Good morning everyone!
Intro / History:
My name is Walid Tounieh and I'm new the MFK forums, however I've been in the aquarium / pet hobby for an excess of 14 years. I had purchased two Fly River Turtle hatchlings about 12 years ago from a LFS in Kuwait. Unfortunately one of them passed away at 7 years of age when I went on vacation for a month and left them in the care of my household staff. They had not changed the water out a single time in that month (I had instructed them to perform a 40% water change once a week). I came back from my vacation to find one of my turtle's bloated and lying motionless on the bottom of the tank. The other, surviving turtle, was covered in soars however, he was still alive. A few month's later my brother's ex visited the country after being away for college and named my FRT Freddie. Considering I never named him, I stuck with the name. For the first 4 years of Fred's life, I had kept him in an aquarium that was 120cm(l) x 60cm(w) x 60cm(d) with his sister. One night, the two FRT's had a fight, and Freddie's jaw was broken. I quarantined him in a 10 gallon Rubbermaid basin for treatment with betadine, changing 100% of the water daily; a week later he was almost fully recovered. I purchased another aquarium with the same measurements as the first and kept the turtles separated for the next 3 years.
When Fred was 8 years old, I gave him to a friend to take care of since I was about to depart to the U.S for college.
Now that I am back in Kuwait, I recently (2 weeks ago) reacquired him. He is now 27cm (shell length) long, and looks like a big and healthy beast. However, he has overgrown the old aquariums. 2 days after reacquiring Freddie, I purchased a fiberglass pond that is 250cm(l)x150cm(w)x70cm(d) and had it in the ground within the hour. The measurements of the pond are not exact considering the semi hourglass shape it is as well as the two levels of depth it has. I filled it up with water and left it filled for the next 3 days to make sure there weren't any leaks. I then proceeded to remove all the water, give the pond a good, detailed cleaning, and refilled it again with regular tap water which I then conditioned using the concentrated water conditioner from the Aqua Vitro line (originally meant for saltwater aquariums).
Over the course of the next 4 days I added two water heaters to the pond, a 500-watt heater and a 300-watt heater. The water temperature stays at a consistent 27 degree's Celsius during the morning when the ambient air temperature is at 10-15 degree's Celsius. During the night and early morning when ambient air temperature is at 3-5 degree's Celsius, the water temp only falls by 1 degree down to 26. According to the research I have done, this should be fine for my FRT considering that in their natural habitat water temperature can range between 25-32 degree's Celsius throughout the year.
Surrounding the pond are three tree's. A Neem Tree (Azadirachta indica), an Orchid Tree (Bauhinia purpurea), and some miniature Banana tree's. Leaves from the Neem and Orchid tree's are constantly falling into the pond, which I clear up daily, as well as the orchid flowers. Freddie loves eating those orchid flowers now, so I just leave them in the pond + they look beautiful floating around.
I placed Freddie in the pond after a few days since replacing the water, since I had him sitting in a temporary 20g Rubbermaid basin. He's loving the pond, swimming around actively. Also every time someone approaches the pond he eagerly swims up to them and pops his head out of the water to get a good look at what is going on.
Future Plans:
I want to eventually have a 4-5 inch sand bed on the bottom of the pond so Freddie can dig all he wants. My concern with having a sand bed though is that it will be more difficult to keep the pond clean. Does anyone have any tips for me on this?
This weekend I'll be setting up my filtration for the pond, followed by a 30% water change. The filtration is somewhat simple, a single canister filter fed by a 3600 l/h power head in the pond. The canister filter contains some mechanical filtration (cotton/sponges that will be removed and cleaned out weekly), biological filtration (bio-balls) and a UV-light to help prevent disease and green water. Also I'll be adding a little salt (meant for African lake Cichlids)
By February I'll be adding fish to the pond. I want to try to have the pond be a biotope setup. My current fish list is as follows:
10- Melanotaenia australis or Melanotaenia exquisita or Melanotaenia nigrans or Melanotaenia splen. australis or Melanotaenia splen. inornata. (Havn't decided yet)
5- Toxotes chatareus (Seven-Spot Archerfish)
If anyone has any other suggestions that fit into the biotope please let me know
I'll have some pics posted later on tonight when I have time to upload them, however this is it for now. Hope you all enjoyed hearing my build thus far
Regards,
Walid (A.K.A Tuna)
Intro / History:
My name is Walid Tounieh and I'm new the MFK forums, however I've been in the aquarium / pet hobby for an excess of 14 years. I had purchased two Fly River Turtle hatchlings about 12 years ago from a LFS in Kuwait. Unfortunately one of them passed away at 7 years of age when I went on vacation for a month and left them in the care of my household staff. They had not changed the water out a single time in that month (I had instructed them to perform a 40% water change once a week). I came back from my vacation to find one of my turtle's bloated and lying motionless on the bottom of the tank. The other, surviving turtle, was covered in soars however, he was still alive. A few month's later my brother's ex visited the country after being away for college and named my FRT Freddie. Considering I never named him, I stuck with the name. For the first 4 years of Fred's life, I had kept him in an aquarium that was 120cm(l) x 60cm(w) x 60cm(d) with his sister. One night, the two FRT's had a fight, and Freddie's jaw was broken. I quarantined him in a 10 gallon Rubbermaid basin for treatment with betadine, changing 100% of the water daily; a week later he was almost fully recovered. I purchased another aquarium with the same measurements as the first and kept the turtles separated for the next 3 years.
When Fred was 8 years old, I gave him to a friend to take care of since I was about to depart to the U.S for college.
Now that I am back in Kuwait, I recently (2 weeks ago) reacquired him. He is now 27cm (shell length) long, and looks like a big and healthy beast. However, he has overgrown the old aquariums. 2 days after reacquiring Freddie, I purchased a fiberglass pond that is 250cm(l)x150cm(w)x70cm(d) and had it in the ground within the hour. The measurements of the pond are not exact considering the semi hourglass shape it is as well as the two levels of depth it has. I filled it up with water and left it filled for the next 3 days to make sure there weren't any leaks. I then proceeded to remove all the water, give the pond a good, detailed cleaning, and refilled it again with regular tap water which I then conditioned using the concentrated water conditioner from the Aqua Vitro line (originally meant for saltwater aquariums).
Over the course of the next 4 days I added two water heaters to the pond, a 500-watt heater and a 300-watt heater. The water temperature stays at a consistent 27 degree's Celsius during the morning when the ambient air temperature is at 10-15 degree's Celsius. During the night and early morning when ambient air temperature is at 3-5 degree's Celsius, the water temp only falls by 1 degree down to 26. According to the research I have done, this should be fine for my FRT considering that in their natural habitat water temperature can range between 25-32 degree's Celsius throughout the year.
Surrounding the pond are three tree's. A Neem Tree (Azadirachta indica), an Orchid Tree (Bauhinia purpurea), and some miniature Banana tree's. Leaves from the Neem and Orchid tree's are constantly falling into the pond, which I clear up daily, as well as the orchid flowers. Freddie loves eating those orchid flowers now, so I just leave them in the pond + they look beautiful floating around.
I placed Freddie in the pond after a few days since replacing the water, since I had him sitting in a temporary 20g Rubbermaid basin. He's loving the pond, swimming around actively. Also every time someone approaches the pond he eagerly swims up to them and pops his head out of the water to get a good look at what is going on.
Future Plans:
I want to eventually have a 4-5 inch sand bed on the bottom of the pond so Freddie can dig all he wants. My concern with having a sand bed though is that it will be more difficult to keep the pond clean. Does anyone have any tips for me on this?
This weekend I'll be setting up my filtration for the pond, followed by a 30% water change. The filtration is somewhat simple, a single canister filter fed by a 3600 l/h power head in the pond. The canister filter contains some mechanical filtration (cotton/sponges that will be removed and cleaned out weekly), biological filtration (bio-balls) and a UV-light to help prevent disease and green water. Also I'll be adding a little salt (meant for African lake Cichlids)
By February I'll be adding fish to the pond. I want to try to have the pond be a biotope setup. My current fish list is as follows:
10- Melanotaenia australis or Melanotaenia exquisita or Melanotaenia nigrans or Melanotaenia splen. australis or Melanotaenia splen. inornata. (Havn't decided yet)
5- Toxotes chatareus (Seven-Spot Archerfish)
If anyone has any other suggestions that fit into the biotope please let me know
I'll have some pics posted later on tonight when I have time to upload them, however this is it for now. Hope you all enjoyed hearing my build thus far
Regards,
Walid (A.K.A Tuna)
