Whoops + Fish

Baby Timmy peed on my husband last night.  (hehehehehe)


New bits to add for today's update:
High nitrate / nitrite levels in both the outdoor fish and turtle tanks. My error, working to correct. I have plants in the fish pond to help, and I have four bubblers going and a bubbling fountain. I treated it with some junk from the pet store... while I was there buying it and testing my water, one of the friendly salespeople said, "Oh hey, did you see the two huge koi someone dropped off?" They know I have the room so they let me have two seven-inch (not including tail) koi and one large goldfish. (Yes, I kept them out until I verified the nitrate issue was fixed / nearly fixed. It's a whole lot better tonight.)

And then I went to my friend's house to collect her two turtle pals and her four four-year-old goldfish.
I'm not putting the turtles into the tank until I fix the issue that I had earlier but I do have one very large female and one smallish male (both with orange stripes on their heads!) in an empty 30 gallon tank in my living room.

The fish are HUGE. I mean, I thought I had big fish. Nope, these are three times the size of mine. And they let you pick them up. WEIRD. They are named Turtle Food 1, 2, 3, & 4. I've named the new koi Lucky and Creamsicle and the large goldfish Frank.

Huge fish. I love my fish pond.

Now to fix the disaster I started in my turtle pond.

Oh, the new turtles' names are Ike and Tina. Pictures to follow as soon as I am not so tired.

Moving Things Around

The three littlest turtles outside in the turtle pond weren't basking on the new basking area shelf. I hadn't seen them for a week (since I had moved them from the fish pond), so, on Friday, I waded in and pulled them out. I dry-docked them in a container to make sure their shells were ok, which they were, and then I set about making a place for them inside the house for the time being until I could build them a separate basking area out in the other pond. 

Found out Mork is a girl and Shelly is a boy. So now it's Sheldon and Morkie. 

Yesterday was spent moving, scooping, wrangling, draining, filling, siphoning, and ... and just ... doing stuff. 

Sheldon, Morkie, and Mindy are all in the 55 gallon tank. Bit of an underpowered filter for the 50-ish gallons of water in there, but the heater is 200W, the temperature 74-78 depending on proximity to the heater, and I'll be doing water changes on the weekends and netting and cleaning daily. I may actually end up doing water changes twice a week. I don't intend on them staying there for too long, though. 

The ATBA was a success after three constructions of it. I just need to get the eggcrate ramp attached; I used Baby Timmy's old Zoo Med dock as a ramp and it's working just fine so long as they all don't try to get up it at once because then it gets knocked askew and everybody falls off. The temp is just about 90 and the lights are separate from the basking area in case something were to happen to the cord - nothing would come crashing down to set anyone on fire. 

Each shell looks good, even though Sheldon's is a little sketchy. He just needs to shed. But I knew that already. 

Baby Timmy got the 20 gallon tank, which is filled up to about 15 gallons. He's still only about two inches, so I'm not worried. This is temporary. Not as temporary as the Three Musketurtles in the 55 gallon tank, but he's got the 55 gallon tank to go back to one of these days. 

I think Baby Timmy needs a tiny ramp too. He hasn't been on his floating lily pad all day, but I saw him hanging onto it. I'll wait until tomorrow to see if he was just adjusting to the new environment. 

The harem of mollies went into the 10 gallon tank with the pretty rock filter, and it's right on our kitchen counter, so we have something to look at while doing the dishes. They have a little house / cave under the filter (I needed to raise it up so I took apart Castillo de Timmy to use for a base) and all the plastic pond plants. They've already eaten all the snail egg sacs but there are a dozen other snails to keep them company. 

The Three Musketurtles got an apology shrimp and a blueberry each along with their greens today. I've never seen turtles fight over food but they sure did today over those shrimp. I'm rethinking ever giving them shrimp again despite the entertainment factor. I gave the outside turtles (the big ones) shrimp too and I had three of the five eat it right out of my hand.  Amazing. 

Finished. For today, anyway.

All the surviving fish are in the inside wooden pond. The four small turtles in there look overwhelmed. 

I have to put the lights for the basking areas down a bit because it's not warm enough on the platforms. The little ones are basking anyway, which is cute. 

In the works is a charcoal filter system for the fish pond, but ... later. I am so very tired. This week has been exhausting and full of panic and rush. 

Pictures to show my work: 

My reed fencing came in. I think it sets off the garage corner nicely. 

You can see just a bit through it, and it gives the turtles extra security and privacy.

Here you can actually see one of the little turtles basking.

The space behind the wooden pond allows the kids and me to watch the turtles up close, and to feed them.

 I got some dandelion greens on special at the store and I propped them up like real plants on the basking area. As you can see, the small turtles have already torn at them and pulled some out.

The big turtles eat what's hanging in the water.

And my kid, doing a turtle puzzle. He loves his turtles.

Picture Update - new ponds and turtle moving

New indoor pond setup; 250 gallon wooden pond and 300 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank. 

The shelves aren't going to be there; I was laying out a way to keep the turtles inside with a shared basking setup but went with a different plan.

The turtle-catching party.

 The turtles in the wading pool containment area.

The turtle-washing crew. We had to get the hard water calcification off the shells.

Got the parts to build the basking lamp setups for each pond. Lots of GFI goodness.

And now for the turtles!
BETTY

CHEWY (who may be a Western Pond Turtle)

FRACK

FRICK

MINDY

MORK

SHELLY

TIMMY (the original)

My bite wound is healing up to look almost like a heart.

BABY TIMMY in his castle.

Got the light mountings built but I can't find any ceiling studs to screw the rope into.

Anyway, that's it. Everyone is accounted for and I am still exhausted. 

The turtle-catching crew did a fast job of finding everyone and nobody got bitten but me, despite them having found all of the turtles using their feet. 

It's here!

300 gallon Rubbermaid tank!
Just waiting on the wooden pond that I should get tomorrow. Whee!

Stock Tank

I ordered the new 300 gallon stock tank for the inside wintering of the turtles.
I hope it gets here before November.