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  • Results 1 to 9 of 9

    Thread: Snapping Turtles

    1. #1
      kalipekona is offline Junior Member
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      Snapping Turtles

      This is my first time posting so please be gentle

      3 years ago I purchased a house which included a 64000 gallon mud pond. The pond houses a variety of wildlife including red earred slider turtles, frogs, stripped bass (I think) and 10 koi (all over 15"). When I bought the house, the previous owner told me that he had recently seen a snapping turtle in the pond and that I should get rid of it. Long story short, in the 3 years I have lived in my house I have trapped 2 snapping turtles found new homes for them without harming them.

      I noticed the other day that I have two more snapping turtles in my pond. I'm curious what your thoughts are about whether I should catch and relocate the snapping turtles or not. They don't seem to harming my Koi which is my main concern. In addition, as I mentioned above, I have a bunch of additional wildlife which call my pond home. If I catch the snapping turtles and remove them from my pond, I'm concerned that it will throw off the "balance of nature" in my pond and it will beging to become overpopulated with the other wildlife in the pond. Thoughts?

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    2. #2
      andrew davis's Avatar
      andrew davis is offline Senior Member
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      Snapping turtles reduce diversity, they will chow down on what they like until it is destroyed. Snakes, other smaller turtles, frogs, fish, plants

      Many a mud pond becomes a mud pond because snapping turtles have destroyed everything else, plants, critters, whole shebang :::gulp:::

      Regards, andy
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    3. #3
      CraigP's Avatar
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      This link may have some info to help you decide. http://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2723&q=469200
      Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is. And you must bend to its power or live a lie.”― Miyamoto Musashi

      "Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." ~ Jimi Hendrix

      “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”― Stephen Hawking


      Craig

    4. #4
      snooklynn0616 is offline Inactivated
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      I grew up in your area. Audubon to be exact. If you are near the area I think you may be, figuring a way to coexist with turtles may be your only option. You relocate one and two may take their place. I am not sure who is at the Audubon Sanctuary any more. I would check with them about some planting and barrier solutions. They were always helpful when I would wonder up the road to ask for help.


      Welcome to Koiphen BTW

    5. #5
      kalipekona is offline Junior Member
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      Thank you for your responses so far! I found the following quite interesting from the article CraigP submitted:

      "In Connecticut and elsewhere, snapping turtles have a reputation for decimating game fish and waterfowl populations. Scientific research, however, indicates that this is rarely the case. A 1940s study in Connecticut found that not only fish, but aquatic plants and crayfish are dominant food items. Other studies also have shown that snapping turtles eat insignificant amounts of game fish, and that mammalian nest predators and large fish kill far more waterfowl than do snapping turtles. In natural situations, snapping turtles have no significant impact on fish or waterfowl populations."

    6. #6
      cindy's Avatar
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      I watch Turtleman. The snappers will take the feet off of ducks and the teats off cows. None in my mud pond if I can catch them.

    7. #7
      lovethekoi is offline Junior Member
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      Thumbs down snapping turtles

      I have a 1/3 plus natural pond I had dug. We fenced 5 acres around it to keep the foxes and possums away from my ducks. I then ran electric fencing also along the top and bottom of the field fencing. I have approx. 200 large koi in there. (it is 15' deep). Every year I find electrocuted snapping turtles along the outside of my fence during egg laying season (snapping turtles can climb 6" fences, YouTube it!, amazing) . This year our electric fencing wasn't working and now I see snapping turtles in my pond! Two of my sweeties have been found floating with a fin ripped off, as the snapping turtles lay in the mud waiting to snatch a Koi rooting around in the mud. I bought a snapping turtle trap and baited it with every kind of yummy I could think of to no luck! Too many yummy koi around, I even baited it with one of my dead koi sweeties, still no luck. So don't let them in your Koi pond, It can prove extremely deadly for your Koi. And remember those snapping turtle will lay eggs!!

    8. #8
      BWG is offline Senior Member
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      I have seen snapping turtle meat go for over $15 a pound. When you ask what it tastes like people say like "chicken". You can buy chicken for under $1.50 a pound! What the heck?

    9. #9
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      Turtleman is a joke and has already had a lawsuit placed upon him for his treatment of the animals he handles in the show.

      Personally, If all your koi are large and your pond is as big as you say it is, the turtles and other animals will very easily co-exist. It's nature.

      I have raised up 2 snapping turtles to well over size "small" and while younger they love fish (if they can catch them), as they got older they became more scavenger than hunter. And they were in natural set ups so they grew and acted as they should have. They lived with many goldfish and never touched them. They would eat a crayfish over "fast food".

      I say leave em be. Won't hurt your fish or the wildlife.
      Carp Diem... Don't be Koi.



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