Found hatchling in my swimming pool about April 1
[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Red Ear Slider Forum ]
Posted by wcoleman on April 19, 2003 at 00:55:31:
No one talks of being visited by a baby RES! So I will. It showed up about April 1 in my swimming pool. I showed it put it next to the fish pond where we have 4 or 5 inch long gold fish. The hatchling has about a 1.5 inch carapace. It has stayed in the fish pond ever since. Reading this forum, I decided the RES needed a basking board. I didn't see the little guy today. We have lots of possums visit at night, plus large pond frogs, little tree frogs, and once a racoon. So, he is not well protected from predators by living in our back yard. But there are lots of pond plants, so hiding is easy and he dives to the bottom when scared, though he got used to just watching us watch him on the surface, especially with nose poking out from under a water lily pad. So, when the tree frogs spawn, the RES will have 100s of tadpoles available to eat. Till then, he's got lots of algae (two types) and pond plants. But will the goldfish and the RES ignore one another? He could bite a fin and cause a serious infection I suppose. There are some fish smaller roughly his length in the pond too, but I'm not attached to them yet. We think of it more as a nature preserve, not pets. We have pet cats and a dog, so the possums are challenged if the dog hears them on the fence.
We live in Friendswood, TX and RES is indigenous. Since we didn't create our fish pond with RES in mind, we could use an education from anyone with goldfish and RES in a fish pond. Will RES just eat the algae and the tree frog spawn and leave gold fish alone? Or will he chase the fish until he gets to be 3 or 4 years old?
Follow Ups:
