Raccoon's love chocolate almost as much as me - go and throw some around your neighbors yards and front lawns for a few days/nights and that should keep them away from your pond. You don't even have to take the wrapper off . . . The other day my son didn't eat all of his co-co crispies (he eats them without milk) for breakie so I put them outside for any animal who wanted it. I also threw done a little flour so that my kids would see the footprints of the animals who ate them. Well, there were a few birds during the day and a raccoon at night. The bowl was clean! I learned with Halloween candy that the critters love to eat anything dropped by accident and after a few days the raccoons get real bold and come right up to the front glass door.
1 fish just died-why?
Chocolate huh? Well, I'll be darned. That's neat about the flour and the footprints for your children. Consider this as a wonderful home experiment and science learning project:
http://www.surehatch.com/gqf-hova-bator-egg-incubator.htm
I got fertile goose eggs from a local farmer and we hatched them on the kitchen counter right at home. It was a blast. Lots of basic science principles involved - temperature, humidity, candling the eggs for development. The stages of embrionic develpoment. I got the cheapest model they had at that time and we turned the eggs ourselves. The elementary science school teacher heard about it and we repeated the experiment with chicken eggs at the school. I went in every day and did the monitoring and turning and she worked it into the daily lesson plan. The only hitch was I had to take the incubator home for the weekends.
I made one teeny tiny mistake in the project - timing. The goose eggs were fall gathered and the eggs hatched right after Thanksgiving. Well, you can't put goslings outside in the cold. So, you end up with a garage covered with newspapers and goose poop until spring. Plus we had a kids wading pool and a little ramp until they were big enough to climb in and out themselves. They poop constantly. It smells. They splash water all over. You have to change it frequently. When they feather out they start to leave feathers all over. The kids got attached to them. I was constantly begging all my neighbors to save their newpapers for me. Then we had to find homes for them in the spring. The same farmer who gave me the eggs took all but two. We kept two unitl the neighbors complained to zoning ( it wasn't legal) and I had to find a farm for them.
We had built a duck house in the backyard and I collected fresh duck egges nearly every morning for breakfast. They eat anything green. Anything at all. So, there was no grass to mow and the garden had to be fenced off. It was about 2-1/2 years before the neighbors had had enough of the feathers flying around and finally complained. It was real tough taking them out to the farm. There was pond and we took them to it, but they followed me right back to the car every time I tried to leave. Finally the farmer locked them in the barn so I could go. Sniff!
Anyway, if you use bantam eggs they hatch real fast. You can get a real good hatch. Just plan for them after they hatch!
I think I will take a pass. Birds and me don't do well together-something about the feathers makes it so hard for me to breath (more than likely an allergy that I don't know about from a professional stand point). My friend and neighbor raised some ducks and geese due to their mothers being run over by cars (we live on a naturally occurring lake). She also kept them in the garage and it smelled bad! She also had a wading pool or two for them to splash around in. They didn't want to leave her home either. She had to keep walking them back down to the lake and stand there for longer and longer periods of time until they would just come and go to her home. After a few years they stopped visiting her home altogether.
Funny thing was that her kids could have cared less about the birds (and that was the reason she did it with them). They are all excited for about a minute and then that passes. That would annoy me to no end if my kids did that. Especially with all the work time and effort involved in caring for them.
My MIL used to feed the raccoons at their cabin up in Canada. The raccoons got to the point where they tore down the screens on the screened in porch to get into the cabin in search for food. They were quite distructive and my FIL was quite vocal in his displeasure. The best thing is that I would have fed them too.
Have not had the best of luck with birds other than to feed the ducks and geese as they would swim by when we were at the 1000 Islands. They would always bring their babies by in the spring. They were so cute! Never had to hatch any though - by the sounds of it, that is a good thing.
Sorry I just stumbled on this thread so I'm late to the party. MM, I'm so sorry about your fish : (
I'm going through ammonia spikes again with my new fish. Nothing like what I dealt with before because I'm on top of it (twice daily testing). My "big" spike was almost 2 on Sunday and I've kept it below 1 since then with water changes. I think my biological filtration is trying to catch up with the four big fish, it was used to just tiny Poppy the koi before. Hubby also pointed out that I overfeed. I started looking at DIY filters. I'm getting so antsy....who was it that bet I'll put a pond in this year, LOL?
My new job is keeping me super busy, but I stayed home today because I have a terrible cold. The department secretary is 8 1/2 months pregnant and I do NOT want to give her a cold just before she is going to have a baby. So, even though it is only my second week of work, I stayed home and hope I didn't give her my cold yesterday. Ugh, I HATE being sick. It is giving me lots of time to look at koi stuff, though! I'll start a new thread with the cool do-it-yourself links I found.
Elizabeth
You just started this job and you were off sick? Bold move. I worked in a hospital and no one cared about illness just as long as you were there. . .
I didn't take the bets on the pond. I didn't think the odds were in my favor . . . it's so addicting isn't it?
IC: I bought the Fishmate bio filter that Snapple has (and the pump) and it works great and I wish I had done this on my quaranteen tank. It works better and is way cheaper that the Fluval FX I bought (gallons to gallons that is). I may buy another one for the quaranteen and IF I do put in another pond this is what I will have on it. . . "IF" as if . . . LOL!
"IF" - it is such a small word, but has such a large meaning.
I wish I had more room for more ponds, or even a bigger one :(
Elizabeth - I hope you are feeling better soon.
I've got plenty of room for more ponds, I just need more money;)
I do want to start DIYing filters and such. I'm not that handy but filters are such simple things, in theory anyway. The price I can save on filters I can put toward liners, skimmers and such. Oh, and more fish!!!
I started up a temporary filter/pump over the weekend. I freaked out cause I thought one of the fish had fungus. Turns out she has bumps on her head from running into stuff(She only has one eye). The wakin and a friend are living in a warm aquarium because of my quick freak out but they don't seem to mind. They love peas as much as my fancies:O
Anyway, it got to single digits here, I had to empty the filter and put it away, so it wouldn't chill the bottom or freeze the filter. Amazing how much it cleaned the pond in one day!
Hubby made a filter from a sump pump tank he got at Lowes. The inside has a mesh laundry bag full of the kitchen scrubbies that you get for the teflon pots and pans. Works great. We are just waiting for some of the plants to grow up around it more to cover it.
I can't remember how much it cost us, but I remember that it saved us a bundle. It works very well too. The funny part was going to the different Walmarts within a 30 mile radius to buy up all their displays of scrubbies - people looked at us funny, but only 1 person asked us what we were making.
Cool DIY filter, Carolyn. Is that the only filter you guys use on your pond?
We also have the filter/skimmer and that traps a lot of stuff, but in addition to that, we have bog type areas that we put on most of the outer edges of the pond. Instead of a regular plant shelf, when we were building the pond, DH put in rocks on end to form a breakwall (I believe they are foamed in) and then the shelves were filled with prewashed pea gravel. The plants are planted directly into the pea gravel with the idea of the plant roots and the pea gravel aiding in the filtration process.
Carolynn-that looks so tranquil! V. Pretty1
I agree, that's a really nice pond carolynn. mm - How are your fish doing since the fungus treatment? Can you see them well enough now that your water has cleared to get a good visual inspection?
Thank you. Actually I was thinking that it looked like we needed a good mowing and trim when this picture was taken.
Linda - I have been wondering too - how are your fish? Are you thawed enough for them to be swimming around?
No more deaths but it is still too cold and they are hiding. Today is supposed to be warm and they might peek out a little. As far as the treatment-I emailed the manufacturer and although it took them a week to get back to me the temperature of the pond needs to be 60 degrees for the defend product to work. I did two treatments but the water wasn't 50 degrees when I did them so I don't know if it helped them at all in any way. When the water warms up will this product work (the product that is already in the water right now I mean)?
I will say that the bio filter really is working it's butt off and the water is very clear. I am pleased with that product.
This message was edited Mar 15, 2009 1:57 PM
I just posted all that info on another thread here. I will reread and direct you to it. Snapple told me about hers and the ease of cleaning it and the price was great. I have a 2000 gallon pond so i bought the equipment that suited that size. I had two choices on pump size and I opted for the bigger-more powerful one so that I had a lot of water suction. It makes the water moved around pretty well in the pond. Once spring is officially here I plan to dig a hole and place a rubbermaid bucket of some type in the ground with the bottom cut out and hide tthe filtration in there. Snapple did this so that the dirt doesn't cave in on her pump if and when she needs to get it out of the ground. It is a support for the dirt.
Here I copied that post and am reposting it here:
mothermole
Deer Park, IL
(Zone 5b)
March 14, 2009
11:19 PM
Post #6268836
I bought a pump and the bio-filter/uv all from the same dealer. I bookmarked a few to compare pricing-have a look for yourself. I bought the fishmate and pump for the 2000 gallon sized pond plus the hoses and clamps all from the same dealer.
http://www.pondbiz.com/home/pb1_1235782510663/page_1019_387/...
http://www.aquaticponds.com/Fish-Mate-Pressurized-13-watt-UV...
http://www.underwaterwarehouse.com/Fish-Mate/Fish-Mate-Press...
I'm sure glad the Fishmate's doing the job. It's disappointing that Microbelift doesn't put all the necessary product information on their labeling. When I used it for clearing saprolegnia I used it in water under 50° and it worked. It did, however, take two doses, the second one 48 hrs after the first. So there is some product effectiveness in water below 60° The more I think about it the madder it makes me that they would withold that kind of information. I just pulled out my leftover bottle and there's no temp info at all - none. Why withhold something that important?
I'm going to put in my pumps and filters tomorrow even though it's a little early here. I'll leave the deicers running to keep the water warm(er). I leave Thursday for a short trip, back next Monday, then gone again Thursday till Sunday. I won't know whether I'm coming or going, literally untill April 1st. Somewhere in there I have to manage a couple of filter cleanings. Should be interesting. I cansee all my koi now and they all look good so far. No saprolegnia. Yipee!!
I couldn't wait either and hooked up my pump and one filter. I will be playing with my filtration all summer so it is more of a temporary thing till I finish my plumbing, if ever. I love my bottom drain but need to get it connected to something more then a hole in the ground:)
It's supposed to be warmer here the next 48 hours. I was planning on cleaning out my waterfall filter and installing the pump BUT (am I the most unlucky person at Daves. . . .) I burst my pipe to my water facet outside. Again, water in my basement and boy am I glad we opted on tile this time. Only a little came into the house but there must be a slow leak somewhere because when I shut the facet off outside the water stopped coming in. I wonder where the water must be going or how this is broken . . . It makes me mad that I have already had this water running a number of times in the past few weeks and no problems and the last few days some cold weather and it froze up!!!! On top of it the facet is supposed to withstand freezing!!!!
MM... you have all the luck!
I used to be teased by my friends in college that I was the luckiest person they knew and that I must have a horseshoe stuck up my butt or something . . . It must have fallen out during childbirth . . .LOL!
MM - did you have the guy come in and look at it? Did they give you any type of guarantee or warranty when they put in your pond? Could there be guarantees/warranties on the products that were used to put in the pond? I would have them check everything else too when they are there -
The water in the basement was from a frozen faucet. The pond and yard water was just recently fixed and it worked great and yes it was warrantied (thanks for your concern :) ) We had huge rains after they changed some of the drainage around and we were very, very dry-no puddles on the patio or in the landscape or in the basement. I am pleased with the resolution. The facet, well it's just dumb luck. I need to locate that horseshoe and get some superglue and fix that thing. . . LOL!
MM - glad it didn't turn out to be worse than it was. By the way, when find the horseshoe and glue, would you see if there is an extra one for me too?
Carolynn" you made me laugh-are you having dumb luck as well? I found out today that it wasn't a frozen pipe just a broken pipe at the faucet but the resolution is about the same. It's not leaking unless turned on. It will be fixed tomorrow. . . story of my life. My "Jack of all Trades" handyman nearly lives with me. My neighbor jokes that I must be married to two men . . . Sometimes I feel like I am as well. I need a break (from both of them . . .LOL!)
Last night I finally saw all my fish swimming about the pond making a mess with the algae. Some of the fish grew a lot (I didn't expect that after a winter). I did not see that Tancho fish that I treated with the PP last month (or so ago). It had the huge fungus spot. I suspect it died somewhere in the pond and wedged itself between some rocks and I have yet to find it. The other fish I treated it nearly all healed up and happily swimming around. I feed a very small amount of medicated food to the fish just to give them a little boost but will not feed them any more until I get back from vacation. it is supposed to be up and down in temperature over the next 10 days.
I noticed some "cliques" between a few fish. Two groups of two each, would swim around together and then join the school and then again separate off again. This happened over and over and over. I watched them about 2 hours last night and was awestruck by their beauty and just the fact of seeing them because they hide so often. My new puppy was totally into them as well and now I have to train him to stay away from the fish.