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....

Spring feeding??

It's St. Patrick's Day and the temps are to reach the high 50's!! (Suppose to get 3-6 inches of new snow on Saturday) but we're not going to talk about it. The weathermen never know anyhow. My outside pond temps are finally 50 also. The fish are already much more active. The single dead fish still has me gun shy, so I've been adding Medzyme to my ponds. Medzyme is like Koizyme which is just a bacterial additive that is suppose to compete with aeromonas and pseudomonas (the bad bacteria that make our koi sick)I've also began adding a little salt. Salt is very controversial, but after all I've read and learned, I make the choice to add salt to my ponds in early Spring and in Fall. Removing all of it during the Summer and Winter months through water change outs. I only have it in there during the months when water temps are flip flopping back and forth. Like today, temps are in the 50's, but by Saturday they are suppose to be back below freezing (thus the snow) so I expect the water temps will fall again also. These changes are really hard on already compromised fish immune systems. Costia is also a cold water parasite that can wipe out a fish pond in early Spring. Salt helps to keep all parasites at bay. It also helps reduce algae. So, I add salt. Over a period of a few days, I bring the salt levels up to a therapeutic .3%. Again, this is basically only for the months of March/April. We continue to do water changes. I've had several club members call to report winter koi kill. This is always so sad. My heart goes out to them.
Harry said he took down the plastic fence we erected at the mouth of the stream (to keep the fish out of the shallow area during the winter) He called to say before he could walk to the other end of the stream, the koi had all dashed up the stream to beat him. They do enjoy the stream for some reason. It was like they were all just waiting for him to open the gate. The filters in the pump house are almost thawed. We will still empty the ponds and completely clean them before we turn all the filters and pumps back on. Hopefully only a couple of weeks away before we do that.
Heard one of the members at the pond meeting last night mention he was already feeding his koi Cheerios. I kind of cringed. It's still pretty early for that. If you can't resist feeding, at least feed early in the day, so they have time to get it digested before the cooler night sets in. Also, watch the weather. If a cold front is moving in, then refrain from feeding. A cold front can shut the koi back down again, and we don't want that food sitting in their guts undigested. So, if you must feed, use a Spring/Fall blend (wheat based) food. Also, remember, just because your koi are anxious to eat, your filter's bacteria is not up to par, so you may be creating ammonia and nitrite spikes. Once you begin feeding, the koi will begin to produce waste and the pond's ecosystem is not ready to handle it yet. Start doing your water testing.

Winter kill..the ugly part of this blog

This is a picture of my Kohaku. Unfortunately, as you may notice, she is out on a snow drift instead of in my pond. The good news is all the rest of the fish are still alive. She is probably about 18-20 inches big. The pond has been slow to thaw, but Harry has been making the hole larger by recirculating the pond water over the top of the ice. Over the weekend I observed a large dead frog in the bottom and he was just covered with fungus. I don't want any more fungus growing in my pond than I can possibly help it, so I got a net and pulled him out. The pond was still about half covered with ice. I knew the fish were hiding under that ice flow. At least I hoped they were floating!! When I returned to the pond on Sunday, another 4-5 inches of ice had melted on the leading edge of the pack. But, it was just enough that I could see a tail laying on the bottom on the far side of the pond. Once again, the net revealed a dead fish. Da**, I was heart sick...is this going to be a repeat of last year's big fish kill? I truly thought we had done everything right this year. I automatically pulled water for testing. I tested the ph,(still high but normal for my pond, around 8.3) no ammonia and no nitrites. Kh was a little low though for my pond and the hard water that I have. So I dissolved 6 pounds of baking soda and added that for a boost. My CO2 test kit has always been weird. You're suppose to add 5 drops of #1 bottle then count the drops from #2 bottle till the water turns pink. But, my water turns pink immediately from the drops from bottle #1?? I don't know what that means!!! I do suppose it's getting old and I should replace it. Water temps were still at 39 degrees, so its still very cold. The dead kohaku looks pretty typical of a fish experiencing hypothermia. Slightly red around the edges. You can't tell much looking at its gills as they loose their color almost right away after being dead. Other than red and slightly bloated the fish looks pretty good. So, I'm hoping this is strictly an isolated death. Perhaps the fish was a little weak going into winter. I think he's been dead for a while, cause when I fished him out there was like this white footprint of his body left on the floor bottom. Like where all his slime coat fell off. Or perhaps it was fungus moving in on him. Regardless, I hope I got him out before he mucked up the water too much. I still have 2 foot of snow on the stream and in the yard. I'm hoping the rain we get this week will help to get rid of that. Harry plans on recirculating the water in the stream to help clear it of ice. I think helping mother nature remove some of the ice will help get some much needed fresh air into the pond. Water changes and sun will help a lot, too. So, I'm in morning today...She was one of my favorite kohakus..of course...it's a long time till Spring yet. I'm hoping the rest of my fish will be ok, and not succumb to bacterial disease in the mean time. Again, we are talking about another inside pond for wintering over. We got to do something....

Finally, I'm so excited...the temps will actually get into the 40's. Big whoop, uh? But, it's been so long. The snow is finally melting and Spring is "may be on it's way". Harry took advantage of the warmer day to do a water change on the pond. As he runs the new water in over the ice it actually melts the ice and opens up the hole. It's hard to realize the size of the above hole, but it's about half the surface area of my lower pond. The fish are hiding under the remaining ice pack. The good news is, nothing is floating up in the hole and nothing is sitting on the bottom from what I can see. The water is crystal clear and since its calm, its easy to see straight to the bottom. I can see a lot of string algae growing from the sides and bottom of the pond. I don't mind this at this stage, cause I figure it provides some natural food for the fish that have been sequestered under the ice pack with out food from me for some 4 straight months now and I'm sure it will be another month before temps allow me to feed at all. Not what you would call a thriving environment. I know they are merely surviving. So knowing that they can at least graze on the available algae gives me some relief. This is a very natural habitat behavior for fish. In the picture you can just barely see the bubbles from the aerator. Not much movement, I've cut them way down from last year. I want the air, but not the water movement so much. Such a balancing act. Air for the fish, enough water movement to bring bad gasses off the bottom, but not so much as to disturb the fish. Gentle air. Spring fever is evident everywhere and with everyone you talk to. Seed catalogs are clogging my mailbox and Harry and I are talking about what fish will go into which ponds this season. (I'm waiting for just the right time to try to ask Harry to redo the upper pond, shhhh he doesn't know I'm already planning)