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. 

Stock Tank

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

So Anyway...

I did a lot of calculations and diagramming today. A lot. My wrist even hurts. 

I had this awesome, awesome idea for two ponds, side-by-side in an L shape, one rectangle and one square, like aquariums that fit the layout of the stuff in my garage. One 6x4x3, one 3x3x3. They would share a basking area but would still be separately enclosed. One would be 500+ gallons, one would be 200ish gallons. I even had the turtles' gallons-per-turtle needs calculated and a list of turtles that would fit into each pond. And I was on my way to building a waterproof container for my webcam. 

I did all the layout, the structural designing, the price-checking / list-making on Home Depot's website, and all the calculations for the pond liner and found someone on Craigslist that was selling the pond liner thickness I needed. 

Total price for a DIY set of tanks for all turtles in my pond, totaling about 700 gallons: A bit over $500 and a whole lot of weekend work and likely some injury.

Now, there was someone on Craigslist that I found that was selling his 4x5x2.5 300ish gallon above-ground koi pond with liner and pump and filter for $350. And I found a place online who would sell me a 300 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank for $250 with free shipping (PM me and I'll tell you where). 

Total price for a buy-it-now-no-assembly-required-don't-even-touch-a-hammer-immediate-gratification 600-ish-gallon setup: $600

... so it looks like the DIY Super Garage Aquarium of Doom Project is on hold for now, but my turtles will be safe and healthy inside for about the same amount of money. Heck, even less money when you factor in the extra cost for broken parts, redoing of things, bandaids, new tools that I would need, and a whole assortment of other things. AND there's no chance of a sudden, explosive leak / drain ruining everything on the floor in my garage, either.

Super Huge Update

Things that have happened in the last two weeks:
1. We got a new turtle. Her name is Betty and she is the biggest turtle in the pond.
2. We've decided to winter the turtles indoors (garage) and redo the pond while they're all out.
3. I took lots of pictures.

1. So about Betty... She came to us from someone on Craigslist who was moving and couldn't bring her to where she was going. She was very well cared for and the person giving her away made sure we had the right environment for her before she even told us where she lived. Betty was found crossing a road as an adult and was taken home to a pond where she's been for five or so years. She is hand-friendly and not nearly as skittish as the other turtles in the pond.





2. I cleaned out the garage and made room for both a car and a turtle habitat. We plan to get a couple of tubs or tanks for the turtles to swim in, but also to have an "outdoor" area with grass and plants and places for them to crawl around on. To have the appropriate amount of water for all the turtles, though, we're going to have to have two areas with tubs. I'm thinking the small kiddie pool for the little turtles and a larger, sturdier stock tank for the big ones. The whole area will be fenced off with two foot tall fencing; since Betty has a nine-inch shell, we have to make the fence over 18 inches, so I figure two feet is a good measurement so we won't have to re-make everything when she's full grown (12 inches). There will be heaters in the water and lights for basking, and I really hope they like it in there since they'll be there for a few months.

3. More pictures. I love watching these guys bask so happily and I can see 'em all from my bedroom window without startling them.



4. Bonus video:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/1UW9abFx5WGHvr4UjAWTTEGiZnxpabpekDmw0TBMsWs?feat=directlink

A lot this week

A lot has happened this week.

I took the pump back and got a smaller one, a filter box, and a fountain attachment for less money than I had spent on the super huge pump.

After grabbing some large branches from my mom's yard, I made a new turtle basking area. It's a shelf, braced with large landscaping bricks, with the wood on top all locked together. I hope they start using it soon because it's within the view of my bedroom window so we all can watch the turtles being awesome turtles. I also put their little houses underneath it and braced those with other bricks.

We set up the pump, the filter box, and the fountain attachment in the pond this morning. We set it to the three-tiered setting and it's making a lovely noise out there right now. Very relaxing. I'm going to check the filter tomorrow morning to see how it's doing. I wrapped the cord around the top of the filter to try and keep the lid on in case of turtle accidents and then I put the cord under the brick the box is mounted on.

And, on the inside of the house, we have new additions to Baby Timmy's tank. I was at $petstore last night and saw that some fish were on sale. Some SPOTTED fish were on sale. Dalmatian Mollies - and, of course, every fire truck has to have a Dalmatian, right? So I bought two for $1 each, a boy and a girl, because of the fire truck that the boys bought for Baby Timmy. We have enough tank room for the two of them and the itty bitty turtle, so it works out. I also bought a cave for the tank and the first thing Timmy did was swim inside and stick his head out the window. I wish I had had my camera ready for that because it was so funny. The fish are named "Spotty Fish" and "Spotty Fish."

Pictures:

 Happy basking turtle.

Dragonfly! Baby Timmy's new friends.

I found the turtle like this when I walked out. I wasn't even noticed in the first picture, and right after the second picture, there was a turtle hidden in a basket.

 BABY TIMMY














Hi there.

This is my new wooden basking area. It's all sturdy and has enough room for multiple turtles. 

 Meet Mork and Mindy, two new rescues. The husband doesn't know about these yet so hey, honey, if you read this, we have two new ones I got while you were sick.

This is a turtle in my reeds. Kind of hard to see but if you look closely, you can see a shell.
















And these are my smashed reeds.