Turtles and Koi Fish

* Many people would like to add turtles to their water gardens; usually

slider turtles.

* I would never mix turtles with prize KOI. Turtles will eat fish, if they

can catch them. Period. That's the way of Nature.

* However, in a large enough pond, I have successfully kept goldfish and

junk koi together with a variety of turtles. There are plenty of plants and

easy food for the turtles. The smart fish survive, the stupid fish get eaten.

So, I put in a few junk koi and a few dozen goldfish. After a few months,

the situation stabilizes.

* Turtles might also walk away from an unfenced water garden.

* Personally, I think one should either build a water garden and keep just

plants and fish; or one should build the pond with turtles as the primary

inhabitants in mind, and then it will be quite a different construction.

Note a few years later: I have a large (about 2000 gallon) pond where

I keep several large koi, large goldfish, and 5 large slider turtles.

Everybody is well-fed. The turtles have left the large fish alone for

the last two years.