I just put a fish pond in this summer. We built a retaining wall and put a pond in it attached to a deck.. So, our pond is actually above ground.. It is about 1.700 gallon. I was wondering what I would need to do if anything to keep turtles alive through the winter... I live in OHIO and it gets cold! They can't just wonder off. I am very new at this and need all the help I can get.. Thank you!
Tina

you need to maintain a hole in the surface to allow toxic gases to escape and prevent the pond from freezing solid. some people recommend a pot of soil in the pond to allow the turtles to burrow into a little.

Thank you I will do just that.

I wouldnt keep turtles in a pond during the winter. The most common kept turtles arent from ny because its too cold for them. What type of turtle?

there are many turtles native to NY, just because you dont see them doesnt mean they are not there. and just because you it may be the same temp doesnt mean that even if there were no turtles in NY doesnt mean they couldnt be in ohio. it is good that you asked what kind of turtle it is. and the turtles that she has may be from her area so than they could definitely be kept in pond. and actually the coldest parts of ohio are the same temp as the warmest parts on NY. other parts of ohio are even warmer(based on gardening zones). whether the outside is 35F or 5F, the water will be over 32F if you keep from freezing solid.

well i live in the hottest part of ny and it never gets that cold. I never said there werent any turtles native to ny. The most common are red eared sliders and painted turtles for aquariums. They arent from ny, im not sure if they are from ohio, but still i doubt they would survive the winter outside.

Reptileguy do you have any personal experience with this topic at all? Many of my friends have tried to keep turtles like red eared and painted in there ponds over the winter and they all died.

I was wondering about painted turtles because we have them in the wild here in Ohio. We have found them in our yard. I was wondering because this is a man made pond????

turtles in your pond will eat fish, all the plants, not to mention the waste they will produce. the best thing for them is to leave them in the wild. once they are in captivity for more than a few weeks they have to stay there because they would die if returtned to the wild. also if there is ANY way for them to get out of the pond they will and probably wont come back. tommy, painted turtles are common across most of new york and like i said, even if you are in the warmest part of NY, thats the same as the coldest part of ohio. i do have experience in this subject and most likely something went wrong when your friends hibernated turtles outdoors, whether they could have avoided it or not. the warmest zone in NY is a 6 which is
-10F to 0F, thats pretty cold, especially for a turtle. and again, if you use a floating heater it will prevent the pond from freezing solid, that means that the water will stay ay least 33F regardless of air temp, thats why it is so important to keep it liquid in there.

See these pages on my site:

Turtle ponds - http://www.fishpondinfo.com/turpond.htm
Winterizing - http://www.fishpondinfo.com/winter.htm

Painted turtles and red-eared sliders are native to parts of Ohio and New York. There's not agreement exactly on when the sliders became common in the Northern USA as they do originate from areas more South but are now found all over. Aquatic turtles can overwinter in a pond provided the pond is deep enough, doesn't freeze to the bottom, an opening is kept in the ice, the water in the bottom has oxygen (may require an air stone down there), predators aren't a problem, the turtle is healthy, etc. There's a list on my site I think.

Tina, which turtle species do you have?

Reptileguy, turtles may only eat small fish, and my friends have had ponds for a long time. How do you know it gets that cold? Only very rare does this happen and you are wrong about the temps. Also If the turtles left a pond to go to hears technically, shes not takeing it from the wild.

shes thinking about putting some in her pond,it sounds like. i looked up the temps according to the gardening zones maps, these tell the lowest temperatures, which is what you have to be prepared for. so i am not wrong about the temps. having ponds for a long time doesnt mean they couldnt have made a mistake. who says turtles only eat small fish? painteds are mainly carnivores as adults but she could feed them pellets. im not sure why you brought up what they eat.

reptileguy...I am thinking about putting a painted turtle in my pond..
We have alot of painted turtles where we live. We have fish hatchery ponds near us and rivers/streams.
My husband hunts or puts out lines to catch snapping turtles during the summer season and the painted turtles always eat the bait... and it is meat! (Which that frustrates my husband...lol
Thanks for the info everyone... anything helps a newbee!!!! like me!!

Reptileguy, Its not that cold up hear avceragly. You have NO experience with the temps up hear and Painted turtles should be okay as long as the fish are big.

i dont have experience with the temps, true. thats why i looked them up. i dont remember saying anything about them eating the fish, if i did i was assuming they were small, which is wrong just as it is wrong for you to assume they are big,

that is my post, i forgot to login, im not at home. anyways to add to it, you said its not that cold averagely, im getting my temos from a site that gives info on gardening zones. that means you have to be ready for these temps in a worse case scenario. and again, air temp can be nice and cold, the water will still be 33F as long as you dont let the pond freeze completely which you shouldnt allow to happen matter what.

They dont freeze completely. And really you cant judge a temp of a specific area unless you are THERE! Dont believe everything something says. Also you can get kicked out of sooooo many forums if you dont have personal experience, sure anyone can look up a google search but people want personal experience.

thstd true but there wasnt too many other people responding and im trying to get her some sort of help. and you dont have to be somewhere to know the temp, other people can read a thermometer and put it on a website. i used a professional gardening site to get the info, not just random people or sites.

lets just get past our bickering, at least for a moment and solve her problem, we can debate all we want but we should at least help her in the process. she wants to know if she could keep painted turtles from her yard/area in her pond over the winter. they are from the same area, so the difference is that the streams/rivers/ponds around her probably dont freeze solid, or else the turtles wouldnt be there. so as long as she keeps her pond from freezing solid which it would likely do left to itself, they should be okay. a floating heater could do this. a pot of soil for them to burrow in if they want can keep them more comfortable. the other thing is what robyn mentioned, an air pump supplying air to the bottom will ensure enough oxygen for them. doing these things, they should be fine since they are native to her area. from here we can get into the other problems of having turtles in your pond, the added waste, and feeding. painteds are pretty carnivorous so you shouldnt have to worry about your plants if you have any, but it wouldnt hurt to keep an eye on them. the waste just means more filter cleaning unless they are just too much for the filters to handle in which case you would have to upgrade or get rid of them. they would probably work as population control for your fish, if you want that, otherwise you dont want the turtles because as tommy mentioned they will eat the small fish, probably not the big ones.

tommy i was wondering exactly what your expericence with reptiles and fish is because I have read many of your posts and you are not helping anybody because your replys to peoples problems continue to be false. Please only respnd on a subject if you know what you are talking about.

Wow you didnt seem to kelp much with my koi thread. I have kept reptiles for 6 years and fish for 5-6 years. I would appreciate it if you didnt make it sound like my stupid im not stupid, i respond to thing i KNOW. And if you dont like my advice, dont take it, people are also hear to agree, disagree. people also have different experiences.