Painted turtles in koi pond

[Marshall]

I'm zone 5 borderline zone 4 so yes they would need the substrate! A few years ago we had weeks where the daily temp never went above 0. Sadly after awhile I got used to it! Minus 5 felt like 15 degrees!

Yes you will for sure need to get them squared away and you will want to have it ready at least 30 days before the cold hits because the turtles will need time to realize it is there and explore to find a spot they like. If you put in too late they may not be able to realize it is there so 30 days is a pretty safe window of time. Depending on the size and number of turtles as well as the space and money/time I personally always try and recommend that people who have them in an artificial outdoor pond to first try and set them up with an indoor winter habitat such as a terrarium etc. It is much easier to properly set up a tank for a couple or 3 months than it is to get a natural outdoor area done correctly. Just do whatever is convenient really but if possible I recommend wintering indoors as first choice and only if that is not possible then go with the prep of the outdoor area. I don't wanna discourage you but I am also not going to lie so it is a rather tough task to get the brumation area right in a lined pond and even in a natural pond it can be tough. If you run into any issues I will be glad to help along the way so just reply here and I will try and get to it as soon as possible.

 

[Nyboy]

How do turtles breath during brumation ?

 

[Marshall]

How do turtles breath during brumation ?

They absorb oxygen through the coelomic cavity. To put it more frankly they quite literally breath through their butts although as an amateur turtle doctor I would probably characterize it more as infusion or absorption rather than breathing per se.

 

[Marshall]

How do turtles breath during brumation ?

Also you have to take into account that when brumating they are on the knife edge of death really so they shut down their metabolic rate and all the infrastructural elements such as respiratory and circulatory slow down along with that. That is why it so important they get well fed before brumation and also why they need to be securely anchored in the substrate as they literally would not have the surplus of energy needed to even breath and eat should they be woken during cold season.

 

[herzausstahl]

Yes you will for sure need to get them squared away and you will want to have it ready at least 30 days before the cold hits because the turtles will need time to realize it is there and explore to find a spot they like. If you put in too late they may not be able to realize it is there so 30 days is a pretty safe window of time. Depending on the size and number of turtles as well as the space and money/time I personally always try and recommend that people who have them in an artificial outdoor pond to first try and set them up with an indoor winter habitat such as a terrarium etc. It is much easier to properly set up a tank for a couple or 3 months than it is to get a natural outdoor area done correctly. Just do whatever is convenient really but if possible I recommend wintering indoors as first choice and only if that is not possible then go with the prep of the outdoor area. I don't wanna discourage you but I am also not going to lie so it is a rather tough task to get the brumation area right in a lined pond and even in a natural pond it can be tough. If you run into any issues I will be glad to help along the way so just reply here and I will try and get to it as soon as possible.

Good point about overwintering indoors. Never thought of that. For me though this would be a long ways off in the future. The filtration requirements alone will most likely deter me. My only other pond ambition is a wildlife pond without a pump & I don't think that would be suitable for turtles on the scale I'd build.

 

[adavisus]

Painted turts are no problem on a fish pond, they will share feeding time with the fish and spend most of the time looking quite upset as the nimbler fish make off with the nibblies

Really rather pleasant, interesting additions to a decent size pond where there is plenty of nibblies to find