CW's Back Yard Water Garden Begins!

[Hound Heaven]

Hi friends. Sorry I haven't responded to some of your messages. Always meant to, but then life got a little overwhelming and, well, Wordle won't play itself, so...

I'll have a bigger update for you soon (I'm STILL an algae farmer, and the frog farming season is just getting started).

But right now, I need to solve an aquatic health issue. This is Clarp:

View attachment 162044

Clarp is a carp, if you can believe it. He came to live with us today when I offered to take him from the aquarium he'd outgrown at a neighbor's house. I should have known this would be a tricky transition, but he was going to be fed to some chickens tomorrow, so I had to act fast as I wanted him to enjoy every fish's god given right to be eaten by a heron instead.

Anyway, he arrived in fresh water that was very warm. Probably 70º or more. The pond was 48º. I transferred him and his water to a garbage bag and floated it in the pond until it felt like the bag water was nearly the same temp. He was still active then, so I started mixing pond water into the bag until it was full and he decided to make a run for it and explore his new home.

My daughter went to check on him an hour later and discovered him floating on his side in a shallow area. Boisterous mourning ensued.

I figured he must not be handling the temperature transition well, so I filled up a storage tub with pond water, boiled a few gallons of tap water, and floated the hot water in its pot to bring the tub temp up to 60º. I scooped ol' Side Floater up, tossed him in, and he came back to life almost instantly.

So... Clarp now lives in the dining room. But he can't stay here because he needs to get to work scaring the frogs. And I don't know what I need to do to keep his hospital water healthy until he can go back in the pond.

What's my strategy?

I have a tiny pump and aerator coming from Amazon ASAP (should be here before bed time). Once I set those up, think I'll scoop some algae covered rocks out of the pond and put them in there with him. Will test his water for ammonia every couple hours.

Thinking I need to find a way to gradually reduce the tub temp a few degrees over the next day or so and see how he responds until tub and pond temperature are the same and he's still happy and active. Then he can go back in the pond.

Good plan? Do you have a better one?

Thanks a million.

Wishing Side Floater a good result as I sit here giggling at his/your fate."every fish's god given right to be eaten by a heron instead"

 

[GBBUDD]

Wishing Side Floater a good result as I sit here giggling at his/your fate."every fish's god given right to be eaten by a heron instead"

Yeah but thats only because he has no fish babies YET !!!!!!!!!!!!! thats why i called Clarp. Mr Miracle he got Mom to give permission to a fish in the pond ..........

 

[j.w]

Clarp will enjoy warmer temps in the hopefully warmer Springtime in your pond. Too cold to add fish to a pond here now I.M.O. especially one from an aquarium. Colder temps on the way too the say and maybe snow or ice?

 

[combatwombat]

Ok, Clarp is now set up with a little aerator in his temporary home, and I have a bottle of ammo lock and a 300w aquarium heater arriving tomorrow morning.

Doing a 25% daily water change to keep ammonia under control. He's been hanging out for a day at 65º. Has been pretty stationary, but will occasionally go roaming about.

Should I feed anything? He was being fed at his previous tank.

It's a lot harder/more expensive to refrigerate water than it is to heat it, so Clarp is going to go live on the deck in a day or two and I'll use the heater to start bringing the temperature down to pond temp. Will see how that goes. Heater has a min. setting of 78, but figure with outdoor temps from mid 30s to 50s, that should get us into the 60s.

if it's too much, I'll figure out how to cycle it to keep temp lower. If not enough, I'll bring another small heater online.

Even if none of this works out in the end, it'll be good to have a hospital tank I can quickly bring online in the future.

 

[GBBUDD]

Should I feed anything? He was being fed at his previous tank.

No fish can go weeks months with no food. you don't want him to poop with no bio filter

 

[j.w]

Might want to wait a bit to put him out on the deck, cold is here again in PNW. Actual snow is falling up here in the northlands, yay................but sad cuz it won't be enough for me

 

[combatwombat]

I moved Clarp out onto the deck about a week ago with a 300w heater and trying to keep him around 60º. Despite a cold snap here, that ended up being too powerful. I only sleep about 6 hrs night, but leaving the heater on over night for those 6 hrs would bring his tank up to 70 again.

So I bought a 120v temperature controlled plug, and plugged the heater into that. That's working great now. I've been lowering the temp in the tank by around 1º per day. We're down to 54 and he still seems perfectly happy. LIkes to hang out by the heater when it's on, though. I think another week or two and he'll be ready for the pond.

I also put 1/4 cup of twilight blue dye in the pond to try to get more control over the string algae until more of my plants come online. A little bit goes along way! If it seems to work, I'll keep it up this summer and let the desired plants really take over.

Oh, and I sprayed some peppermint oil around the outside of the pond as a frog deterrent, and it totally worked. For one night, at least. Not a peep out of them last night. I honestly didn't expect it to work. Those little slime balls are pretty determined, though, so I won't count my chickens before they hatch. I love everything about the frogs except how deafeningly loud they are during the mating season, which seems to start earlier and end later every year.

 

[YShahar]

Clarp is one seriously pampered little Gefilte Fish!

Now you just need some goldfish or koi friends for him, so he won't be lonely.

 

[GBBUDD]

Clarp is one seriously pampered little Gefilte Fish!

Now you just need some goldfish or koi friends for him, so he won't be lonely.

Clark is guaranteed survival he's the only one and now his daughter and probably mom are attached to the little guy . So if it dies @combatwombat will never have fish in his pond and it will be rather loud around that house hold for a spell . Buy stock in kleenex now

 

[combatwombat]

Look who's back!

 

[addy1]

I have frogs jumping everywhere, then snow, a bit, last night

 

[GBBUDD]

If you are leaning toward fish ducks are probably the main culprits in spreading parasites around.. Though I'd never pass up those baby ducks.

 

[combatwombat]

If you are leaning toward fish ducks are probably the main culprits in spreading parasites around.. Though I'd never pass up those baby ducks.

Mama showed off 11 ducklings in our pond last summer. She is welcome whenever. If she kills the fish, I'll just get more.

On that note, Clarp is going in the pond tomorrow. He has a lot of work to do, the frogs have been showing up by the dozens. He might need some helpers to scare them all off.

 

[GBBUDD]

If that excuse works with the wife why not.

 

[j.w]

Mama showed off 11 ducklings in our pond last summer. She is welcome whenever. If she kills the fish, I'll just get more.

On that note, Clarp is going in the pond tomorrow. He has a lot of work to do, the frogs have been showing up by the dozens. He might need some helpers to scare them all off.

Good times for letting Clarp out as I hear our weather people here say 70's are on the way soon, yay!