Thanks Sheila!
Cleaning out leaves Is there a better way?
Beautiful photo, shiela!!
Nope, I don't have aquascape. I made my own waterfall filter and bought another kind of skimmer box. Here's a photo of my pond at night. We just put in a deck by the stream, and I love lighting the citronella torches at night.
Yea! JoieM can see her pond bottom!!
I found my first baby fish yesterday. Here we go again with the fish breeding!!
Even at night you can see how beautiful you addition is. I have always loved to look at your pictures of your water garden areas. I remember now it is TXMel that has the same system I do. I also was envious when she got to visit with you in WA last year! I did get to tour her place though. It is very well laid out by her DH and she has wonderful plants etc too.
Thanks, Shiela. We are really enjoying the deck and I only wish it was about a foot wider. At the end of a long day I can sit on the side and put my feet in the pond. The fish become very interested in my toes.
Yes, TxMel has a beautiful pond and stream. I thoroughly enjoyed her visit last year. I wish I could see both of your ponds in person. It's so hard to get a good 'fish' photo, and yours is great! They look very happy, indeed!
Sheila, beautiful pond, now, I want to do mine over! You are just never "done", are you? I was really hoping for baby fish, any special tricks? Do you have to take them out and raise the fry in a "nursery"? I heard the bigger fish will eat them, otherwise.
Well I am probably not one to ask about the fry raising. LOL! But I have been lucky a few times. On days when I know they have been spawing, watch to see which plants they are pushing the female against. Then I will take that plant out and put it in another small water feature I have. In a few weeks I can see fry darting around at night by the light I have under the water. So it isn't your ideal situation, but that is the only way it has worked for me.
Be careful what you wish for, JoieM! I don't do anything special and I had literally hundreds of baby fish last year. I think it's because in my pond they have plenty of places to hide. It's a big pond and has a shallow area with lots of rocks and growing plants. It must be a perfect 'baby fish' nursery. I'm sure lots of them got eaten , but so many didn't that I had to find ways to give them away. This year, in order to cut down on the 'too many babies' problem, I have removed some of the male fish who were the most, shall we say, 'Active' participants. Last year I had shubunkins, comets, and shubunkin/comet mixes. I kept 2 of them that were extra cute. But recently I saw 4 fish in the pond who must have been hiding all winter. One of them is a yellowish color, the others are brown. I'm sure the three brown ones are comets. The yellowish one is probably part shubunkin. This year, in addition to removing the 3 male comets, I have also removed lots of eggs. I'm sure I'll have plenty of babies this year in spite of my best efforts!
Well, my teacher's aide has a piranha, so I know I would have no trouble getting rid of the little guys I didn't need ; ). Also there is an excellent aquarium store near my house that would buy the "feeders" from me. Sad, but true. The circle of life and all....
JoieM; I have been takeing the plants with the most eggs and puting them in an aquarium. That way we can watch them hatch and fill up the AQ-
But I have reciently added what I call my fry pan.
I took a large plastic tub, drilled holes in the sides and bottom. Around the rim of the tub, I made a flotation ring. I had some of the construction styrofoam I cut a hole in the foam just big enough for the tub to fit into. Then I put rocks and pea gravel (to hold lotus tuber) in the bottom of the tub to make it sink to just be slightly above the surface. I used this for my lotus which seems to be doing well . Then when I found a lot of eggs on the W/H roots I placed some of the WH in the tub untill the eggs hatched. Now the tub is full of babies. as well as my aquarium. The babies have the advantage that they can swim in and out of the tub. untill they will no longer fit through the holes. The lotus also benifit as the water stays pretty still and is constantly changeing as the tub moves around in the pond.
My pond is in two parts, and I am adding more to it.
the first pond is 15' X30' and 3&1/2' deep. The upper pond is a little smaller 12' X 20' and 3&1/2' deep. I use two pumps one for the water fall' and the smaller one for the skimmer and UV filter to go to the upper pond and then it flows back to the bigger pond. I am working on a stream bed and a second water fall that will flow into the upper pond.
I think the extra water flow and a bio filter system for the lotus, will help the filtration a lot.
Most of the not so colorful fish go to a friend who has bass in his pond. others I usually give away. I have sold some. I don't really try to as it is more fun giving, and making someone happy.
I hope this will help for those who can't seem to raise babies ( fish that is) LOL
Russ & Barb
Hey, randbponder, excellent instructions on the lotus tub. Still hoping for pics of your ponds. Man Oh Man, all I can manage is one 15 X 20 and one waterfall. Two, my gracious! My problem is too many comet babies and no koi babies. My own fault. I know what to do but I just don't seem to get the job done. Do your koi spawn? (Remember this year I dont have any WH or lettuce in the koi pond because of space constraints with my first attempt at a lotus). Is it plants the koi need to lay eggs?
Mary
Scared me for a minute there! LOL!!
Quoting:
added what I call my fry pan
Well the little fry don't mind a bit, but it is a little problem to lean out far enough to see them.
and yes mine are all Koi. I would guess that I rescued about 8-900, that is devided between the
( Fry pan) tub and the aquariam. That is not counting what just let nature take its course. I'm sure some of those probably made it too.
Koi will be about 6-7 inches long before you can expect them to spawn. That would be at least two years. When they do you will know it. If you have any small pots on ledges with small plants, they will probably be knocked over. The water will be somewhat frothy on top. There are usually some of the Koi eating at the plants and roots. Yes they are eating the eggs. Probably as a population control, for their little area. Not sure on that. Snapple; Instead of lettuce or W/H you can use those nice bath scrubbers, the net ones. I use some of the old ones rinsed real good of course, LOL
I really don't need more Koi but I do like to keep the best looking ones. Not that I will ever show them or anything. Who knows once in a while some one will have a special marking they just have to have.
As for pics I have the water falls tore up yet. I was even out their today in the 100 degree heat, as much as I could. I must have drank over the recomed amout of water too. Pewwwee this old man just can't take the heat very well any more. Since the water fall has been out of commission since the first of may I have green water.
But I still have this old pic, just after the second year. You can see I still had a lot of work to do.
There will be a bad odor when they are spawning also. I thought a skunk had wandered in the yard.
Sheila I think the only odor will be what they stir up from the bottom, But then I'm not really sure on that as I haven't caught that one yet. But then They usually spawn in the early hours while it is still cool.
The male or males will push the female around quite bruskly. Part of the time they are bumping her quite hard, so some times she just wants to get away no mater what is in the way. Thats why the plants get tore up knocked over and the like.
I am an early riser about 5:30 and usually feed the fish before 7am. I just know it smells the morning after I see them spawning. I looked at some pages that say the smell may be the milt from the males or stirring up of the plant materials as you said. They also said the frothy foam that collects in the skimmer may be the culprit too.
Well, then I don't think my koi have spawned yet. I'm not even sure which ones are males and which are females, but I do know that they are probably 2 years old anyway. I got them all last year, and they were about 4-5 inches when I bought them. I do notice that my gold butterfly koi is out distancing the orange and the black butterfly koi in size and girth. They were all the same size when I got them, so that one might be a female. My mulitcolored koi is longer than the butterflies.
I've had at least three different hatchings so far this year. I have see fry that are now about 2/3 inch long, some that are smaller than that, and just today, some that are so tiny it's hard to know they are actually there until you put your finger in the water and they dart away. Those have just hatched in the last couple of days because I didn't see them earlier in the week.
I have two shubunkin babies from last year that I kept because they were just so cute I couldn't give them away. They are white, with orange and black polka dots. They are now about an inch or so long and growing fast. Here's a photo of my fish from last summer. The white one is the mommy shubunkin. You can see all 4 koi if you look hard. The black one is toward the lop left, the orange one is on the bottom right, the others are more obvious. I've removed most of the comets you see. They were really intense breeders,
Beautiful photo Pixy! You can really see the nice coloring of them all in your clear water. I dont' have comets only Shubunkin and Koi. I have a dark yellow butterfly like the one in the lower left. Great shot.
Hello!! I am new here but been with GW for years. I have a 3 year old pond that is netted and will try to post if I can. i had been practicing to do it!! . it makes me tired just reading how majority clean their ponds. My pond is almost maintenence free, except clean filters and ocassional clening of skimmer. i enjoy sitting infront of the pond listening to the waterfall so cleaning it manually is too much work for me. the purpose of building the pond was for me to relax after work and so here is my netted pond!! bellie
This message was edited Jun 28, 2006 12:20 PM
I am posting a better picture, I am practicing!! Bear with me!! bellie
There is a better picture!!!! Patience Bellie!!!!
Walla here is a good picture!! Practice makes perfect!!! Bellie
This message was edited Jun 26, 2006 10:11 AM
Welcome to DG Bellie, nice looking pond and plants, garden art etc.
Just wondering, is the netting temporary, or do you leave it covered up all the time? Why if so, it doesn't appear you have any large trees over hanging it. It seems a shame to hide the beauty of it.
The net will stay as long as long as we have the pond. I lost several kois from herons and an animal also went it and made a big disarray of all the potted plants. There is a big tree( neighbors)and it is a lot of work to clean.I can see everything with the net, it beats worrying about the kois safety , it gives me peace of mine knowing my kois are safe and also kois are not cheap.Thank you for the compliment!! Bellie
We also have problems with herons here for the first time, since the lakes around the area were low this year. They got several of my neighbor's fish. We put the black poly net that has about 3/4" openings in it, across the pond for a month or two; as did our neighbor. I think they finally gave up, or either their feeding gounds have re-established now.
It is the same net we use in the fall to catch leaves from trees that are close by.