Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Snapping Turtle

I'e had a couple of painted turtles move into my pond. Question is if a large snapping turtle moves in should i have him or her removed or would it be ok to let them stay in the pond? Turtle soup maybe?

I just found a huge snapper stuck in the fence around the pond in my neighborhood. It was valiantly trying to get to the pond from the adjacent swamp but the wire of the fence just wouldn't budge.

Jury is out on that one. Some feel they do too much damage where others feel they are OK.

Personally, I leave them be as I don't think they eat too many live, healthy fish.

Lusk says that if a fish is slow enough for a snapper to nab him, the turtle did you a favor.
-
...glad I didn't know any turtles in grade school. JHAP...do you still have that turtle costume?

Sunil, maybe your albino CC became snapper food?

Why do you think that?

I have probably 20, 30, or maybe 40 snappers in my pond with the largest ones being 18-20" in shell length.

I think i'll let them go then
Thanks

There are two types of "snapping" turtles, the "common" snapping turtle and the "alligator" snapping turtle. The alligator which is more common in the south has a specialized tongue adapted to attract potential prey that it uses as a fishing lure. When the prey comes to investigate it's wiggling tongue that resembles a worm, the turtle bites it.

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/howstuffworks/3603-the-snapping-turtle-video.htm

IIRC the way to tell the difference between the two is that the interior of the mouth on an alligator snapper is dark (except for the fishing lure on it's tongue) while a the interior of the mouth on a common is mostly a pinkish flesh color. The alligator also has more pronounced rows of spikes on it's shell compared to the common snapper. The alligator snapper is considered the more aggressive of the two.

Now if you decide to "play" with a snapper please don't try to do this:
http://www.prairiestateoutdoors.com/index.php?/pso/article/illinois_man_bit_by_snapper/

Good point, Shorty, on the Alligator brand. I didn't mention it cuz I thought it was a rare find...and....if ya did have one, due to it's rarity, you might have different thoughts as to how to handle it.

I had a gator snapper in my back yard a few days ago heading to the pond. My two cow dogs walked by it and didn't even bother to smell it. I thank they may have met old snapper in the past. It is said that they can live 400+ years.

Yeah, I have heard snappers can live to a ripe old age. No alligator snappers as far norther as I am. I have heard they are getting rather rare in much of their original range.

Sunil, I would think a brightly colored fish such as an albino CC may make an easier target for snappers. My dad's friend has a pond he solely raises catfish in. I have seen snappers take CC in there several times. But the true albino CC killer are river otters. They cleaned his albino CC out in a matter of a week. The natural colored ones faired much better...

I see what you are saying, but I wonder if the visual aspect comes into play for snappers, alligator or regular. I see them as much more opportunistic feeders eating what they are able to catch. For the regular snappers, it would be sick/weak fish, and for the gator snapper, it would be those fish who came into it's trap.

For sure though, I am no expert on CC. I've never seen a single one in my pond after a few years of light stockings.

True, alligator snappers catch most of their food with the wiggling tougue lure trick.

Both common snappers and alligator snapper are opportunists and scavengers. Alligators need less food than other pond turtles because of their sedentary ambush tactics. Softshells are probably the worst for ponds. They are more aquatic than other freshwater turtles, and are actually quick enough to run down some of their food.

Growing up - we had several ponds.
and we would sometimes catch snapping turtles.

They almost always had quite a few leaches on them.

The ponds were old & silty - that might help explain the leaches -

I don't consider snapping turtles a detriment to fish populations, I like them in the Beaver pond we have - but don't really want them in our swimming pond.



FH

CopRnose, if you get a chance check out an artilce in the Journal of Animal Behavior, 34(5), 1035-1039, titled "Oddity and Confusion Effect in Predation", (1986) Landeau & Terborgh. This studied LMB predation on groups of minnows with "odd" minnows getting dyed a different color than the rest of the group. There is a confusion effect on predation when the group of minnows gets large enough, odd minnows in the group were always the first ones to go.

Right, but a LMB is a top line predator and very mobile.

Snappers are slow thus taking away an element of selection of prey.

Very true Sunil, my comment was more in relation to CJ's comment about the river otters cleaning out the "odd" albino CC first.

Word.

Its much like rosey red FHM or gold goldfish... They are the quickest to go.

One of the interesting notes from that study were; it did not matter if the entire group of minnows had been color dyed and only one was left natural; or if the entire group was natural and there was only one dyed minnow; the "odd" one always got whacked first in both groups, aka the "oddity effect".

In addition, when there were no odd minnows LMB had trouble preying on members of the group when the group was larger than eight individuals, aka the "confusion effect" coming into play.

"In addition, when there were no odd minnows LMB had trouble preying on members of the group when the group was larger than eight individuals, aka the "confusion effect" coming into play."

Isn't that why they say that lions have trouble hunting zebras when they are in a large group?

It is amazing how nature is so similar amongst such different species, lions and zebras and bass and minnows...

If my F1s dont overcome the 'confusion factor' they are going to be invited to a fish fry. There are thousands of BG under my pier and the bass come into the shallows by 8 or 10. After 10 minutes, one darts in for a small fish and the others applaude.
I dont see near enough predation when the feeder goes off.

Re: snappers...When a kid in Mississippi, they drained a 200 ac. lake to clean it out. They had a huge turtle in a constructed wooden cage. They would put a coke bottle(glass with the origin on the bottom) on a stick. The snapper would crush the bottle. Scary for an 8 or 10 YO.

burger your f1s or probably like mine. just open their mouths and let something swim in. its easier than chasing.