Got snow?

Happy New Year, everybody. Temps here in good ole Iowa have been pretty consistently in the teens and twenty's. Christmas eve brought me and additional 11 inches of snow at home. That's on top of the 6-8 that was already on the ground. About as deep as I can recall in a long time. Harry's been out two or three times to dig out the floating light so that the weight of the snow doesn't push it into the water. He also takes the snow off one end of the pond to allow a little sun light in. Otherwise the whole thing would be drifted in with about 3 feet of snow on it!! The aerator does continue to keep a hole open so Harry will not venture even close to that end. The fish had moved to the light. They were holding up close to the filter house (on opposite ends of the pond) but I think when snow covered the pond they swam to the light. It's suppose to rain and even get into the 40's possibly this week. If it gets this warm, we'll probably even try to do a water change out there. Dropping in the pump and running a hose from the water faucet. The fog has been creating the most beautiful frosted white trees and bushes out there. Have you noticed? It's actually quiet gorgeous out there. The snow has completely blanketed the yard, transforming it into this lumpy white foam covered landscape. I can make out forms and know what is causing them, but they are safely cocooned under their coats. A rabbit that I think lives under the deck is making tracks across the yard. They come into the yard and go to a new tree that I wrapped loosely just to keep the winter wind off it. I can only imagine that he has probably eating all the bark off it by now. I didn't wrap the trunk to protect that. His tracks leave the tree and then run across the yard to another lump in the snow. I figured out that was where our little fire pit (sits on legs) is sitting. It was creating a little snow cave for him. So he must be spending some time under it also. The birds are once again finding the feeders. Something we enjoy doing all winter. Hopefully we can keep the squirrels away this year. Fish in the basement are doing about the same. No change there, which is good news to me.

Merry Christmas, everybody!!

Merry Christmas, everybody. Wow, Christmas is this coming Saturday already. Can you believe that? Where has the year gone? Only have to stop and buy some bird feed for a gift and all my shopping is done. The weather was only in the teens all weekend and we probably had 6 inches of snow on the ground. Harry called me earlier to say we were getting another 4 inches or more today. I was out digging in the snow Saturday, resetting GFIs. The snow was getting into some of my plugs and blowing them out. When I go outside, if I listen carefully I can hear the excess air from my aerator hissing, so I know the pond is still getting air. I only have 1 of the 4 aerated drains going during the winter months, so I have to unhook one of the hoses inside the pump house to let the excess air escape to prevent back pressure on the aerator. Harry had previously dug out the floating inner-tube we use to keep a hole open with. He also shoveled a little snow off the safer end of the pond. There was 3 inches of snow covering the area where the aerator is and no open hole, so I got a rake and standing safely on ground, I reached out and raked some of the snow back. Under it, the ice was wet and all I had to do was change ends and I could easily poke a hole with the rake handle to open it back up. If it warms up a few more degrees (at least into the 30's) we'll actually do a partial water change. This will give the fish some fresh water, plus recharge the Kh value in the water. Last year the fish hung out all winter right under the light of the floating inner tube. This year they must be on the very bottom, next to the filter house.

Inside, the fish are doing alright. I lost a 4th fish last week. Only thing I could see on it was some mouth rot. Others still have sores, but one fish has finally healed, while others are staying about the same. I actually went on line and bought 2 water bed heaters on ebay this past week. I think part of my problems were that my water is just not warm enough to promote healing. Because of my drip through filtration, the water stays about 68 degrees, where as I'd like it to be between 75 and 80. So over the weekend Harry and I lowered the water level and installed the 2 water bed heaters behind the liner. Now, hopefully I can finally get the water warmer. The problem with the sores not healing is the fish will eventually loose enough blood, through the open sore that it will become anemic and/or just not be able to maintain its metabolism. They start to take on water through this open sore too. Just a lot of extra stress on the fish. If you think about how a fishes tissue flakes apart when you eat it, it becomes obvious how easy it is for pathogens to enter into a fish. Its muscle tissue is in layers not bundles like humans. So, despite the fish loss, I'm optimistic that things will get better in the pond. Got my fingers crossed.

I got to thinking that I'm always writing about fish loss instead of all the positive things that are happening in the ponds. I do this so that hopefully you'll learn from mine and others problems. There are a ton of things I'm thankful for, and this whole fish thing is just a hobby after all. I'm learning still. Seems I have more problems that most, so am thinking about sending my well water away for thorough testing. Just to see if I have some hidden silent killer, like too much copper or zinc or some other heavy metal. Just one more avenue to learn every aspect of what exactly I'm putting into my pond.

Anyway, I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and happy New Year. May your fishy friends survive the Winter to see another Spring and most importantly your friends and family be safe. Talk at you after Christmas. Jackie

Merry Christmas, everyone!

December already, man where does time go? I've been running around trying to do a little Christmas shopping. Even turned on some Christmas music for the first time today. The outside pond is totally froze over, now. Except for my small hole that is. Suppose to get below zero for the first time this weekend also. I hate this time of the year outside in the ponds. Again, the fish are under the ice. Away for their long winter nap. I know its not the most ideal situation to leave fish outside, but until I figure out a way to limit my compulsions for too many fish, the inside pond will only hold so many. We brought in fish in late October, so almost been 2 full months already for the inside fish. I was already having some ulcer issues late last fall, which made me bring in more fish than my inside pond should be holding. Since October, I have treated with Proform C and Prazi on all the inside fish. Trying to make sure they are clean. I've feed medicated food for about a month but now on regular food. I am also presently treating with Nitrofuracin Green. Its an antibacterial, antifungus water treatment. I still have several fish with ulcers that are not healing. A few have minor fin and mouth sores also. Since I use a flow through or constant water drip, I've been pretty much able to maintain water quality. Only low levels of both ammonia and nitrites. But still, probably enough to keep a little stress on the fish. Water temps in the pond are probably my biggest problem. Even being inside, 70 is about as high as I can get the water temp. And, that is probably 5-10 degrees too cold. And, probably why the ulcers won't clear. I have lost 3 fish since bringing them in. Which didn't surprise me, but makes me sad and angry both. I still have at least 4 months to go! It's going to be a long and hard winter. I don't know what else now to do. There is just no where else to put the fish. I know they are overcrowded, but got to work with what I have. So am just praying everything I do is enough. To be continued.... Have a merry Christmas everybody. Hope to see you soon.

Brrr....

Brrr. All life in the garden has been snuffed out, including the nasturtium, which truly redeemed itself by clinging on to the better end. Apart from a couple of roses and a late blooming black eyed susan, it was the only thing left in the garden with a bloom on it. I have spent the last two weekends cutting, digging and pulling out dead plants. I know you are suppose to let some of them stay for "winter interest", but over the years I've learnt that that only leads to more work in the spring, which I never have time for. So I now cut out as much as weather will permit. I haul it to the roadside and make giant heaps of dead plants. I'm sure I'm the main contributor to our city yard waste pile as Harry hauls dead plants, weeds, and overgrown plants there constantly for me. I've been picking up bulbs again at Menards. Every fall I'll at least throw a few in at the end of the season. The squirrels will dig up all my tulip bulbs, so I tend to stick with daffodils and other spring bloomers.
The outside fish are stacking up like cord wood along the west end of the pond. Not eating and barely moving already. Water temps are at about 47 degrees already. They looked up at me as if to say "What the heck is going on? " "It's COLD down here!!" It just seems too soon to just quit feeding and start to ignore them for the winter. No ice on the water yet as the weather continues be be slightly above normal. The later the better.. I tried to tell them it was hurting me as much as them, but they only looked away in disbelief. I felt like a traitor.

Mid October

Mid October and no hard frost. The garden is beginning to look a little sad. I spent the entire weekend cutting out spent flowers, picking up some of my garden ornaments, and raking leaves. My aging muscles ached last night before I was done. Pond temps are in the mid 50's. I still haven't dug up any of the bulbs yet and 2 of my elephant ears still seem to be holding on despite the cool nights. Everything else has already been brought inside and put under the lights in the basement. Harry is off bow hunting, so I've begun simply stacking my garden ornaments in one place beside the garage. He hates having to find places for all my "junk" every winter. With only 1 small garage we always have space issues so every fall I have to listen to him "bi**ch" all the while he's up on the ladder and I'm handing him stuff to put up above the cars in the garage. Its a seasonal thing that I endour every year and I just try to keep my mouth shut as I appreciate the help. When he returns on Thursday, we will also drain the upper pond and make the annual fall fish move. Bringing some of the smaller favorites into the house basement pond, while the others will be moved to the lower, larger pond. Again, I'll beg him to leave the water fall running for a little longer and again he'll remind me that I'll be left to try to get the pumps out myself, if we wait too long as he will again leave to go deer hunting. (something I've had to do before during an unexpected deep freeze that almost froze the pumps solid) Not fun.
The walnut tree has finally gave up. All the nuts are down. There are still a few leaves up there along with a million sticks that must fall too. But, the big clean up is done. Thank god!!! What a mess. The gardens, though, are still trying to hang in there. I still have one tomato plant that still has fruit hanging on. The plant looks like a little pathetic Christmas tree. I have 2 zucchinis also. I'm purposely not picking one so I can see how huge it will get before the plant dies. It's already as big as my largest koi. The Virginia Creeper is a brilliant red. They've been sneaky, creeping along, camouflaged in their greenness, but they can't hide now; they've been betrayed in their moment of glory.
Have you noticed how dark it is in the morning? I always feed the fish before I leave for work at 7:00am. This am it was still very dark out. Time to switch to 'one a days" and use the fall blend of food. I also notice that while my water is crystal clear, the string algae is back. It's been gone all summer, but with the cooler water it now has resurfaced covering the whole bottom of my stream area. We also must have 50 or so babies this year. Something we've never had before either. There is no catching them in the big pond, so they'll have to ride out the winter there. Hopefully they'll have enough fat. There's such a big difference in size too. Some are almost 6 inches long already while others are a mere 1 inch! All the problems with the fish in the ponds, seems to have subsided. I continue to use Med-zyme in the water to try to get ahead of the bad bacteria. We'll see. It's not been a good fall for my fish. Seems others are having a few problems too. I've been out on a half dozen fish calls as of late regarding ulcers.
The mums are yelling for attention. The roses are holding on for dear life too. The honking geese fly over every morning as I step out the door. The only thing I haven't seen this year yet is the 2 million Cedar Wax-wings that fly through and eat the berries from my cedar and crap all over every rock and surface in my yard. They come every year, and yet I haven't seen them yet. I got my fingers crossed that maybe they got side tracked or found someone else's pond to crap and bathe in this year. That's a mess I won't miss...just seems odd.... In the mean time I ache all over from the weekend of pruning. More aspirin....wheres my aspirin?

Shushui didn't make it.....

Wow, again its been awhile since I posted. Unfortunately, the shushui in the last post died :(. I even went to the vet and got antibiotics to inject him with. In the mean time while I was doing all that, I noticed yet another of my "favorites" had a huge sore on its tail!!! OMG what is going on??? So since this fish was a 24" girl, I had to now set up the Qt tank and fast. She was too big for any large plastic tub like I had the shushui in. So I netted her out(by myself since Harry was gone) and brought her inside to. Since I had to fill the qtank, I now moved the shushui into the tank with the yamabuki. Figured the companionship would improve the stress of being pulled out of the ponds. I put the yamabuki to sleep and tried to at least clean the wound and get some iodine on it. At least she was still eating, so I began feeding her some medicated food. After just 2 days in bigger tank and after 4 shots of baytril, the shushui began to bloat and developed large pus pockets under every scale she had! So, I finally just pulled her and put her to sleep for good. I felt so bad. The initial sore really never broke into an open ulcer. Kind of weird. But the infection must of went systemic, cause she definitely was getting worse internally. I felt so bad for her. Meanwhile the yamabuki seems to be developing more red spots all over her. Especially on her fins. She continues to eat, so that is a good sign. Out in the ponds I notice my other blue shushui developing a very small spot behind his gill plate. I pulled him out, hit the sore with some iodine and put him now in with the yamabuki. His red spot seems to be clearing and doing better. So, maybe I got that one in time. I keep looking at the large ulcer on the yamabuki and would like to think it is slowly turning 'white" which would be a good thing. Its large and nasty. I did a complete scrape. fin clip, and gill clip on her and found nothing under the microscope. Never the less, that was three fish now with spots, so I'm treated the ponds with Terminex and will now treat with Superverm for flukes. Something is definitely out there. Even if I can't see it.

The ponds, which were turning brown from the millions of walnut leaves falling has now cleared this week. Possibly the cooler temps. I purchased some smaller food to feed the growing babies. There seems to be quite a few black or chagoi type ones out there. I assume their darker colors helps them from being eaten when they are very small. Will be real interesting this fall, when we try to pull some out of there. Really starting to feel like fall out there.

always the favorite

How come if you loose a fish or one gets sick, its always your favorite? This past week, I've been trying to nurse my favorite shushui back to health. I have always had trouble keeping shushui. Not sure why, perhaps its because they are scaleless or perhaps they are just a weak breed?? Whatever the reason, I purchased 3 new ones this year. They're not the first I've had. I've owned several and have never been successful at keeping them alive. I figured if I bought 3 of them that are a little bigger, maybe my chances would increase. Well, of the 3, my favorite one has developed an ulcer this past week. Harry noticed a "red spot" on him last Saturday. We were hosting the Northern Iowa Pond and Koi Club that evening for dinner. So, we just left him for Sunday. He's in my smaller upper pond where I have several lilies. That pond of fish has always been spooked. They constantly hide under the lilies, so the fact that we even saw the sore is lucky. Good thing Harry noticed it. So, Sunday we pulled him out to get a closer look and sure enough, he had a raised sore on his side about the size of a silver dollar. Dang it, dang it, dang it!!!! These fish were all treated for parasites earlier in the season, so what's causing this? Of the 3 shushui I bought, he is the one with the nicest zipper. (That row of black scales that run down their back) So, now he's in my basement. I liked this fish so much that I even went to the vet to get some antibiotics. 5 injections of Baytril. I've moved him to the basement where he's in a very small tank of water with an bacterial water conditioner and salt in it. He's not happy, I cleaned the wound and have given him 3 injections to date, unfortunately he's not looking any better. If anything its still growing and getting worse. Looks awful, and the fish looks terribly depressed to be in such a small tank without his buddies. I'm worried for him. Am hoping the antibiotics will kick in soon. If not, I'll be deferring to the vet again for help. Shushui, maybe I'm just not meant to have one????

St. Louis travels...

A month or so back, good friend and fellow ponder Jamie Beyer called to ask if Harry and I would like to accompany him to St. Louis for a day. He was asked to give a talk there for the St. Louis Water Garden Assoc.'s annual banquet. Well, I jumped at the opportunity, with the stipulation that we got to go to the St.L. Botanical gardens, too. We also had the privilege to stay with some of the nicest people you'll ever meet, Pam and Rick Jogerest. After 15 years of visiting ponds all across the US, I'm always amazed when I walk into yet another jewel box of a garden. Talk about eye candy. Their ponds and entire back yard where just utterly beautiful! Being late summer, it was completely engulfed with plant material. 3 separate ponds encompassed the yard too, along with a swimming pool and large deck area. Party central. Pam is the garden designer and plant specialist, while Rick loves the fish and helps to do the endless watering and care. They have featured their ponds many years on the "Pond O Rama" tour and this year selected to be on the prestigious Botanical Gardens Garden Tour. And she still has more plans for a couple places in the far back yard! They recent redid the smallest of the ponds to include an above ground window. You could look into the pond and see the fish below the surface of the water. Way cool! The newest pond is Rick's Japanese pond. 8' deep and home to some very nice koi.

That evening we went with Jamie to the SLWGA annual appreciation dinner. Their club had about 80 members in attendance. It was held at the Jewel Box, which is a huge glass building at one of St.L city parks. The huge ponds out in front are a club project that they maintain. What a super bunch of people also. The meal was great and Jamie gave an excellent talk as normal. Pam was the club's event planner and I could see why they ask her to do it as it was very well done.

We returned to the house and swam in their beautiful swimming pool , sat in their hot tub, and drank margaritas till almost 3 in the morning. What great host!!! The following day, we were up early, went out for breakfast and Pam escorted us to the Botanical Gardens. What a delight. The gardens there are just beautiful, plus Pam was so knowledgeable about everything there. Was so nice to have a personal guide all weekend. I had a blast. Unfortunately, we also had to drive home the same day. So our 2 day whirlwind vacations ended way too soon. Am so hoping I get an invite back someday, or perhaps our club really needs to plan a trip to their "Pond O Rama" If so, I'm there. It was a great mini vacation and we saw some great gardens and ponds. Flowers to die for....

crocheting in the garden

Got up this am to temperatures still in the 70's. It was one of those mornings when everything was still covered with dew. I couldn't help but notice that everything was covered with spider webs! Glorious works of carefully crocheted art everywhere. They were even strung clear across my pond stream. Some 5 feet across. I always wonder how they get from one side to the other! Webs draped across power lines, from tree limb to limb, and on every plant in the garden. Territories carefully marked out; plants shared by spiders of every size. Most seemed void of their owners, but I knew they were not too far off. I sure hope they eliminate some of the mosquitoes out there! They have been just relentless. Possibly the worst I've ever seen them. I hate spraying them, but it has been really impossible to comfortably sit outside. They are blood hungry and come in droves. I've been doing a lot of work on the gardens, cutting out spent flowers and pulling the relentless weeds. I don't even attempt this without first spraying down with bug spray. I'm beginning to feel like a deet sponge. So maybe these natural predators will help me out. A food source of mosquitoes is definitely in large supply out there. Any way it was quite beautiful out there this morning. Enough so that I returned to the house for the camera. So what if I'm a minute late for work or so. If you don't pause once in awhile, some worthwhile things will never catch up to you.

Leaves, hot weather, and babies

Well, it's almost mid August and I can already tell Autumn is just around the corner. It's that "blankety..blank" Walnut tree! It's already loosing leaves by the buckets full. Every morning I come out of the house and the skimmer pump is gravitating for water. The basket is full of leaves and Harry begins to complain that its too labor intensive. I keep reminding him that its doing its job of collecting leaves, so its not like its mal-functioning or anything. And, I'd be happy if it got them all. I'd empty the basket 2 or 3 times a day (which we will be doing in another couple weeks) happily if it got all the leaves. But for every leaf it collects there is one in the bottom of the pond. And, Walnut leaves and the walnuts themselves will turn my water brown. Yuck! No matter what I do I hate this time of the year. Walnut trees are the last to get leaves in the Spring and the first to loose them in the fall. Combine that with a rain storm nearly every other night and you get leaves falling already in August. Harry loves fall, cause it means cooler temps, hunting season, and less bugs. To me it means the flowers are all dieing, the leaves are making a mess of everything, and days are getting shorter. None of which I like.
Everywhere you go people are complaining about the weather. Too much rain..and the heat. Well it has been really hot. Temps in the 80's and 90's for almost 3 weeks now. That is pretty hot for Iowa. The fish don't like it either. My pond temps were only about 76 degrees this morning. I thought they would be worse. I'm sure in lots of full sun ponds the koi are stressed by the hot water. Harry has been doing water changes a couple times a week which helps to cool the water too. This week he actually installed air lines to the bottom of my DIY biofilters. Something I've been hinting for him to do for awhile now. Totally surprised me. Only thing is my air pump will not run both the biofilter and the pond aerators at the same time. So, now I have to shop for an additional air pump. He was really surprised at how much crap it kicks off the bio balls, though. We've also been looking at building a sand/gravel filter to help with removing the fines in the pond. We've decided to put it off till next spring. There is always something bigger or better, and he is getting tired of my suggestions of "add ons" . But, he's the first to like clear water and beautiful fish, so that helps. He won't garden, but he loves the ponds. Don't know what I'd do without him. We're also already planning on installing an additional pond in the basement. Wish I could find a heated, with well water, garage locally. I'd move them all to a rented garage if I could for the winter.
This year for the first time, we're seeing babies in the pond! He called all excited about seeing perhaps a dozen or more 3-4 inch fish in the lower pond. They usually get sucked up in the bottom drains and ran through our pumps. But this year, for some reason we've managed to keep a few with out even trying. We'll see how they survive... I'm not optimistic. 12 out of a million eggs. That's not very good odds. But they must be real survivors.

Upper Midwest Koi Club's Koi Show

Had a great time this past weekend. Went to the Upper Midwest Koi Club's annual Koi Show in Minneapolis. What a nice event. The seminars we went to were nice. Not many attended them, but they are a great extra touch. My only complaint was I didn't even get a chance to get around to all parts of Bachman's nursery! What a great setting for this event. This is one of the finest nurseries I've ever been in. With a huge home interior store, a restaurant, massive greenhouse, and stone yards...it's just a maze of eye candy for the gardener. I had talked Harry into taking the truck this year on the assumption that we wanted to buy a piece of flat stone to use as a coffee table out beside the pond. We did buy something called Tres Rios which is kind of a black and white slab that looks like water is running through it. And that's it! Believe it or not, I didn't buy a fish or even a plant! Not me at all, but I felt rushed the whole weekend. There was always someplace else to get to or someone else to talk to. I never even got a chance to walk amongst the plants or go into the home interior part. :( I could have spent another day just doing that. Sunday they allowed people to tour the nearby AKCA "Pond of the Year". OMG what a beautiful place. It was actually a small yard with over 600 varieties of Hostas. Planted pots everywhere and evergreens of all sorts. The pond was gorgeous as expected. Koi Aces was the contractor. They do the resin blow in type of pond coating. The bridges and built in floating steps were a great attraction. Very few flowers..the owners wanted a green quiet garden. Following the tour our Iowa group went to Koi Acres to view their facilities. Mike Swanson was so nice to us. His wife actually took us out to his place and gave us a personal tour. What a very nice lady. Their son Devon is the only American to actually get a student visa to "learn how to raise koi" in Japan. Koi Acres does not raise fish, but imports them all in from Japan. And some of the fantastic Showa we saw while there would just blow your socks off! They also had an outside pond with perhaps the largest koi I've ever seen. They weren't particularly beautiful fish as they were chagoi, but their impressive size was awesome. Easily 36 inches in length and their heads where 8-10 inches wide! Huge fish and they'd come right up to you and beg to be touched and fed. Very impressive. But it was the showa that made me depressed. They were drop dead beautiful fish .

A lass it was still a fun weekend. Went out and ate some fantastic oysters on the half shell, enjoyed good wine with friends, and laughed a lot. Not quite as perfect as coming home from Nashville with a truck full of fish and trees, but a close second!

Eeek! What the heck is this?

This is the latest picture of a fish that I recently received with some serious problems. It's a catfish in a koi pond. The cat fish came out of a private pond and was added to the koi pond. Please,please don't do this without at least quarantining and treating the fish (ANY FISH)!! These are leeches and as you can see they are chewing the heck out of this poor catfsih. The pond owner says they are not on his koi, but just the catfish and he's treating with Prazi. Which may or may not work. Leeches are egg layers and are extremely hard to get rid of. Eggs lay in the bottom or in plant mud for up to months depending on the temperatures. They may not be showing up on the Koi because a scaled fish has a better defense against their blood sucking tendency's. Doitzu koi on the other hand are defenseless like the catfish. And if they attach to a gill, all are defenseless. Leeches are particularly vicious as they not only attach but they also suck out blood leaving their host anemic. Enough blood loss and fish can actually die. Not to mention the secondary infections just waiting to set in after a engorged leech finally releases to return to the bottom of the pond. The holes they leave behind are very susceptible to bacterial infections and saprolegnia a water fugus/mold. Not a pretty picture, so am hoping the Prazi does the trick for him. I'm hoping he'll leave me in the loop as to what happens, so I can learn too. If not it may require a total cleaning of the pond and we all know that's not good.

Never happy?????

Is it just me, or are you ever happy with your pond water condition? I know we've had a lot of rain, but my once great looking water is now (again) kind of muddy looking. I know the upper pond is probably to blame because it was not built with a berm. It was built before ponds "were cool" and I didn't know anything about it except dig a hole and throw in a liner. It leaves me frustrated never the less. We talk every Spring about re-doing it, but never seem to get it done. We've been doing weekly water changes but still the water remains somewhat murky. I don't have a good way to get out the micro particles in pond. I need a "fines" filter. I recently purchased a large swimming pool filter which I hope to retrofit into doing just that. I need something. What I got, I believe does pretty good with removing the big stuff and does the bio conversion I need for my large family of koi, but the fines elude me. I have 7 air stones total in the ponds that seem to constantly keep things stirred up, so they can't settle out and allow the bottom drains and settling chambers to work. Well at least not fast enough to make me happy. So I have to figure out what to put in the filter. I'm thinking either sand, small pebbles, or beads of some sort. I'm thinking some sort of floating beads would be the easiest to clean or back flush. But, as always, sand and rock are cheaper. Story of my life. I'm always trying to do things as inexpensively as possible and then down the road end up retrofitting things to make them better. Constantly experimenting with material and resources.

Another line of thinking is, it may not be dirt at all but dissolved fish poo.. We've been feeding heavy this past couple months and have changed foods too. So maybe, just maybe it's the food. Perhaps the fish aren't digesting as much and so their waste is up. Maybe its the food that is causing the water to cloud up. Suppose I should either change foods again to see if the water clears or reduce feeding. Either way, if its the food I should see a difference, right? I could turn off the air for a day or two to see if not stirring it all up will help it settle out, but the weather has been so warm, I hate to do that too. About the only think I don't have is algae. Knock on wood.

We're headed to the Upper Midwest Koi Club's Koi Show this weekend in Minneapolis. Always enjoy going into the city and the really really cool nursery that they hold this at. I'm already suggesting we take the truck and Harry is again giving me the eye. Along with nursery stock they also have a nice stone yard. Harry likes rock...so I suggested perhaps picking up a pretty piece of stone to use as a coffee(wink..wink...totty) table out beside the pond where we sit and feed and watch the fish. I could see him roll his eyes, but kind of agreeing too... I know after the trip to Nashville he's thinking I'll fill it up again if we take it. Bachman's nursery also has a restaurant and a home interior store, so it's a really cool place. This year's Koi Show will also feature a tour of the AKCA "Pond of the Year" which is nearby, I guess. So am also looking forward to seeing that also. I'll also be taking up the EIPS 2010 Friendship Award. It's an award the club gives to a koi or our choosing at the show. This year's award is a really cool black marble tile that has a koi engraved on it. Good thing I didn't know Michelle (the lady that made it) when I tiled my bathroom floor with this black marble. I'd of probably had to have koi all over it. Ohhh, wonder how easy it is to "pop" a tile up???

It's more than a pond

Which came first the pond or the gardens? Well for me it was the ponds. The gardens came as a way to naturalize the ponds to the yard. Now? Well the gardens are out of control. They consume nearly every inch of the yard. They've been in for several years now, so they are becoming overgrown and less formal. And because I like all flowers, they've kind of lost any theme I may have been trying to create. Over the years, I've kind of taken out more and more of the kichy things that I add for interest, statues and the like. My husband hates the storage they require in the all ready too small garage through the winter months, too. I do enjoy the flowers, but I'm out there every available evening trimming out the spent flowers and pulling weeds. The ponds are really the least work compared to the gardens. Water changes and filter flushing are about all it needs this time of the year.(And, Harry will help me with the ponds, not so with the gardens) My walnut tree has already begun to drop leaves and walnuts! The leaves produce tannin in my pond causing it to take on a brown color. I have a love/hate relationship with this tree. I hate what it does to my pond. It drops seedlings in the spring, it's the last to put on leaves too. In the fall its the first to drops leaves, walnuts, and then each leaf stick. So talk about messy! But, this walnut is one of the largest walnut trees in the whole state of Iowa! It shades nearly my whole yard and pond! In the past couple years its shown signs of dying. It is no where near as full as it used to be. I'd cry if we lost it. Would change my entire garden from shade to sun.

Last night I was out taking pictures again in the yard. Flowers, fish, and bugs. All are plentiful this time of the year. Mosquitoes too! I don't even venture out without first spraying down.

The fish are eating like crazy and we're feeding them like crazy too. I think I can actually see them growing. Funny how you think they are small and then one day you go out there and realize they grew a couple inches overnight! And then a panic sets in that you're really going to have to get rid of some! The pond is not big enough for 30 full grown fish! And winter is coming! Dang it, dang it, dang it.

Fish problems...not mine this time

Thought today I'd post about a few recent fish calls I've received. A few weeks back I went to look at a 6 inch koi that was displaying some fin rot and an ulcer on it's side. The WQ seemed to be ok as well as the remainder of the fish in the 300 gal. tank. We put the guy to sleep and did a scrape to look for parasites. I found a few tricodina, but not a big outbreak or anything. We cleaned and dressed the wound, woke the fish back up, and returned him to the tank. I had some parasitic with me that was donated to the club and asked the PO to dose his ponds. He was about to turn them loose to the larger pond, but I asked him to continue to hold them in the smaller tank till we were sure everything was ok. Also, had a phone call from a local nursery who had a customer (who I had worked with one of his fish before) but, he was wondering at what level of salt his pond should be at? I replied "none" and if he was one of those koi owners who like salt in their ponds, then my suggestion was .01% (very little). While I do use a LOW dose of salt in my ponds in both "late" spring and fall, I always take it back out through water changes during the summer and "especially" through the winter months. Unless you have a nitrite problem or your fish are showing winter stress problems (in the spring) , there really should be no need for salt in your ponds. .03% salt in the early spring, before the bacteria has kicked in to help with the nitrites and to knock back any parasites that also come alive before fish have a chance to recoup their immune systems after being under the ice can be beneficial. These are considered low dose therapeutic levels.
Also, had a phone call for a koi owner who notice a small pimple like thing on a koi's mouth. Now, this could be anchor worm or an injury of sorts. After discussing it for awhile, we decided to just watch. If it's an isolated injury, the fish may very well heal on it's own. If we see more spots on other fish or the affected fish's spot starts to get red or worsen, then we'll pull him out and take a closer look. We don't just want to start treating for something, without trying to verify it.
My fish at home seem to be doing ok again. I thought all my babies had died, but again last night we saw a dozen very small dark fish. Since they are small and dark, they are very hard to see against the black background of the pond. I thought my addition of ProForm C to the ponds had perhaps killed the babies. But there are a few in there, at least till the pumps grind them up and spit them out. Hide little guys, hide...

EIPS pond tour is over..

Wow, what a great weekend. The annual EIPS pond tour is over. Despite the half day of rain, I had a really good time as usual. I don't understand why the club has so much trouble finding volunteers to help work the tours. I think they are one of the funnest things we do and would truly hate to see them discontinued due to lack of interest. Harry and I sat at the home of Hugh and Kathi Albrecht. They had cookies, and doughnuts, and sandwiches for us to snack on which Harry thoroughly enjoyed.We love talking to the visitors as they come in. We ask them all sorts of questions to force them to talk to us a little. "Do you have a pond?" "Is this your first tour?"
"What do you think about this year's tour?" Everyone is so friendly. Our pond location was pretty dry till about 2:30. When the occasional sprinkle turned into a full blown rain. As we all sat in the protection of Kathi's living room, I was surprised to see people continue to come into the yard to view the pond, umbrellas in tow. Hugh stood in the garage doorway answering questions for the hardy visitors. The dinner afterwords is always fun too. This year we all met at the Olive Garden. I think everybody enjoyed a nice dinner and it gave everyone a chance to talk about the days events. All in all I had so much fun that I'm going to do it all again this weekend. We've volunteered to help at the Northern Iowa Koi and Water Garden Assoc. annual tour in the Waterloo area. They have 5 ponds on this year's tour. Being a member of that club also, we will also volunteer to help out there also. And, I thoroughly expect to have another great time.

Drip through system

Attached is a picture of a first application of my new drip through water changes. What I did was simply take a gardeners drip kit but instead of running lines to all my pots, I compressed all the emitters to a tree like connection and turned on the water. Please make note that you can only do this if you have well water. You can not do this with city water, unless you have some sort of whole house filter that takes out the chlorine and chloramines. There are a total of 10 emitters putting out a total of 15 gallons of water an hour or 360 gallons a day or 2520 gallons a week which is over 25% water change for my ponds of 10,000 gallons total. So with no pumping out at all I get a good water change out every week. I still have to work out the over flow end. I have to cut off a pipe in my filter house which will allow the pond to overflow into the pit where it can be pumped out by a sump pump. I already use a drip through on my basement ponds during the winter and love it. So, am hoping I'll feel the same about this process also. I bought this small drip kit at Menards for about 20.00 I think. It wasn't much. I do plan on getting a black Shepard's hook to hang it all from to help clean up the look and may even try to find a better way to hide it. Maybe some kind of statuary or spilling leaf or overflowing pot. Hummm what can I come up with????

Over reacting????

OK, I'm back after a week of koi watching. Maybe I'm over reacting, or maybe I just caught things early enough that the fish healed themselves. Never-the-less, I think they are looking better. I actually ran the whole pond through a series of 3 days in a row, Terminex treatment. Terminex is a product like Proform C only cheaper. I dosed the pond and did partial water treatments every day for 3 days straight. The only side effect was I did see my new catfish come floating to the top. Not sure the cause, but really think they were just too small to be added to the pond. I may retry to add the albino cat, but will put them in the inside aquarium until they have a little age and size on them. I have not seen the hi-fin sharks lately, either. But they are extremely hard to see in the pond. They match the bottom of the pond in color so closely that you really can only spot them in the sunshine. I haven't seen them floating either, so that's a good sign. What I have seen is multiple small babies! I normally have no babies. This year we are trying to at least keep them in the smaller upper pond where they won't get eaten by a pump. Heaven knows I certainly don't need any more fish, but it's always kind of fun to see what colors you come up with from a flock spawn. The other fish, I think are looking better. Most of the little red spots seemed to have disappeared. I have again started re dosing the pond with Med zyme to help cut down those pesky aromonas and psuedomonas bacteria. (the ones that like to chew at the fins and open sores. ) And now that the fish are looking better, I again dosed for anchor worms. If you remember when this all started I said I saw a couple little pimple like things on some of the koi's fins. These are usually anchor worms. After, I get this done, I should be back to normal. I hope! Does this sound like a lot of dosing???? Well, it is! And, I hate it... Just to clear the air of what I usually do to my pond, This is my regime. In early spring, (after ice out and no more winter weather is predicted) I will salt my ponds to 3% just to help the fish get through the every other day temperature changes and to help them slime up a little to help them fight any bugs that may be in the pond and it's too cold to treat for. I only hold the 3% for a month at the most, before I start reducing it back out through water changes. As the water warms, I begin to add Mirco lift and a barley extra with peat to begin adding good bacteria to the pond and help with string algae control. I also begin adding the med zyme and koi clay. My UVs go on as well. In late Spring, I will prophylactically treat for parasites. I do this with a Terminix and Superverm treatment. After, these treatments that's all I do. I generally sit back and enjoy the pond. I do repeat treatments of Microlift, barley extract, koi clay, and med zyme as directed. As the summer drags on, I get lazy and even stop adding some of those things as the pond begins to cycle and the need seems to be less. This is the first year I've used both the Barley extract and Koi clay. And, I must admit, I do think I see a difference. This is the first year we have seen absolutely no green water and even before the water always seemed a little turbid. I think the addition of Koi clay has really made those particles stick together and for the first time in a long time the water is crystal clear. Whether its the combination of these two products or what, I'm not sure, but seems to be a working combo. Harry is happy too. I'm hoping the addition of Koi clay will help the fish colors too. Time will tell. I've been dusting the food with it as well. Suppose to be really good for the fish. So, again, the pond is looking good and more importantly the fish look better to me, too. Just got to work on their colors now. Not that bright beni, I'd like to see. You buy for white, feed for red, and pray for black.
I've also started a new "drip through system" on the outside ponds, which I'll talk about in my next post, maybe.

Just when you think everything is going good....

Sorry, it's been awhile since I've had a chance to post. Extra busy here at work with all the rain and summer always is so buys for me. And, when everything is going well in the pond, there seems to be not much to talk about. However today, unfortunately I have stuff to say, which means for some reason all He** has broke loose in the ponds. The pond itself has been looking wonderful...water has been crystal clear and parameters have all been good. The fish did a major spawn on May 26th, which left a mess of the water as usual, but through water changes, I think we've got that mess straightened out. It left a lot of the females with missing scales, though. I've been watching these guys for any signs of ulcers developing. After the spawn I added some Superverm for flukes. As my water reaches 70 degrees, I treat for flukes every spring. Also, we've been noticing the fish seem a little lack luster, some of the blacks are fading as well as some of the reds. The fish eat as normal, but not as aggressive as normal and just seemed a little off. Very, very suttle signs. You may not notice if you don't watch your fish a lot. Then, since the spawn, as I watch the fish, I noticed a couple little white pimples on the fins of a the large Becco. So I decided to do a prophylactic dose for anchor worms. Now I'm looking at my fish with eagle eyes and I notice that almost all the fish in the bottom pond have some sort of little issue. Again easily overlooked if you're not careful to take the time and look. Little red spots, a small area of raised scales, a touch of fin rot. All indications of a potential major ulcer breakout. I've seen it happen, and the thought of it scares me to death. In the mean time, my fish chose to spawn again. So again the males are chasing the females, and again they are loosing yet more scales in the process. We already decided, next year, the ponds will be sorted by sex if possible. I'm now lying awake at 4:30 worried about my fish. Isn't that just crazy? So the only bugs I haven't zapped are the micro minis, so now I'm doing a 3 day dose of Proform C. I'm hoping the malichite green will also help the bacteria count in the pond. In the mean time, the skimmer pump decided to quit, so last night, I'm out there switching that out because Harry is out of town all week. So, the pond is again going crazy, despite the water quality. I've also started using some Med-xzyme in the water to help control the bacteria count. So, now I'm just plain worrying. I feel like I'm just dumping stuff in the water. I hate acting "after the fact" . I hate not doing anything, too. The fish are all still eating and I watch carefully for anyone to start isolating themselves. I watch carefully and hope nothing breaks out into full blown sores. But, a couple don't look so good. Fortunately the water is clear so I can see them and unlike the upper pond fish, that you can't even get a "one second' look at, these fish generally will swim around you long enough to look at them. I'm not sure what shape the fish in the upper pond are in. With water lilies covering half the pond and them being so flighty, you bearly get a glance at them to know they are still in there. Oh and in the whole mess are the new fish, which were added last Saturday, before I notice all this going on and finally decided that I did have a problem. That's a whole nether post. So I'll keep you informed on the condition of my koi and what I'm doing, for better or worse. We'll all learn from my mistakes.... again

A 4 State Koi Odyssey: Nashville and Beyond....

Harry and I recently went to the annual AKCA seminars. Every year they are held at a different hosting city, so we have begun to make these seminars our annual vacations as well. This year's seminars where held in Nashville, TN. And despite the recent flooding there, we saw very little signs of the destruction that we all know happens with such events. But then, we didn't even try to adventure into the Opryland Resort area, which was totally devastated by the flooding. We instead concentrated our sightseeing on historical places nearby. Oh, we made it down town to the historical Honky Tonks and even took in a show at the Reiman Auditorium, but the real reason for going was, of course, the koi tradeshow and seminars themselves. The vendors are always fun to visit with and since this year I conned Harry into taking the truck instead of the teeny car we have (and usually take), I even got to buy things!!! There were several koi vendors, with beautiful koi totally out of my pocketbook range but so much fun to look at and drool over. The seminars are full of so many experts and so much knowledge, they can be overwhelming. However, I kind of found them a little repetitive this year. The AKCA judges and officers are so informative, all's you have to do is show interest and they start pouring out years of experiences and information. You can tell they truly love their hobby. The final day is the area pond tour. Never disappointing, we again saw some really beautiful ponds, fish to die for, and gardens that were out of this world. The 4 days we were there went quickly. The only fish purchase we made there was not koi at all! But instead, something called "High fin Sharks". Which are not sharks at all but a bottom feeder from China that because of its dorsal fin makes it look a lot like a shark. I had recently read about them while researching alternative fish for your ponds. And, so we decided we needed a new topic to talk about while pond side, thus the purchase. (I'll report back on their progress.)

Leaving Nashville, we decide to take the "scenic route" home, via my sisters house in Arkansas. While there Harry picked up a Box Turtle for the grandkids. Our menagerie was growing... We also stopped at a huge nursery and spent about 4 hours deciding what to buy. While there the owner said, "Hey you have koi, you want to go look at a nice garden?" Well since it was closing time, we said SURE! So off we go to a local gardener with the most fantastic koi ponds and gardens. Specializing in azaleas and maple trees, it again was beautiful. After the tour, we returned to the nursery, after hours, and bought 4 trees to bring home! (The truck is starting to get full) The nursery owner was so nice.
Waking up on Tuesday morning and knowing I had to be back to work on Wed. and wanting to stop at 2 koi farms, we knew it was going to be a long day and a long drive ahead. First stop was in Berryville, MO, a 3 hour drive away. Berryville is the home of Razorback Koi Farms. The owner, Dennis ___ had been at the AKCA show with fish and we told him we were planning on stopping on our way home. Razorback Koi Farm normally doesn't do a retail business for the public to walk in on. Since we had talked with him at the seminars and called ahead, he let us in. He keeps his fish at a farm out in the country. No ponds were to be seen anywhere. Multiple tanks are actually held in an old cattle shed. It wasn't pretty, and the truth be known, most koi farms are home based businesses. Business is done over the internet or by selling wholesale to area businesses for resale. What the farm didn't have for attractiveness, Dennis made up for in friendliness and true Missouri hospitality. His southern accent made me smile and after we bought 3 or 4 fish, he threw in 2 for free. He had exceptionally blue Shushui and a nice Sanke I picked out. He too, had fish I couldn't afford, but seemed just as happy to sell me his little guys. Again, we picked up 2 small non-koi fish. 2 albino catfish for the ponds also went into the oxygen filled bags.
"We're having fun now!" I declared, as we put the huge bag in the truck. Now, it was off to Neosha and the McBride's Koi Farm or MOKOI on the internet. Another few hours on the road and we again arrived at a great koi farm. This one at least had ponds we could see as we turned into the drive way. There must of been 10 or so plastic covered hoop greenhouses. Some had a couple huge tanks, while others had multiple blue tanks. Again, the owner, Mr. McBride told us he normally does not do retail sales, but deals both off the internet or wholesale, but since we were there, he'd be happy to sell us fish. He normally is not there even, except there was a dealers truck with tanks in his driveway from Oklahoma. So, we lucked out again. He had thousands of fish and were basically sorted by size in the tanks. Some of his larger tanks had huge and really gorgeous fish in them. Nice to look at, but again out of my price range. My wish list of koi types was pretty short. I was really only looking for Goshiki and Goromo. Both, of which he said he may or may not have one or two out of the thousands of fish he had. I had already spotted a Goromo in his "big fish" tank, but walked away. The two types are usually a little harder to find, so it didn't surprise me. Regardless, we strolled among the tanks of smaller fish. If you have ever stood by a tank of hundreds of swarming little fish, you know how difficult it can be to spot that "special one". I may see it and then it's gone again. But, fortunately I spotted both the fish I was looking for in side by side tanks! I was very happy. Then moving to the next hoop house, I spotted a third fish I liked in the 50.00 tanks. ____ was surprised himself, when I pointed out both the Goshiki and Goromo that I was looking for, in the small fish tanks. Then, as we approached the 50.00 tank and saw the Beni Kin Kikukuryu I wanted, he told me the fish was over looked and should of been in the 150.00 tank. But, since he told me they were 50.00 tanks that is what he'd let him go for. Even if he made it up, just to make me feel like I got a great deal, (which I do think I did) I was happy with my choices and the prices. So, we left with 3 fish from McBride's.

So from Nashville and the annual AKCA seminars, to Arkansas, to Missouri, and back home to Iowa, we certainly made the rounds. What a great way to spend a vacation in my opinion. Some people are into antiques, some into cars, while others like the water parks and sightseeing. We had fish, trees, and turtles. I was as happy as a pig in mud. I thoroughly enjoyed our "Koi Odyssey". And, I think Harry did too, but am thinking he's going to insist on taking the car next year!!
Not great pictures, but here are some of my new babies that are, by the way, in the QT tank, not the ponds at home.

Wow, its been awhile since I had a chance for any updates. Where do I start? Just got back from Nashville and the AKCA annual Koi Seminars. What a great pond tour. Beautiful ponds, mega bucks! Got to visit with a few couples that we have met over the years, too. Attendance was a little down, but we still had a good time. We drove ourselves out and Harry reluctantly agreed to take the truck this time instead of the little car. The little car is great on gas mileage, but has no room to bring anything back, which Harry loves and I of course hate. I had figured it would only take an additional 100.00 or so for gas, but he knew with the things I bought to put in it, that it would be closer to 1000.00 by the time I got home. Well, I don't have that kind of free spending money, but I went with a "secret stash" just in case. The vendors at the trade show were all quite friendly and the talks were, well ...so soo...not sure I really learned anything new, but nice refresher courses anyway. For us, it's just getting to talk to old friends and driving around the area to see the sites. We spent a day at Pres. Jackson's Hermitage House and an afternoon at a nearby town called Franklin; site of one of the most deadliest civil war battles. So lots of history in that area. We ate downtown and bar hopped all the "Honky Tonks", as they are called there. One evening we went to the famous Opryland Radio Show which was held at the Ryman Auditorium, since the new building was flooded in the recent floods. We really didn't see much sign of their flooding damage, but then again didn't go into those areas of town. And, because of the floods we didn't get to see the Opry Land Mills Hotel and its botanical center and shops. Maybe next time. On Sunday, we took the pond tour associated with the seminars. Oh man, there certainly were some beauties. I did feel sorry for the pond owners, because most the ponds were covered with foam from spawning fish. Not the usual superior water quality, but real life happening in their ponds. Stuff most people don't get to see. I'm sure when they set the date for the seminar, spawning never entered their minds. Regardless the ponds were beautiful and the fish were, in general, huge.

My own fish spawned Tuesday night. What a mess. Millions of eggs everywhere. Harry did a huge water change. The fish seemed really tired this morning. They've been gorging on eggs in the pond. No feeding for at least a day or two. Saw lots of scales in the bottom of the pond, so know they have to be pretty beaten up. I'll be watching them closely to make sure I don't get an outbreak of ulcers. Harry keeps doing water changes, so feel like I'm wasting money by putting any water conditioners in there. The string algae is growing like crazy now that the water temps have finally warmed up . We're just pulling it out as best we can.

Still trying to catch up work, but will try to get back tomorrow with pics of my new fishies. Fun, fun...

Nashville is under water

Just a little over a week left before we leave to go on our vacation to the AKCA annual koi seminars. I was so looking forward to visiting Opryland Mills Hotel and that area. I've been looking at these fabulous pictures of a boat inside, floating down this stream surrounded by plants and this huge botanical garden. Well, if you haven't heard, Nashville is flooded. So everything close to the river is under water. I guess our seminar hotel, the Milinium, is high and dry so the seminars will go on, but there will be no tours of these fabulous areas this year. Just 2 years ago when we went to the seminar, everyone was asking about Cedar Rapids and how the people here were doing. Now, Nashville is going through the same thing. Regardless, I'm still looking forward to going.
The weather has really been cold hasn't it? My pond temps Sunday morning were back down to 50 degrees again. I surely hope my fish don't get sick. They have not spawned yet. My records show it was June 6th in 2009 when they spawned last year. I'm sure it will be that late again this year. It's crazy. Most people's fish have already spawned. People think I'm crazy when I tell them my ponds have not warmed up enough yet. But then, if they had spawned, all the little guys would be dead, because it's now too cold for them. Even the frogs have finally quieted down.
I spent all of mother's day out in the garden planting, and digging, and tilling. Got a new mini rotor tiller for mother's day! What a great gift! It works great and I love it.

Finally the fish are out!

Finally we got the koi out of the basement and into the ponds! After about 4 consecutive days in the low 70's, I felt like the pond was close enough to the basement pond temps to put the fish out. I began the day by vacuuming the ponds. Harry blew the filters and settling chambers. Millions and millions of toad eggs were everywhere. They have been particularly loud all week. And non-stop too. I'd wake up in the middle of the night and could hear them out there. (Even with the windows closed) I worried that the neighbors would be complaining, but they have always been pretty cool about my ponds and the noise I make. I recently bumped into one of the neighbors that walks her dogs early in the morning. She said she got close to the house and could hear water running someplace. It didn't dawn on her that it was my waterfalls. Said she was embarrassed to say, she was looking all over for the problem area. Looked in the manholes and everywhere listening for the source of the gushing water. She just knew it was a water pipe broke someplace. Finally, her ears traced the noise to my yard. Which, she knows I have the ponds, so she said she felt so stupid. But, they had been off for nearly 4 months; she wasn't used to hearing them again. We laughed together.
So anyway, it's nice to see life in the upper, smaller, pond again. It's the pond I can see from my kitchen table. Of course the GFCI wouldn't work. It showed signs of definitely burning up. So, Harry will have to replace it. I've had several GFCI ( Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters) burn up on me. They don't just trip they turn black and I've even had them melt down. Guess they are doing their job, but I'm always glad they are outside!! And, I never know the cause. Whatever I plug into them seems ok. So the extension cord is strung across the pond to run the aerator till I can get Harry to replace the plug. Which he won't like, cause it's a tight place with plants all around and he knows I'll yell at him for stepping on them. So, he'll loudly cuss them and maybe even me under his breath.

Elephants in the garden? The 4 legged kind!

Cats....either you love them or you hate them. Many people would go out of their way to run over one. This sums up the attitude of many gardeners towards cats, which is why there are moves to outlaw them (cats). I'll admit to having the same feelings myself, on occasion, especially after too many visits by the same cat to the same flowerbed. But on balance, I don't mind cats. I own one myself-if you can own a cat. Dave is his name and he's ancient at 21 years of age!
The cats that drop by my yard seem particularly free spirited, especially Midnight, and I've concluded, after years of observations, that they come to my place for one or both of two reasons: to find something to eat or drink, or to find a comfortable place to relieve themselves ( I do worry when they show up with a magazine).
No, there are worse things than cats in the garden, and I've had them all - rats, mice, groundhogs, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels - everything but rogue elephants, which are a nasty little problem for gardeners in Africa. Elephants there have been known to clean out the cabbage crop and drain the pond at one sitting, and they make an awful mess of the patio furniture. I count my blessings that I live in a neighborhood that has an effective elephant control by-law. The irony of it is, although cats can be a nuisance, they do a darn good job of keeping down vermin.
I recently read somewhere that the majority of people on earth are never more than ten feet from a rat - scary thought (who makes up all these statistics?) So, I'm all for a few cats running wild if they can increase that distance by a foot or two. We do need a few predators around to keep the neighborhood in a state of ecological balance.

Meet some of the gang.

This is a picture of most of the fish that wintered over outside. There are 11 out there at the moment and I plan on adding maybe 4 or 5 from the basement pond to these, while the rest of the basement fish will go into the smaller pond. That should divided them up pretty evenly by numbers at least. Every day I look at the outside thermometer hoping the temps are slightly above 60, but just no go. The basement pond read 70 degrees this morning. I'd like them to be at least fairly close. I read where others are turning fish out for spawning already because their temps have moved close together. It was May 3rd last year before I got mine out and at the rate I'm going will be that late again this year. About the time we get a couple warm days to get things moving, then we get a few cold nights again. And so it goes. I'm still in a holding pattern. The fish have had a great stay in the basement pond this winter. Not even once have I did a water change and forgot I was doing it! In years past, I've drained the entire pond before I remembered I had opened the drain. But, actually I've never killed anyone doing that. Mainly because the pond will pool about 1/2 inch of water in one corner. It has saved me a couple times. Why once I began a water change at night after dinner and didn't remember it till I got to work the next day. I left work in a panic and in tears, but they were all ok. Regardless, there have been no terrifying incidents this winter. (Knock on wood)

None of these fish have names except maybe the Showa at the bottom. And don't ask me what it is, cause it's one that the grandkids named and only Harry can remember what it was. Objectively looking at the fish, the Sanke (3 colored) fish clear to the left, may go down the road at the end of this season if it doesn't improve. It's a nice enough fish, but doesn't seem to want to grow. The Showa (3 colored with black on his face) at the bottom of the group may go down the road also. Showa are usually slow to mature in coloration, that's why he has made the watch list.

I pledged to get rid of a fish everytime I add a new one. So, fish that don't change or do change often get put on our "watch list". The big Bekko(White with black spots) while not a great looking fish is exempt cause we've had her for a long time so she's grandfathered in. Also, note that on the Sanke at the bottom of the picture beside the Soigoi (grey fish.) I notice she has a little red spot just behind her gill plate. This is a sore not a spot. I haven't done anything about it yet, but got my eye on it. I'm hoping she'll heal herself. If it gets worse at all, I'll net her out and hit it with some iodine. Looks like she lost a scale there. Harry said there were 2 scales at the bottom of the tank when he cleaned the pond. I'm wondering if that is one of them.

elephant ear bloosoms???

This morning as I went through my normal routine of feeding the fish and cat, I happened to glance over and notice that my elephant ear actually had a bloom on it. In the fall, I usually simply cut off all the huge leaves and dig up the bulbs, but I had one particularly large plant and didn't have the heart to cut it, so I dug it up, leaves and all, dumped the whole thing in a 5 gallon bucket and put it in my living room for the winter. It has continued to produce a couple large leaves at a time throughout the whole winter. I don't believe I have ever seen my elephant ears bloom. I didn't know they did. I just thought they threw off little baby bulbs at the roots and that's how they multiplied. So I snapped a couple pictures to share. Have you ever seen your elephant ears bloom? This is the type of elephant ear that holds it's leaves upright. I know "elephant ear" is a real general term, I never have been one of those people that knows all the Latin names for things. Sorry.... they are pretty common though.

Spring Cleaning

Spring certainly has sprung. Daffodils have all bloomed, tulips are right behind them. The longer evenings beckon me to get out into the gardens to rake a little. Easter Sunday was so nice, I went out and trimmed all my bushes and cut off all the ornamental grasses. Got a half inch of rain last night with more to come. The ponds and fish are looking great. Thanks to Harry cleaning out some of the algae. There was little or no sludge on the bottom, but his efforts have left the water crystal clear now. Because our ponds are nearly under a huge walnut tree, Spring cleaning is essential for us. As much as we work at keeping them clean in the fall, there is always a few stray walnuts or leaves that get in usually turning the water a very bad coffee color. Last year there were little or no walnuts on the tree however (seems to always be an every other year cycle) so the ponds came out of winter looking pretty good. Regardless, every Spring Harry completely drains the pond, sweeps down the sides and refills it. The fish are netted out and put in a tank. This year Harry said he only had them out for about 4 hours while he cleaned, flushed the lines and got enough water back in the pond to cover the fish. So, Spring cleaning is complete, the pond waterfalls are up and running, filters are all working, and life is good if you're a fish. Water temps still only hover in the upper 50's, but the fish are already eating the Spring blend of fish food. Hopefully I can get the fish in the basement out by the end of the month. The pictures above shows the empty stream and one of the two submersed jets that help to move water down and out of the stream. The second pic shows Harry vacuuming up all the leftover rinse water. You can also see my 4 bottom drains and attached aerators. Good job, done. Now all that's left is enjoying the fish. At least till Spring Spawn ruins all my good water quality!

koi jumped out a 6" hole!!!****

OK, lost an additional outside koi this week. That's 2 for the winter. This 3 year old 15" Sanke came out of the winter looking pretty good. He's been a little sluggish, but seemed to be doing OK. Saturday the pond's temps were 45 degrees and fluctuating every day with the changing temps. I happened to walk out to look at the fish and there he was all pine coned! Not good! I was on my way to town, but put everything down to go get a net and tub. He was still pretty active but I got him netted when he thought he was hiding in a mass of string algae. I took him to the basement and put him in a tub of cold tap water. I figured it had to be around the same temp as the outside pond, only cleaner. Put an air stone on him and added a little salt and Elbagin (an antibacterial water treatment), covered the tank and shut down the lights to help make him comfortable with his new surroundings. Everyday for 4 days I did partial water changes on him twice a day (as there was no filtration) Each day the water naturally warmed to just over 60 degrees. I replaced the salt and Elbagin daily also. He didn't get worse, but he didn't get better either. All the while he acted pretty good actually. He seemed pretty calm without being too lethargic or anything. Almost like he knew I was trying to help. Well, last night we had the grand kids over to color Easter eggs, so the checkup was prolong from the normal 5:30 to about 9:30 in the evening. And, when I went to the basement...there he was laying on the basement floor!!! Da** Da** Da***!! I left about a 6" hole open on one end of the tub so he could get a little light and dang if he didn't jump out it. He appeared dead, but was still kind of wet, so I returned him to the aerated tub and messaged him a little to try to make him breath. After several minutes, I just let him float in the aeration, said a little prayer, and called it a night. But, upon returning this morning, it was obvious that he was indeed dead. I had planned to get some antibiotics for him today. But, guess I don't have to bother with that, do I? Always upsets me to loose a fish, but when its something I've done, it makes me so mad. I just never thought he had enough space to get the speed to jump out the hole! But he obviously did a tail stand or something.
So above is a couple pictures of what he looked like. He's flower fertilizer now. Dang, dang, dang!!!!

Frogs....More Ugly....

Well the ponds are now completely thawed. Water temps were at 46 last night. The weather man is promising 50's all week. I can smell the barbecue grills firing up at night again as I walk around surveying the yard and it's usual spring mess. The robins and red-wing black birds have been back for a couple weeks and every conversation between the guys in my family is all about the coming of the Spring turkey hunt. I'll be a pond widow for the month of April as Harry migrates to the southern cottage to partake in the Spring rituals of early bass fishing, turkey hunting and even later in the month there will be mushrooms and asparagus to collect.
Harry has already cleaned the upper, smaller pond which sits empty till it warms up enough to move the inside fish back out. He has all the waterfalls up and running. In cleaning out and flushing the filters in the bottom pond we discovered more "ugliness" in the pond. Our bottom pond has 4 bottom drains that feed the settling tanks previous to the filters. All winter long "crap" can settle in these lines and they must be flushed before turning on the pumps. I had previously netted out one large frog that was completely covered with fungus from the pond, but to my dismay while purging the bottom drain pipes, out came an additional 17 fungus covered frogs!!! 17!!!! I assume they may have entered the pipes looking for a place to hibernate for the winter. But that is 17 fungus carrying frogs that were polluting my pond. To visually look at the pond, you'd say it was clean, but little did we realize the danger that lurked below and out of sight.
The larger pond will still need drained down and cleaned. We're just waiting for it to warm up a little yet before we put the fish through the stress of being netted out while we clean it out. There is a ton of string algae already growing everywhere. I know this time of the year, it is probably my friend, helping to control the ammonia and nitrites that will now begin to develop and even giving the fish some natural food to get their systems up and going. I've been trying to add a little salt to the ponds, but Harry keeps doing water changes and by getting the smaller pond on line yesterday, he added another couple thousand gallons to the system lowering my salt percentage again. I'll have to check it tonight again and probably add another bag. I have a salinity meter so I can take a before and after reading and knowing the amount of salt I've added, I can tell exactly how many gallons are in my pond. This is an easy way to figure the volume of a pond. I've also been adding some Medzyme and continue to add my Artic bug juice. I still have a couple fish that are just a little sluggish acting compared to the others. So, I have a watchful eye on them. Hopefully I can begin feeding soon. I'm hopeful and anxious to get in the gardens. Tulips and daffodils are up, birds are singing, and best of all the sound of water running is back in the gardens....