Today I noticed the second dead turtle in a month, something is killing and eating the red eared sliders which spend their days sunning on the pond banks. Has anyone out there built a small floating island for turtles, and if so any descriptions or photos would be appreciated.

Thanks

I have built a floating island for some domestic ducks in the pond to escape from predators. Works great for turtle shooting as well. I'm not sure that is your objective though.

I built mine using 4'x 8' with the long sides sloped so that the ducks could easily climb up. Styrophome underneath and filled with dirt that I planted wildflowers on. I didn't want it to look too out of place.

i built what i call a Turtle Lift. took 2-2"x4"s about 30" , cut 45 degree on ends , put 1/2 in ply on bottom , drill 2 1/2in holes and attach a nylon rope and attach a rock or block and about foot longer to the depth your putting it in , put pcs styrafoam to fill it , put ply on top , covered 45's with ply , used screws everywhere. it's about 2'x 2' platform when done. turtles love it. i even stained it to match the dock lol. i was going to make it as a kit for pond owners to install in there ponds. lot ponds in country. $25 or $30 for the kit. then i got hurt and now the projects on hold. the other day my son found a turtle about a quater in size , didn't know they came that small , he was real cute. lol. i'll try get someone to take a pic and post it.

I was searching the net today for a wife friendly way to remove muskrats. Having a real problem with them. Anyhow I came across this article muskrat control . Look at Figure No. 6. It looks to me like that would be a perfect floating turtle island.

I have also built a floating island out of a variety of materials. Mine is made out of foam and bio mass materials. It has grasses and plants growing on it and it is in its 3rd year and still going strong. I see ducks frogs and turtles on it regularly.

Total cost for this was about $32 for a 5'x 6' island. This type allows the plants roots to grow through the bottom of the island and the fish hide in them and it reduces the nutrient load in the pond by the plants using it as opposed to it going into algae.

If you like I can take some pics and send them to you. Let me know what you might like.

Eric, can you give any updates on how your Smallmouth & Yellow Perch are doing?

Thanks.
Sunil

YP are doing great. They spawned this spring for the first time. I am not sure if any of the fry made it but time will tell. I have seen a few of the YP from the leftovers from the heron and they are about 10 inches long.

When I pulled up the diffuser this spring in the bucket was one small SMB. He didn't grow much over the winter. ( I put them in late last summer ) I know I have a few that are about 8 inches long but many in the 5 to 7 inch range.

Thus far, I havent had any fish kill. My fatheads are holding their own against the YP and SMB. I did add 2 more pounds in of the FH right around spawning time to help build up what I lost over the winter. I now see clouds of tiny FH fry around the surface.

I have been adding crawfish this spring and have had good luck with them. (Yesterday i found a 7 inch one in the middle of the yard about 200 ft from the pond raising his claws at me. In the pond he went again)

I have tons of frogs and tadpoles and blooms going all the time. The floating Island looks naturalt his year and except for the fact that it moves around based on where the bubbles push it and the length of the cord tieing it to the diffuser you could not tell it is not a real island. The minnows and small fish love the underside of it where the roots come through. The frongs love the wet part of the top of the Island and the wood ducks and others love ladning on it and not being near shore.

All in all I am glad I took things slow and build up the eco system the way I did and the way I was told to here. It is very nice now.

All that is left this year is to enlarge it more and provide some more shallow areas for spawning for all of the fish. Wife willing of course!!

Nice update, Eric, thanks.

My Pleasure and thanks for asking!! I think the YP and SMB are a great combo!!

Eric, by the way, are you feeding pellets at all?

I havent been feeding any pellets up until recently. They have been all natural. I have been staying away from the feeding because I have a constant bloom and I didn't want too the neutrient level to get too high in the pond. Instead I have been adding the crawfish and making sure that there is a good balance in the pond.

I have added some feed recently as the feeder creek is slowing down and the bloom is not as strong. The only things that come up and feed are the fatheads. The YP and SMB find their own food. Around dusk I see the small FH minnows jumping out of the water and I see surface boils where the perch are. I have also heard some nice surface action in the morning and at night when the SMB are eating the bugs.

Its great to have something so in balance where I don't have to do anything except watch nature play out.

I know what you're saying about natural balance.

Have you fished at all yet? And if so, with what?

Eric,
Pics of the island, please....put 'em right on this thread.
thx
Bski

Sunil, Truth is I havent fished it yet. I am hugh fan of fishing and yet I am finding it hard in my heart to fish for my babies!!! :rolleyes: I am just having more fun setting up the eco system for them. I guess I have softened in my old age.

Truth is though I wanted to gie them a full season after first spawn before I did any fishing. My SMB are too small and I dont want to hurt them while they are that small and the YP I wanted to make sure they were established prior to taking them out.

As for pics. I will go out and take a few as soon as the rain stops here and post them.

Ok here are some of the pics of the floating Island:

Eric
Your floating island looks great, how did you make it? Some construction details would be appreciated. Does it stay in through the winter? How does it fare in the ice? I will be making a copy of your island this summer, I'm impressed.

Be glad to give you details of how it was made.

Materials:

1. 8 Floating noodles - ones kids use to play with ( should have holes all the way through them. Got mine at the dollar store for $1 each.

2. Heavy Duty Garden fabric. Stuff you get at Home Depot or Sams ( I got 200 ft of it for $25 at Sams club ) only used about 20 ft of it all together.

3. Found some bio mesh material at Home Depot ( sort of like a straw feel or texture material used for starting grass of plants - it was Held together via thin plastic type of mesh on both sides ) that was about $15 but only used part of it.

4. Heavy duty plastic rope - about 100 ft. $2.50 at walmart.

5. 30 lb test spider wire of other good mono fishing line, for stitching things together.


Steps:

Thread rope through noodles and tie ends so that it holds the bent shape you desire. I made a outside loop with about 5 noodles. Then threaded other noodles and made spokes in the loop to provide support for the structure above.

Took heavy duty landscape fabric and looped a portion around the outside frame of noodle structure. Used sewing machine and hand sewing to sew a pocket where the noodles ( outside structure only ) would fit into. This left the rest of the material to just sit on top of remaining spoke structure. leave enough loose material to allow about a 5 to 6 inch dip. This will be what you fill in with the bio mesh material.

Placed bio mesh/mat material into and on top of fabric sitting on top of noodle structure. Tied and sewed that to the sides of the structure and to the landscape fabric. This holds the material in place until the plants start growing.

Seed the bio mesh material with whatever you want to grow. Place specific plants in place if desired.

I then used the rope up from the diffuser system to tie to the bottom of the island structure. I gave it enough of a swing to move away from the main bubbles by about 15 ft. This allows the fish to stay under it at all times.


As for the questions, this is the second season out there and yes I did leave itin all winter. The ice formed over it and snow did as well, but it held up better than I expected. COme spring I did nothing more than add more grass seed where I wanted things to grow better.

I have sound as the FA grows around the structure I move some up to the sides and on the edges of the structure where the noodles are the high point. By doing this I am using the algea to be the bio structure that the grass grows onto and the softens the edges to the water and make it look less like a fake island and more like grass growing right down into the water.

I hope that this helps. It took me all of about 5 hours to build and put into place. It was a fun experiment and it has worked out better than I expected. If you have any questions please feel free to give me a shout!

Eric:

The thing I think that looks neatest about your island is the native vegetation - it matches right in with the shore grasses and makes the island look real.

Thanks Theo! Thats what I was going for. I just wanted the think to look as natural as possible.

Oxcellent, Eric! Very creative, very "design on a dime'ish". Thanks for sharing. I bet you have sparked alot of new "Eric's Island" projects. I know that I have printed it out and put it in the "future projects" file.

Thanks Brettski. If anyone does copy the project I hope they have as good of luck as I did. It was fun to do and has provided tons of fun seeing the ducks, turtles, frogs, ...etc using it all the time.

If I can give back just a bit of what I have gotten from here then I am a happy man. I have learned tons and my pond is what it is due to this site. I also owe tons to folks for telling me how to build the areation system for a budget price as well ( mine only has $89 into it and has been running with a problem for the past 3 yrs ) Thus time to give back a little for all I have taken.

Now to the next series of projects on the pond ( it truly is a never ending thing )

Eric,
Thanks for the details and the pictures, I'll definately be making a version of your design while it can grow this season. Thanks

My pleasure and good luck and give me a shout if you run into any questions.

Eric, you've really got the wheels turning. Could make some little ones to simulate a bunch of lilypads, one noodle bent in a circle to make a mini island. It seems like they would be easier to manage than lilies.

Thats an Interesting concept for lily pads. I didn't think of that, but it could contain things I bet. Great deviation of a concept. I love out of the box thinking.

Eric,
Went shopping today and found all of the supplies you listed, one question, the 'bio mesh' material at the local Depot is a green straw like matting, do the seeds sprout in the mesh alone without soil or peat moss or am I looking at the wrong stuff?

PaPond, I am trying to remember if the mesh was green or tan, but it was a fairly dense fiber. I laid it across the fabric many times in multiple directions to build up the structure to the height I wanted it to be. Thus I matted the structure down more. Remember as the water hits it and as it starts to decay a bit the structure will collapse in on itself a bit and it will not be as fluffy. SOrt of like an old pillow. Thus add more height and structure than you think you will need ( that is the tricky part ) because you will want some part of your structure to remain dry at all times. Other parts can have pools or puddles even in the island ( the frogs and turtles love that ) Thus long story short, I was able to just sprinkle the seeds into it. It actually helped that some of the seeds were faily far down into the structure. I did not use any peat moss or anyother soil to help start it. you could I guess but I didn't. On my second year I took some of the leaves that fell into the pond and placed themon the island and used that as starter for spots in the island that were not growing as much grass as I would have liked.

As you build this please keep me informed how its going. The hardest part I had was sewing the pocket to place the noodles through. Good luck!!