Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management Turtles v's fish

Are turtles capable of harming fish populations in small bows? Seems that local folks have different schools of thought when it comes to turtles. Some think they dont affect fish populations at all and others feel they will "clean out" a pond in short order. I cant tell you the scientific name of the local (north florida) hard shelled turtles i'm refering to, so I might get a generalized responce and thats fine. Is there a turtle expert in house? I probably would not worry about the turtles except my pond is new. I only have 2500 fhm/gam minnows, 500 gb and 160 res currently with no predators. I want to build up the forage base as much as possible before adding lmb. I stocked the pond on jan the 7th and intend to wait till next spring to add lmb. I'm also looking at getting some softshell crawfish for additional forage. When I do stock lmb I only plan to stock 10 florida bass, 10 northern bass, and 10 F1 bass in my .89 ac pond. I want a bg and fhm/gam heavy pond with just a few fat and happy bass with plenty of food around for them. Bg were 1.5 inch at stocking and are now 4 inch long. My daughter caught one and I was able to put a ruler to it to verify size. I thought that was respectable growth for the short time they have been in the pond. I hand feed every other day or so.

One of the things Mr. Lusk likes to say is if a turtle catches a fish, the fish deserved it.

I added two painted turtles to our pond, and I have not seen any evidence that they are causing any issues at all. I would have to agree with the above comment on them. They don't seem to be nearly as fast as fish in the water, and if they snag a fish, it had it coming for sure.

Turtles are not the menace people make them out to be, unless of course the are gator snappers. But most likely in your neck of the woods you have painted turtles, or a variation of a pond turtle, maybe red eared sliders. I have planted many, even made a turlte island for a pond and the residents just love them. Many species barely eat fish at all and slowly change over to a complete vegetation diet. I used to watch my sliders eat up water hyacinth. I really don't think there is a vs. here. They seem to share the pond. One of these days when I have time to figure out the photo section I have a few nice ones of turtles, but I am pretty backed up at work still.

I'm sure my turtles would have liked me to learn this earlier, I guess I kinda regret the wholesale slaughter I put on em but the few that made it now get a pass haha. One thing that got old quick was the netting of the swollen and protruded carcasses days later