This one is a little over 20".
New Pond In Progress
M. Mary,
Look forward to seeing you any time as I am home pretty much all the time. Not driving these days.
REALLY looking forward to seeing you.
Bonnie
Bonnie, I hope you're feeling well. I'll call you before stopping by. Take care of yourself!
Bonnie
sounds like the BP is up. Please feel better soon..
Even when BP is down head still hurts. Guess its time to find a neurologist.
Mary do come by when you can. Need some info. on how to plant water lillys as I got a couple from Mittsy.
Bonnie
Bonnie, I love your little pond house filter! That is adorable and so very creative!
Take care of yourself and feel better ♥
Bonnies pond is wonderful! (Although I loved her old pond with the waterfall too!) She has such a wonderful family that gets invovled with her. My fish donations are only a small trade offering for the delicious tangerines she lets me pick!
This larger scaled fish is blue, white, and black....It's only about 6-8 inches, but will more that likely end up living at Bonnies, when she gets her blue butterfly delivery.
Mary - beautiful fish.
Bonnie - feel better soon.
Just thinking about a new fish gets me excited. Mary is so good to me. I pruned up the tangerine tree and fertilized it last week. I'm just glad to have someone enjoy them. Fruit will be up higher but I made a picking stick from bamboo with a sturdy metal hook on the end.
Looking forward to MM next visit.
Happy Labor Day to all.
Bonnie
A fruit exchange, too. I love it. I grow bananas and make delicious baked goods with them.
Took some pics this morning: Upper left corner is Blue. I'm sure they are hard to see even tho I turned all moving water off.
Bonnie
Last 2:
First pic has Blue in it. Next to last pic. has one I call Jumper to left of Goldie. It is a dark pink or almost red.
Enjoy
Beautiful Koi!
Lots of Koi=lots of poo. Be prepared to be cleaning out the little pond house frequently :)
Beautiful Bonnie.
Unfotunately Fish-Knees is totally correct with the lots of poo. The water with the fish waste makes an excellent fertilizer for the garden though.
I'm always amazed with Bonnie's water quality in her waterfall pond. It's crystal clear to the bottom. I backwash my filters out to my grapefruit tree. Why buy fish emulsion fertilizer when I get it for free? :)
Apparently she has the filtration knocked. That is such a big thing with ponds.
I always liked the free fertilizer myself.
I wash out all filtration medium about once a month. It's so much easier with the waterfall in little house being waist high plus drain Charlie put in bottom. All I do is screw a short piece of garden hose I cut onto bottom drain and run it into nearest flower bed. Great fertilizer.
Took me almost 2 hrs. to clean both ponds filters but if that's what it takes to keep them clean I'll do it. Both waterfalls have 2 pieces of filter that are cut to full size of falls and 2 bags of pieces I cut up in each one. Don't remember how I came with that idea but seems to work. I first had rocks and that was too heavy to lift up out of old pond. Had to think of something easier. Best thing I ever bought were the UV clarifiers.
Question: MerryMary, can Cuban frogs hurt koi? Found 2 in waterfall house and 1 escaped into pond, other one is roaming. Then I find one peaking out of birdhouse up high so I sprayed it. Then I find another on metal facia of house. I think its time to declare all out war. I'm hoping they can't harm the fish by their secretian or anthing else.
Bonnie
Just to bring this to the top: Anybody know if cuban frogs harm koi. I am getting over run with them. I'm using wasp spray into my bird houses cause they are taking them over. Got another in pond today and found 3 more which got away before I could get to them with hoe.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Bonnie
Bonnie
did you try to google this?
Will do.
Thanks
Just looked them up. Good Lord they can lay eggs in a tiny amount of water and of course ponds. Also went to a site that gave their sound. Now I know I am loaded with them. How discouraging.
Well tomorrow I will go on the hunt. Said they can stop up toilets and cause power outages from being on wires in large amts. Also clog up waterlines. They can be 5 different colors which makes it more difficult but their feet are definitely different. They are round on the ends and can cling to anything that the round pad touches.
I will be vigilant from here on out. Their secretion can cause allergic reactions so I'll never touch one with bare hand.
No where did it say they bothered koi but I'm wondering if koi eat their eggs would it be harmful. I think I'll call the Univ. of Fl. tomorrow and try to get more info. It was their site oI was on.
Bonnie
Bonnie
That was all I could find as well on them. The problem is if you can eradicate them for now, it doesn't mean there won't be a whole new batch of them again. I would definitely call the college, but try the Dept of Environment and Conservation too. I am wondering if there is something that eats these little buggers.
Carolyn,
Prof never said they had a predator that would eat them. They eat roaches, small snakes, bugs of all kinds and lizards and our native frogs.
Bonnie
Everything has a predator, however, that predator could eat some of the beneficial fauna and flora.
In a chat room on Garden Web one lady said she had black snake in her pond that ate them. The discussion heading was how do you fell about killing Cuban frogs. Became a very heated discussion. I think all involved were in Fl. South Fl. I read is full of iguana and some are 6 feet long. Some people like them and feed them fruits and some hate them as they eat up shrubery and other plants. In the newspaper one man finally got sick of it as they had destroyed his landscaping and he shot one he got arrested. To me thats silly as they are an exotic. When I worked for the park service we were allowed to kill armadillos because they are exotic I can't see the difference. We couldn't kill rattlesnakes cause they are natives. We had loads of people of course in the parks and to me thats dangerous.
Only way I can identify CTF is by the round pads on their feet. Our native frogs don't have them.
Their max. size is 5 inches.
The state is asking people to help eradicate them but some won't. Fl. spends millions every year trying to get rid of exotics both plant and animals but it seems to be a loosing battle.
I certainly will get rid of every one I see if possible.
Bonnie
Bonnie
I would work to eradicate them as well. We have rattlesnake drives here every so often to help get rid of the rattlesnakes - they are just too dangerous. Where I had to draw the line was when we had a heron invading our pond a couple of years ago. DH wanted to shoot him. I really didn't think that was a good idea, as they are protected - not worth the fine nor going to jail. Besides, we live between 2 rivers - there will always be more.
Good luck with the CTF's.
Carolyn,
Boy do I wish I still had the black racer snake in my garden. They run off rattlers and would eat those CTF I read.
Had blue heron right over old pond once but when I shewed him away haven't seen him since and that was over a year ago. There is usually one in our canal which is about 300 feet from the house on back side of pasture. No predetors have bothered fish yet. Hope I don't regret saying that.
BTW new med. has lowered my BP. I am so thankful.
Take care, Bonnie
Oh Bonnie
that is wonderful news about the BP meds!
Carolyn
So glad your BP meds are working.
Thanks all for your caring. Know what--ponders and gardners are a very caring bunch.
Now to go out and feed my fishies. They are eating like pigs and I guess bulking up for winter.
Take care all, Bonnie
I am glad your new B?P meds is working for you.
Belle
Hi Bonnie, Just got back from Ohio and didn't have computer access. Sorry about the delayed response!
For the most part, CTF's don't harm fish. They WILL eat the small ones (like if you are raising fry or have small goldfish, etc, when they get to their 5inch size) I usually scoop tons of tadpoles and drop them in the larger koi's pond. They suck them down like caviar! And it's much easier than waiting until they turn into frogs and then eliminate them!
MM glad your back but also glad you got to visit home.
After my discussion with Dr. Steve Johnson Prof at UF about CTF I'm on the right track. He and colleague in Australia are working on someting to eradicate CTF and cane toads. They chose the name Stop Hop and hopefully it will be available in US next year. I know from personal experience with the park service Fl. spends millions ea. year trying to eradicate exotics animals, trees and plants. Armadillos ares till around and their exotic. BTW they make good meatballs. One of my park rangers brought me some one year and before he told me what it was I said gee thats good. Have never eaten rattlesnake and thats fine with me.
Hope to see you soon.
Bonnie
HOW DO YOU END A THREAD? I THINK THIS ONE IS GETTING TOO LONG
Bonnie
New thread here
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1279869/
Still don't know how to link pictures so would you please scroll down through this thread and see the form we used for waterfall. In your case it could be sunk into ground like our first pond. We had leaks until we wraped liner around a board and screwed it right to lip of waterfall.
Take this to the top.
Bonnie
Beautiful, Bonnie! If I had that in my yard, nothing would ever get done inside!
Believe me I have to drag myself inside the house but have to clean it at lest once a week. I love my fishies.
Hope your pond is set up by now and you are pleased with it.
Bonnie