I was very unhappy with the soft shell turtles in my 3 acre retention pond. Mine were so big that they would not fit in a 5 gal bucket, at about 25 lbs each. Fun to watch them sun themselves. Faster on the land & water than any other turtle I have seen. I real pain when you tried to fish. If you caught something with live bait it was probably a turtle. I can not prove it but I thought they preyed upon the nests of spawning fish. It would be fun to hatch them but I would make sure they took up residence in someone else's pond. I have moved the big ones to a different body of water. I think my pond will be better for it. I still seem to have plenty of turtles to clean up the pond but smaller & fewer. Just MHO.