Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Turtles in my lake

I agree with Lusk and Davidson1. Healthy active fish are very rarely eaten by snapping turtles. Healthy fish swim fast enough to avoid capture from turtles. Turtles eat primarily sick, weak, dying and dead fish - the clean-up crew. My fish steal floating fish pellets at the noses and shouts of two resident large snapping turtles who are also eating fish pellets. The turtles do not even try to attack the pellet stealing fish. Turtles are rarely aggressive unless agitated or annoyed.

The other common unknown fact on this topic is that in aging ponds older than 6-7 years these ponds need turtles as something that eat dying and dead fish. Aging ponds that do not have a fish harvest of around 25%-30% of the panfish harvested each year, will have at least 25% of the old largest panfish die naturally each year. Fish do not live forever and have predetermined life spans. This info has been proven and published in journal articles after many lake / pond research fishery surveys. Panfish rarely live greater than 6 to sometimes 9 years. The more crowded the fishery becomes the shorter the life span is for the panfish population. Almost all or practically all the old fish do not float and are not observed when death occurs due to natural old age mortality. These dead old fish remain on the bottom. Just because you don't see old dead fish on the surface does not mean they are not dying of old age.