Water Gardening: How many ponders are out there ?? List your names - Update!, 1 by BogweedBuck

BogweedBuck wrote:
We only had one "love connection" in the pond this year, and it was ... uh ... interesting. I wasn't sure if I should feel sorry for her, ashamed of her, or assume the role of cheerleader for her.

Her name is Darrel. J'yup, pronounced just like the dude(s) from the Bob Newhart Show. There's a story there, actually ... we had 3 of these nasty little buggers survive an intentional "stress test" on a new pond last spring. Being the impatient fool that I can sometimes be, I decided to try and "jump-start" the pond's artificial eco-system. In retrospect, I believe "shock" may be a more appropriate term. Last year I built a simple gravity driven bio-filter and was anxious to get it up and running. So, with a fresh bacteria culture ready to be added to the water it was off to the pet store I a'went to buy a bag full of 1"+ feeder comets. After a quick swim in a salt & antibiotic solution, I turned them loose into said new pond. A dozen feeshies soon worked its way down to 5. Some became food for our ex-pet, an alligator snapping turtle named Ziggy. (he was later released back into the wild, but he was so stinkin cute as a hatchling)

ANYHOW ...

And then there were three. Of course, at that age, they were identical ... at which point the wife found herself inspired.

"Honey, look! It's Darrel ... and his brother Darrel ... and his other brother Darrel!!!!"

Since then, one of the three Darrel's fell victim to a tragic ponding accident. The other two sprang into action this spring, although one looked conspicuously ... well ... bloated. It turns out that he was a *she*!

Now in a much larger pond she attracted quite the following of would-be suitors. It was nice being able to get an idea of who the males (or possible aqua-dykes) were in the pond. The other Darrel seemed to want a piece of the action more than most anybody else. My largest Shubunkin (Mars), the pond's social director, was almost equally as assertive. Several of the koi showed more than a passing amount of interest; in fact, the Shusui koi from Japan that I've mentioned before (yeah, I'm corny ... his name is Sushi) is a prime cadidate / suspect. Just a couple of weeks ago some eeeeeety, beeeety little bronze colored fry were seen mucking about in the suspended roots of the Parrot's feather plants.

There were times where the scene would get almost pornographic, though. Imagine every virile male in the pond chasing this one poor estrous female around the pond. The wife strolled up along side me one morning and asked, "What's the all commotion about?"

"I think it's a gang bang, honey ..."

She looked over at me, gave me that empty stare and slow blink, much like one would expect to see from a confused, bleeting sheep, and she just turned and walked away. I guess her being on the phone with her sometimes prudish 70 year old father took the humor out of the whole moment for her.

Oh well ... as I started off saying, a love connection was made at the pond this year. That was the only moment of ichthyo-voyeurism (yeah, that's really a word! I "invented" it a few years back and am pushing the Webster family to have it formally recognized). Our tree frogs have been somewhat prolific. Okay, I've only seen a handfull of tadpoles, but I KNOW they've been hittin' it like bunny rabbits on X, but anyhow. Sometimes I look at all the foamy gunk in my skimmer and think about all the hot aqua-monkey lovin that goes on in and around this pond and find that my left eye just sort of starts twitching.

But anyhow ........

Pixy ... how can you NOT get attached?!?!? My sons and I were under direct orders to get all of the fish named before the 4th of July. I refuse to admit how many fish that is, but it's more than few ... LOL.