We have one of the Kim's pond kits outside in north Florida. Its 300 gallons and has been been set up since last November. We have 6 goldfish, 3 dojo loaches, (although some are currently missing, ugh) anacharis, hornwort and a floating island with a canna and another trailing plant. I got 2 Reeves hatchlings at the Repticon in March, one died within days and the other died last weekend after seemingly doing well for a month. He was coming out to bask every day, sleeping buried in the plants, swimming, etc. I made the mistake of looking in the aquarium section at Petsmart while getting cat food yesterday and fell in love with an African side neck. Apparently he'd been there for a very long time, he was actually sold to someone and returned "dead". The person brought him back wrapped in paper towels not moving, and when the employee went into the back to look at him after taking care of the return he was flopping all over the place very much alive. They named him Lazarus. He's been trained to take earthworms from your hand (the store said he ate 7 nightcrawlers yesterday) and is very curious and personable. So far he's doing well in the pond, I realize he might go after the fish but so far he's been okay.
Lazarus in Petsmart
I have a few questions, I've had lots of reptiles/tortoises but this is our first experience with turtles. Any good way to judge how much to feed him/her? He kind of seems like he'll eat as much as you give him and I don't want him to get fat. He obviously eats nightcrawlers but also Mazuri/zoo med pellets. Also, because I'm in north Florida I know he will need to come inside over the winter, or when it starts getting chilly at night. Any suggestions for setting up a nice indoor tank/tub for him? I'd like to do part land and mostly water. I want it to look nice, but my main concern is ease of cleaning and keeping him healthy.
Also - in today's mystery, we seem to be missing 2 goldfish and 1 loach. We don't do a daily headcount, so not sure when they went missing. There's no way a small turtle could completely consume 2 eight inch goldfish and one six inch loach overnight - is there? We did recently haf a raccoon come pull our suet feeder down, wonder if it helped itself to some fish as well :/