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Our water garden brought delight to the people who visited it on the Water Garden Tour last summer. But what drew a lot of attention from fellow ponders was our painted turtle taking up residence in our pond. I will just refer to him as No Name; because Dan and I never really named him.
We purchased No- Name from the Ark in Ames when we built our pond in 2000. It didn't take long for No Name to make himself at home in our pond. We found out that he had quite an appetite. In one day he consumed the Arrowhead plant that I had purchased for Dan to put in the pond. We were amazed that a turtle of his size (about 6" in diameter) could eat so much. It wasn't until Dan was hand feeding a nightcrawler to his crappie (also in the pond) that we found out No Name had an appetite for nightcrawlers.
Before long No Name became a hand fed turtle. After three nightcrawlers he still begs for more. The neighborhood kids love to feed him too. When anyone stands along the edge of the pond, he paddles as fast as he can over to them. He reaches his neck out as far as it can go expecting to be fed a nightcrawler. Only last summer on the pond tour, he went as far as climbing out of the water and over the rocks on to the deck, begging for a nightcrawler. This impressed many of the ponders on the tour and the women folk thought he was adorable.
Whenever Dan gets into the pond to cut off dead leaves or clean his filters No Name follows him around, paddling frantically to keep up. No Name will crawl out on the otter fountain to soak up the sun or snack on the algae growing on the rocks of the waterfall. But as fall approaches, he leaves his home in the pond and takes up residence in a cattle tank in our bait shop, dinning on mealworms instead. He looks forward to spring when he can get back into the pond and have nightcrawlers once again.