Pond Build

[NorCal tortoise guy]

Update pictures?

 

[Paschendale52]

Update pictures?

Ask and you shall receive! Almost at a year of uptime and its coming along really well. I'm super happy with it.

We'll kick things off with the full pond. The lilies are really filling in. Its late so no blooms at the moment, but the "hardy" lilies tend to bloom for a couple days at a time, once or twice a month and they stay open from ~8am to ~3pm. So I don't get to see them during the work day.




The koi have really grown a lot. We're about 2 weeks short of a year of running and many of them have doubled in size. There are even quite a few fry born in the pond that are getting upwards of a couple inches. I'm guessing I'll have to talk with my local fish shop about selling off the koi eventually.



The bog filters have really taken off since about mid June/early July. They are very full and doing a great job. My plan is this winter to build a new wooden box similar to the pond construction, and have the bog filter go from 2 ~5' diameter x 2' tall stock tanks to a ~13' x 5' x 3' box.



I overhauled the basking area since I never saw the turtles actually climbing on the flagstone. It has lots of plants on it now. I still havn't seen anyone get into the concrete tub full of dirt, but the giant mexican musk turtles like to get on the ~3" deep water near the plants and hide.



Part of the basking area rebuild was to add some logs. The turtles get out and bask on it pretty regularly. Its literally the only time I see the map turtles. I have to watch with binoculars from inside. If the back door opens they dive immediately.


I actually was able to see Granny (razorback musk turtle) and grey eyes (mississippi/Ouachita map turtle) but I couldn't get a picture due to either glare or speed.
This is one of the giant mexican musk turtles.

This makes me interested in getting an underwater camera. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Paschendale52]

I happened to be home during the day today so I grabbed some photos of the lilies in bloom. They are super pretty. Bonus photo of the mississippi/oachita map Grey Eyes.

 

[Paschendale52]

About a year in, I have yet to see any of the turtles use the concrete tub with dirt in it that I had designed. I have looked for evidence of scuffed dirt or anything that indicates they have climbed up there and also nothing.

With that in mind, I decided to renovate the basking area. I removed everything and pulled out one row of CMU blocks and then reinstalled the acrylic top and all the plants. With things a bit lower, The plants should have a bit more head space over their roots and there is plenty of room for the turtles to get up and explore among them. I also moved the big logs up on top so that they are more permanently in place and have a lot more area for the turtles to get out and bask. This incidentally makes that big cave underneath there lower and a bit more private, so hopefully the turtles and fish get a kick out of that.

I think it came out well and I'm excited to work on a new basking area with dirt/sand mixture soon to give them a place to hang out and potentially lay eggs in the future.