they can live with my severums etc in my 200L tank with lots of water changes

that's a good idea leaving the duckweed in the pond - where is the best place to get duckweed from was having dead leaves from the nearest tree in the bottom of the pond a good idea for the turtles hibernation ? also how many turtles do you think i could get away with in that pond ? its 2m x 3m and about 350mm deep at that level - if i bring up to the overflow its about 450mm deep i was thinking of either getting more or trying to breed some and keep some of the babies and sell the rest - but i think that may be an issue with not having an indoor tank for the babies to grow up in.

DOH - the amount of nails i stuck in that layer of wood is going to make it near on impossible to remove the wood intact would running a bead of silicon between the wood and plastic be a good idea ? or is that just a waste

sheriff

oops -didnt read all of your post hehe - do your turtles eat everything that you put in your pond or does the duckweed get out of hand ? i would hate to start feeding them that and then it go so crazy i cant see whats in the pond :lol: i have 3 goldfish in the pond now 1 small and 2 quite big - I was planning on getting a few more big ones to give the pond some color - they should be ok in there aye - i have noticed the 2 big ones swim right up to the turtles and dont seem to be too scared of them - however the little one seems to be hiding from the turts under a rock

yep - the top bit you can see is actually 2 layers of timber on top of each other with the pond liner sandwiched in between them - and the overflow is a section i cut out of the bottom plank but left the liner there so in theory it shouldnt come in contact with the pond water - i also have another pipe i can use to pump water straight out of the pond without needing to get wet

awesome fish - my wife asked me why we didnt have any bright beautiful fish like that a while ago - so i took her to animates and showed her some thinking maybe she will say yep lets get some - then she looked at the price and i dont think i need to say anything more

Cheers i think the timber is h4 treated - is that an issue being around the pond ? we are planning on painting it or staining it but i dont know which yet. as we have stained our deck but painted our fence - what a dilemma yeah thats why i was going to look at building a couple of "sand pits" and a bridge. I was planning on putting the hundreds of leaves that fall from our camellia tree into the bottom of the pond so that they can hibernate in that - do you think that will be enough ? i have bought some turtle food from animates - got some pellets, and some of that hot house turtle food, i plan on starting a worm farm to cultivate some garden worms to feed, i was going to get some oxygen weed and then feeding vege peelings, but im a little unsure of what veges they can eat... maybe someone can give me some pointers there

Thanks - its taken long enough...!!! thats good to hear - i was hoping it wasnt anything major - that area of the garden gets full sun in summer till about 3pm then its in shade for the rest of the afternoon... in winter it should get full sun till about 2pm (i think i need to cut some of my tree down else there would be more) im wondering if it is actually in the process of shedding as i found a bit of shed shell on the deck while we were watching them run loose on the deck - mind you it could have come from one of the other 2 i just dont know for sure. the basking area is going to be were that log is in the middle - i have 2 black plastic planter boxes in there at the mo but they are a bit hard to see - im guessing the turtles cant get up and onto the log at the mo but im not 100% sure on that. they look up at it but i havent seen them on it and neither has my wife who was home for 1/2 the - so im going to do something about it tomorrow after work my plan is to raise the boxes up a little, raise the water level a bit, then get some of that fake grass stuff and lay that over the top of the planters so they can climb up it hopefully, then put some sand in the middle of all that for egg laying maybe. then between the 2 planters i was planning on building a flat bridge that the turtles can use to bask on and slide off without banging into anything.

they all came down via the petbus yesteday so he looked like that as soon as i got him - but that picture was taken this arvo - he had only been out the water for about 20 mins

hmmm - i might take some closeup pics tomorrow of him when hes just come out of the water and when hes dry just to compare - thankfully he doesnt have those spots all over him....

my wife wouldnt let me get anymore fish tanks - sooooo i went out and built a pond - heres some pics of the turtles i got yesterday and 1 of thier new home (finished last night at about 9.30pm - still have to put some pebbles and plants etc around the outside but im really happy with how its turned out so far.... i still need to get the beach / basking area sorted out cause i dont think the RES are using it (hard to say since i was at work all day) so we let them run loose for about 30 mins on the deck - what a handful - it was like looking after a baby thats started pulling himself up on shevles and stopping everything from falling off the smallest one i noticed has a really white shell when its dry - is this normal ? this ones a boy and the other 2 are girls. been told that the boy and small girl are about 5 and the other girl is 7

rewind

coin

infection

if its wobbling side to side put more wood on the back it should be sturdier

i have seen the puffers washed up on the kapiti coast as well

i love those puffer fish - they are awesome

aid