jumping fish!!!

Well, the new pond has been going good so far! I'm fighting ammonia and nitrite levels, though. I had added some aged bio balls to the filter to help seed it, but I can tell the pond has not begun to cycle at all. Harry is doing small water changes and adding Amquil to help bind the ammonia and salt to help with the nitrite up take which can cause brown blood disease. The water has a green cast, but I'm ok with that for now. I think the UV has been helping with that but have recently shut it off too in an effort to get the bacteria established. Started adding a little Microlift PL hoping that will help get the bacteria going, also. We've been keeping the pond netted, just because I'm nervous about the fish jumping out. We took it off Sunday while we were home all day and it's so much nicer viewing the fish, but put it back on Sunday night.

We've been watching one particular doitsu kohaku we recently purchased at Koi Acres. His mucus seemed to be taking on a milky cast. Possible ammonia burn??? Stress??? Salt I was adding bothering it???So, Harry was concerned and didn't want to just "watch" it any longer. We decided to net it out and put it in a QT tank for awhile to see if it would improve. So about 5:00 pm we put it in a tank in the basement, added a little anti bacterial medicine to the water, covered the whole tank with a double layer tarp to keep him in and left him to rest and adjust. Went to check on him around 8:00 that evening and you guessed it, he had jumped out of the tank and laid dead on the basement floor!!! d**m d**m dang!!!! There was no movement at all, but I still worked with it to try to revive it for at least an hour. Moving it through the water in figure 8's and holding it directly in the bubbler with it's gill plates propped open. No luck. So another favorite fish gone. Just like that. Try to do something proactive and it ends in tragedy. Just the opposite of what we were trying to do. Lesson learned...cover on tank must be weighted down all around!!!He jumped up hard enough to lift the tarp and slip under it and over the top, which was a good 12 inches above the top of the water! This is not the first time we've lost fish in QT tanks from jumping so you would think we'd know better, but I actually thought it would be enough. In other cases it was because of no cover or a particular hole at one end or something. Sad, just very sad!! So the 15 inch fish is now flower food in the garden. Just so frustrating. Harry just shook his head at me. I wanted to cry. So now we are both worried about the netted pond outside. Do we need to always keep it on? It should be no different than a pond at ground level, right? The water level on the new pond is only 4 inches from the top. An easy jump for any of them. Got my favorites in there. It would be just devastating to loose one of those.. oh, what to do.....

Finally the fish are out!

Finally the fish are outside! Harry has worked so hard to get them out. With just a little more touch up paint and some primping with flowers and all around the edges to soften things up, and the new pond will be finally done. The fish seem to enjoy the current. With the addition of the eductors which can triple the water flow coming out of a pipe, the water becomes a river of current in the pond. You can watch the fish swim to it, relax, and just get kind of thrown back from the current. The water swirls around the pond edge while the bottom drain aerator creates a upward current in the middle. I'm totally happy with that. The only problem we are having is the floating skimmer is not working. Seems we don't have enough pull through it. The single 4" bottom drain is supplying enough water for the pump so that there is no pull through the skimmer. If we taper the drain down in the filter or put a stand pipe in it, then the filter begins to go down as the 1 1/2" pipe from the skimmer is not enough to stay ahead of the pump. So, we need to play with that. But, I'm just so happy to have the fish out. I purchased a small hoola hoop to use as a feeding ring. But, it doesn't work. It either floats too high in the water, or the before mentioned current is so strong that it pushes the food right underneath the ring and out into the pond. So, one more thing I need to figure out. Any suggestions are welcomed!
I've covered the pond with a net at least for the first few days. I don't want any of my larger fish jumping out. Am hoping after a while they'll get used to their new home and not even try to escape like the 2 little fish we put in earlier did. By the way, one of those tiny guys did die, while the other chagoi one is still swimming around. I should post a picture of this chag. This is a 6" koi from my basement pond that has had a unhealing sore on it's shoulder for months. It starts to heal, then stops and then starts again. He's just been a mess since way last fall. But, he's hung on and I haven't had the heart to pitch him. Thus, he became one of the sacrificial koi. Then after he jumped out of the new pond and I picked him out of the dirt and put him back in, he kind of got this fin rot and white spots starting to grow on him, but I couldn't catch him, so he again got to stay in the new pond. Now, I see him, and can not believe how he hangs in there. Almost feel like he deserves to stay alive and grow big. Hopefully he will. He certainly is a survivor! If he had been a 100.00 beautiful fish that I bought, he'd of been dead a long time ago, I guaranty that! Funny how the fishy world works.
Am loving the window we put in the pond! I can now see every little imperfection on the fish, though. Kind of scary. Koi are definitely meant to be viewed from above. They are no where as pretty from their sides. The fish seem to like the window too. It was designed to be seen from my kitchen table. I can sit and eat and watch the fish go buy. Harry is already wishing he had put a second one in, viewable from the deck were we sit outside.
Here's a few pics of the filter set up, the fish and my view from the kitchen table. We finished it to look like the filter house in the yard that we use for the other pond. I'm just so happy it's done!!! Can't stop smiling.