Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding How do I keep turtles & carp from eating the food?

Seems like a lot of the fish food I through out gets eaten by the turtles and grass carp.

I don't want to attract more turtles and I need the carp to eat weeds not my expensive food, lol.

Any ideas on how to control this?

Thanks!

Catch the GC on a Stubby Steves or make an imitation pellet. They learn fast.

I had a bunch of turtles eating the pellets in my pond. I have no idea where they came from, but I reduced their numbers with a .177 pellet gun. That was a few years ago and I think the rest got the hint. There are only one or two in the pond now.

Really, just how many dollars of feed do the turtles and GC eat in a year? $10 maybe. OK, how about $20? I don't sweat it because each play a role in the pond.

It doesn't cost enough to be worried about it from a money standpoint but I don't want turtles attracted to my dock since they interfere with my fishing. I have way more at my dock now than I did before I started feeding the fish.

If the carp fill up on fish food then they won't fulfill their purpose of eating weeds.

We paid to much for the carp to shoot them but maybe I could shoot a few of the chicken turtles.

Any other ideas?

Thanks guys!

Catch and remove the turtles....
Drive them to a local lake or creek and release them

If turtles interfere with fishing, I can also get narrow minded. You can remove some but they do fulfill an important need. They are the clean up crew or the buzzards of the pond.

It is my observation that young grass carp almost can't get filled up. The large ones get lazy and need to be replaced.

You can temporarily disturb GC with a BB gun. I eliminate them with a shotgun when needed.