How a GIANT Snapping Turtle Gets a HUGE Indoor Pond Built

Hi everyone, I'm Rusty Reed, the Turtle Man, and this is a really cool story I have for you. I have spent over half my life chasing

snapping

turtle

stories with my primary focus being alligator

snapping

turtle

s for 35 years. I've been obsessed with alligator snapping turtles by choice, but I grew up around common snapping turtles in the state I live in, so this is a story about a common snapping turtle in a very uncommon snapping turtle. About a year ago, a guy named Bill Martinson contacted me. He called me and said, My name is Bill Martinson. I have a common snapping turtle that I have had for 30 years and weighs 60 pounds that we raised as a family member and he has never bitten anyone.

I waited to meet this guy and as soon as I did a relationship was born. Now this story is about Snappy, the common and rare snapping turtle, and it's also about bringing people together to focus on a turtle and a man, uh, after I met Bill and we came. along with Greg Whitstock, the

pond

keeper, and Ed, the

pond

teacher, and I, and updated their inside exchange, follow this story as I show you the build of my life, this was a really cool event and I left wearing a beautiful inland swamp. that was a work of art, a creation for snappy.

The rare snapping turtle, which is the largest common snapping turtle I have ever seen. Holy cow, he had it, so in my conversations with Bill it became clear that it was time to upgrade Snappy's enclosure. more than enough for a smaller turtle I hadn't grown up with the turtle and the filtration system was old school, it was an old concept. A more mechanical filtration system, it had aeration and filtration, but it seemed like a perfect opportunity to incorporate biofall. aquascapes system, so we started taking measurements to see how big we could fit in this house. In the 35 years I was building the Blackwater Turtle Shelter, I was fortunate to have found a local company that manufactured the largest rotational molding. tanks in the United States and were not far from our home many years ago, the asman corporation had become interested in our Blackwater turtle shelter and had been an excellent source for supplying us with large tanks to help us build our facility and when he explained the situation from Snappy, they came on board to help with this strange thing you took, you took good measures, this is going well and with the help of Bill's son welding the angle iron frame he needed to reinforce the outside of the tank and also the help. of many strong men, the tank went straight into the house, well let's back up for a second, it's Ed, the pond professor I see there from Aquascape, how could Snappy get so lucky and how did that happen at the beginning of the year?

I met Bill Martinson. and Snappy Bill took the time to bring Snappy here to the Blackwater Turtle Refuge and he introduced himself to us and we just loved him, we loved them both and I created a YouTube video. I think it was a three-minute video and it aired. and within four minutes, Greg Whitstock called us and asked if we could get a bill and go to Pond Ammonium with us this year and to Pandemonium we went. Snappy spent the day in Pandemonium walking around Aqualand. It was a

huge

success and people loved it. he is so tame and adorable, this is the tamest and most adorable snapping turtle I have ever seen at the time, uh, Greg and I had talked about the habitat that Snappy had outgrown and of course, Turtle loving Greg gave He stepped forward and said we have to build him a pond and at that moment I knew that Snappy's life was getting ready to change, so with the tank in position and located in the basement of Bill's house, where the old one had been habitat, it was time to start gathering supplies earlier. in the year I ordered and received the pump, the biofall system with guidance from the Aquascape team on which would be suitable for this and I went to the quarry to locate sand around a tree with a stump still attached to it and the date was set for Ed and I to start on this project and I couldn't wait, thank you and I stood there looking at this big empty tank and it was great when Ed jumped in and started explaining how we were going to Take this big empty tank and turn it into a work of art. ecologically balanced art that this turtle was going to live in and once Ed finished explaining the game plan, it was time to get to work, so I went out to unload the tree and asked for help. from Bill and his son and that's when we realized that the block of sand in the back of the truck was frozen which made it quite difficult to get out of the truck, but Bill has a small bobcat and we were able to unload him with that and drive him right to the basement and dumped the sand directly into Snappy's new tank while Bill was busy unloading the sand and moving it from the truck to Snappy's tank.

I was drilling long holes through these tree trunks that Ed had brought. We use cable ties. Attach them to cement blocks and at the other end we have mounted them on the water blocks that the biofalls would sit on. This would hold the stumps in place to prevent them from floating and we have to realize that we have a big turtle there ravaging things around Foreign Falls 2500, which was the perfect size for the 1750 gallon tank on top of the Aqua blocks for lift it up and be able to fall, so that there would also be drainage higher than the water level for us to do it.

Backwashing this filter in the future, drilling those holes through the tree trunks, and using those long cable ties really worked well. I'll use that idea in the future, thanks foreigner. I think we used about 200 pounds of river rock around the outside of the biocae to cover the water blocks and to help anchor that biocae in position again for this big rampaging turtle. He is a meticulous craftsman in recreating what nature does on its own, but it is definitely an art. It's an obsession with this guy. and I really enjoyed seeing it happen, you have to remember I'm working with one of the best here in that field, the foreign rock had to be perfectly placed and thought out, looking at it, there's definitely the training these people receive at Aquascape it's unmatched as far as eyesight .

Things that most people just take for granted, they look at them and don't really see them as deeply as these guys do. Ed kept it in his mind as he stood back and looked at it, seeing it finished. I watched the progress so around 11pm the tree appeared and this doesn't even look easy in the video and it was difficult. I barely fit to scrape the roof on the way and it was a really nice touch, although I'm really glad I brought it, I'm glad that when the wind blew it away I took the time to save the roots and the stump and the tree itself, It's actually a tree I planted here at the Blackwater Turtle Shelter, 35 years ago, it was about three inches tall, foreigner, thank you, foreigner, this is an amazing home that this 30 year old turtle that Bill has been raising since which was a hatchling that now moves on to the next phase for the next 30 years, well we're almost over it, are you stuck?

There we go and there is a habitat fit for a king or a 30 year old snapping turtle that spent its entire life without ever having bitten. I really enjoyed working on this project. I enjoyed working with Ed, the pond teacher. I am so grateful to have realized how important it is to work with others, gather resources, and just go out and love what you do. Don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification Bell, follow me as I do this snapping turtle journey I've been on for the last 35 years, it's not over yet. Snappy's Pond build reveal 2 will be out when the weather

gets

warmer.

I want to show you the biological system that takes place as we grow and as time goes by we are going to need a warmer climate. Snappy is going to leave the brewery. I'm going to do some underwater filming, so that will be reveal number two of the construction of Snappy Pond. Make sure you subscribe. I spent more than half my life experiencing adventures with alligator snapping turtles. I'm Rusty Reed, Turtle Man. I love my job.