Turtles are not much of a threat to healthy fish... They plod along real gentle and slow, looking for something to peck at, usually some foliage, a bit of plant roots, a good day for a turtle is to find a freshly dead or crippled fish or frog to finish off
Many a time I would go take some spare scraps of chicken to a local pond, to see turtles amble up within minutes of getting scent of a good tidbit.
Nine times out of ten fish would dart in and take the tid bit, leaving the turtle quite pathetic, probably thinking, one day, the fish will be on the menu when the fish has reached the end of its natural life...
It takes less than 30 minutes for the sneakiest healthy snapping turtle to find any morsel like a bit of chicken in a turtle trap. You would never know he was there except for the size of the bite marks left on the plants... they do not bask...
Your average turtle has rather inadequate mobility underwater, their mouths have a fairly limited gape, so 'at best' they can only forage on stuff that cannot run or swim away... they are easily outmaneuvered by your average fish or frog
One thing that is quite smart about the turtle is, they are in the right place, at the right time, to clean up any fresh fish or frog kills, the logic of the turtle seems to be 'no hurry'
If you see aggressive turtle foraging, a turtle trap can fish several a day out of a pond, easy enough to relocate to a decent sized public lake where folk like to go see them
Regards, andy
http://community.webshots.com/user/adavisus
