Turtles Pond and Why It Matters

It is that time of year again. It's spring cleaning time. Don't you love spring cleaning? I love spring cleaning. Uh-oh. We got to get to work here. We got things overflowing. We got to clean the Aquascape Ecosystem ponds. And uh while we're at it, we're going to look for some little surprises. I'm sure we'll find some things in here as the day progresses. Thank you to all our loyal Patreon members out there who have helped to create an amazing reptile community online with us.

This week's shout-out goes to Ed. All right, so we pretty much have it all clean. Uh there's still a lot to do. I've got to put the filter pads back in the bio falls. We got to get the pumps reattached. I'm just sucking up the last of the uh detritus and mud and kind of muck that collects here in the very bottom of the pond. So, we'll let that filter out for a little bit, but we can talk about Fred here. Uh remember Fred was bitten up. Here's nice white scar tissue that's healing up his shell. So, he's looking much better and he's doing very well in this habitat, which is fantastic.

Uh he of course is a fly river turtle and they like an alkaline habitat, which is what this is with all this limestone rock that I've got. It actually creates a more alkaline environment, which is good for the shell and skin of these turtles. So, the pig nose or fly river uh really do well in that. And then of course over here is one of our uh Asian box turtles or Malaysian box turtle, I should say. Asian box turtle, it's all the same. But, here's a turtle that I'm pretty psyched on that I want to show you guys. We have a couple of them. And that is the brand of horse turtle. It's an else turtle. And these guys are from New Guinea.

Uh really pretty turtle. Really nice kind of cream colors on the bottom there and kind of brown on the top. Side neck turtle, uh very active swimmer. Uh very streamlined. They are a carnivore. Uh really awesome species. Though, you don't see them often. They get fairly big, you know, for they're a medium-size aquatic. Where you going, Fred? Taking a walk? They're actually better at getting around on land than you would think. There he goes. So, Fred's doing his thing, but the else are looking really good.

Uh what's great about doing these kind of clean outs is not only are you maintaining the health of the entire environment, you also have a chance to look at the turtles, make sure they're doing well, make sure that their skin's good, they have good weight. Uh very, very important activity here. So, we have four of these. I'm going to put him up here. The rest are over there. So, they're looking good. We've of course got our pink-bellied side-neck turtles uh over here. We have some of our hamiltonii. There's another banded horse turtle, but how about a Japanese Reeves hiding out right here? Really cute little dark turtle here. Little black guy hanging out, male it looks like.

Really, really cute little species, hardy, friendly, and uh very, very active to say the least. They can take cooler temperatures, which is nice. So, we'll just let him go back there. And again, I'm just rinsing everything out. We've got these awesome fern roots growing down into our habitat, which are pulling out any nitrogenous waste. I like to trim them sometimes if they're close to a waterfall or to a filtration device. You don't want their roots to get into any of the flow areas or into the pumps. Really cool turtle though, huh? How about that Geoclemys hamiltonii uh hamiltonii uh Indian or Pakistani spotted turtle.

Uh I also like getting all up in here because you want to just check out every nook and cranny and make sure there's no baby turtles living in it. You can see the roots have just really infiltrated all these rocks, which is good um as long as it's not near a pump. I think that's good. The ecosystem pond uh that Ed the Pond Professor and Greg the Pond Guy and Brian have come up with at Aquascape just fantastic uh living ornament for your home. Uh I love it. This was my first one, and it is looking good. So, you got to do maintenance, you know? Things don't exist in a vacuum. Dust blows in, environmental factors, things of that nature. So, you want to make sure that

you're keeping up on it. I'm trimming back plants, just keeping the environment alive and well. So, doing that, it kind of becomes fun uh and it's a really nice little break. I mean, it's hard work, but uh, who's afraid of hard work? Not this guy. All right, let me get back to it and uh, we'll get this thing filled up. Well, we're filling up Sophia's pond. We got both ponds cleaned out. Hopefully, we can just get them filled up, get them cycled, we'll get some of the circulation going, we'll make sure they clear up, and we'll check back in a little while and hang out with the critters.

Well, it is day two. Let's go see how those ponds are looking right now. Sophia's running around feeding everybody and I really appreciate her help. She also loves to drive around the Kubota X1130, so that's good too. But let's see what's happening. All right, there we go. Getting clearer. And I'm liking that. These guys are pretty happy right now. We got the Indian spotted. We've got some cooters in here, peninsular cooter and red-bellied cooters. We've also got I thought I saw a pink-bellied side-neck floating around there. Let's go check the other pond. I love the stream. All right, man. Yes. Oh yeah, this is looking good, huh?

Nice and clear. Beautiful work. Nice. Look at size of that Indian spotted turtle. That's a very happy guy. And here comes Fred. Hey Fred, you glad there's water back in there or what, dude? There he is. Fred is on the prowl for some food. Very, very cool, man. Um like I said, it's important to do this kind of work when you have an ecosystem pond. You want to make sure that you keep up with it, maintain it, make sure that the environment itself is healthy. And so down here in Florida, I do this twice to three times a year so that um you know, because of the amount it gets used, the load of animals we have, it's important um to do this. So you can actually really get an understanding of the health of the

environment that your animals are living in. So that's good news. I love it. It's looking dynamite. And uh we trimmed up the plants. We've got the bio falls looking good. We got some baby banana plants growing. That's always fun. I love that. And I like coming in here because you never know. You might find a baby, you might find some eggs. So as I said has been feeding everyone. They're getting their tortoise buffet blend. That's good. That's good news. Uh I like when I can run errands and my little stepdaughter just Well, she's not little anymore. She's 14. She's big kid now. Teenager.

Uh I just love that she has an interest in it. Plus I kind of grease her palms at the end of every week. So that's good, too. Um All right. Well, here we are. Look at all these little snails. That is so cool. Plus we've got a lot of these little uh in Sophia's pond. We've got a lot of these freshwater shrimp or water fleas they look like. So that's good food, too, for the turtles. Um especially some of the um species that I recently got that I can't tell you I got. Got to wait. They're rescued animals from US Fish and Wildlife. So their chain of custody, I'm not really allowed to show So just know we've got some really cool

turtles that needed help. And uh yeah, I helped them. Why not? Woo! Okay. Well, it is warm. Let's go over here, though. Let's go check on Frida and her kids on this lovely afternoon since this is all about ponds. Let's see a larger ecosystem and just see how she's doing in it with the two Fly Rivers and Diego. We got a really cool habitat that I'm going to want to put some maybe semi-aquatic turtle species in. Look at here, she is. There she is. Up, so far they fed them. So they're up and at them. Hi, sweetheart. That's my little baby. You're my little baby.

There's Frida. Close-up of Frida, everybody. You really see that Batagur nose. Really cool nose on the Batagur. Uh and of course the Fly Rivers have the all-time greatest turtle nose there is. Uh, oh guys, check this out. Now, I want to make a mention. I forgot the nice woman who sent me these, but we have some Louisiana iris. And um, check these out. Look at how beautiful these are. They really are blooming. Some Louisiana iris. This one's doing extremely well. Um, I noticed the flowers starting. We've got more there. We've got another one here. So, hopefully in a few months they'll also do this, but I was so thrilled to see the color.

Uh, and this is also part of what makes keeping these animals cool and these ecosystems is you got the plant life. I love seeing the plants. I've been getting more and more into plants. In fact, our friend Tom Holt is going to be coming over soon with some more plants to do some uh, planting with me. So, that'll be awesome as well. So, I'm pretty stoked. And uh, it's a good time here. There goes the little basilisk running around there. And there you have it, friends. I don't know. Pretty good stuff. Oh, since we're here, why don't we just roll on over to the back pond and see how Bobby's doing. I know you guys love updates. Um, the good old What's his name again?

Phantom. Phantom's doing awesome, by the way. I know you guys have been worried about him, but he's good. And uh, look at everyone's gotten fed. There are the cherry heads. There's Darth Maul. Hi, Darth. Darth Maul waiting for Anakin have a duel. Or is that Obi-Wan, actually? Or Qui-Gon. I'm a nerd. I'm okay with that. All righty. This is it. Look at all the kids are out. They're doing their thing. This ecosystem pond is just amazing.

Looking really, really good. I love it. All right. Well, think this is it, people. Just wanted to show off what it takes to keep your ecosystems healthy. Are you trying to I don't want you to get too close, young friend. So, what I'll do is I'm going to help you. I'm going to go ahead and pull this out and then see if she'll be interested. Here, let me just help you steer you away from catastrophe, okay, young one? Uh The tortoises get a little bit daring and they'll go out on the rocks. We don't want that to happen. We just want them to take what's right in front of their faces. And the curly tail will also take whatever it wants to.

All righty, friends. There you have it. That's a video for you showing you what I've been up to. And uh here comes some more red-foot tortoises to nibble on my weeds. And some more, of course, curly tails. There's one trying to get in the AC. Okay, I like it. Okay, good stuff. Well, there you have it, everyone. Don't forget to go to patreon.com/campjordan for more behind-the-scenes footage of the camp and live chats with me every Friday for campers. I'll see you later.