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.

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