Elevated Bog Pond

[dustboy]

Here at GPF we’ve documented heron, raccoon and other predator attacks on our fish. I have one more to add, which is the unsupervised child.

I came home Sunday evening to our superbowl party in progress, and our friend’s small boys had done quite a number on my pond. They threw everything they could lift into the water, including bricks, balls, loose lumber, gravel, rocks, sticks and leaves. The skimmer was knocked over, so the open inlet probably sucked up the majority of my 25 goldfish. I have only seen two, and I’m hoping the rest are just hibernating under the rocks.

The kids must have been at it for some time, I guess I should be grateful that nobody drowned. The 4-year-old is known to leave a path of destruction and the 3-year-old just followed along. I had to bite my tongue to not yell at their parents who must have been “off duty” for about 30 minutes.

I was hoping to have some amusing video to show for it, but my backyard camera was mysteriously covered by a curtain during the entire event....

 

[j.w]

How awful for you and the fish. Hope you find your fish.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Wow. Just..... wow. I'm fairly certain I would not have had the restraint to bite my tongue, had I been in your situation. I am so sorry.

 

[addy1]

I have been known to tell parents what the heck control your kid! We have never had kids mess with the ponds.

Hope you find some of your fish.

 

[j.w]

I would never go w/o letting the parents know what happened and I would hope the parents would offer to help clean it up and pay for any losses. If not, next party at their house and I bring big dog's that love to dig lol!

 

[dustboy]

Yeah...I didn’t want to jeopardize any friendships and I can empathize with the parents of the 4 year old, they are already at wit’s end with him. If it wasn’t the kids it could have easily been a hungry heron that got my goldies. I guess on the bright side, now I have room for those koi my friend has been trying to unload on me.

And for the record my kids are no angels but they know how to behave at other people’s homes.

 

[dustboy]

I’m considering a trip to the pond store today to pick up some comets and/or shubunkins. How many should I get? Reminder the pond is about 600 gallons.
I can’t wait for spring, I just looked back on my photos of the pond when the plants were all green and flowering. Might get a couple evergreen plants too to brighten it up.

 

[addy1]

I would pick out some real pretty ones, 6ish, let them grow and have babies! Most of my pond fish are home grown.

 

[dustboy]

Picked up four 4” comets today. As they were floating in their bag, about 9 of the missing goldies came out to investigate. Hadn’t seen but two of them since last weekend. The comets took like, well, fish to water and they are now swimming happily with the goldies.

I do believe I lost most of the goldies but it was good to see some survived. Can’t imagine how traumatized they were to hide for a week.

 

[Lisak1]

@dustboy - I think you need some better friends!

I do understand that some kids are more difficult to control, but parents of those kids should know to never take their eyes off their little darlings. And frequently I have found - working in a school, I see all kinds! - that those kids and their behavior are the direct result of the type of parenting (or lack thereof) that they have experienced. There's nothing wrong with the kid - it's the parents who need a shake up. Remember the lady who trained dogs who wrote the book "No Bad Dogs" - she preached that it was always the owners fault for handling the dog poorly. Same with kids.

ANYWAY - you mentioned your friend and the koi... please no koi in your 600 gallon pond!

 

[dustboy]

No, I won’t be introducing any koi. Didn’t realize how fecally prolific they are. I already have a dog that has that trait.

My kids have been tasked with naming the fish. The apricot comet is Sunflower. The surviving goldies are the Minions. One of the calico comets is Olive after my sweet calico cat that was recently killed by a predator.

 

[GBBUDD]

@dustboy - I think you need some better friends!

I do understand that some kids are more difficult to control, but parents of those kids should know to never take their eyes off their little darlings. And frequently I have found - working in a school, I see all kinds! - that those kids and their behavior are the direct result of the type of parenting (or lack thereof) that they have experienced. There's nothing wrong with the kid - it's the parents who need a shake up. Remember the lady who trained dogs who wrote the book "No Bad Dogs" - she preached that it was always the owners fault for handling the dog poorly. Same with kids.

ANYWAY - you mentioned your friend and the koi... please no koi in your 600 gallon pond!

When i first read this i started typing and soon deleted the entire thing for i assumed the worst that this was not the kids as much as it could be parents who probably had no discipline them selves. And i am going to leave it at that and say ... Happy Birthday ... don't ask

 

[Phaewryn]

I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your cat. Your pond and deck is beautiful, and I hope you have found a tactful way to tell those friends that their children are not welcome at your home unless they are on leashes.

 

[dustboy]

OH MAN! My poor fish can’t catch a break. The new comets were getting settled in yesterday and swimming with the minions. We had a huge wind storm that knocked out the power for 9 hours, consequently the waterfall wasn’t running this morning which made it easy for the GREAT EGRET to see the fish. I opened the blinds of my bedroom this morning and there he was on the edge of the pond.

I’ve never seen one in our yard before. No idea if he got any fish yet, fingers crossed they were all hiding.

 

[Phaewryn]

I can't help but to imagine your beautiful pond edged with pigeon spikes now. Children and egrets be damned!