Got fish in the 5k pond now
My god, I guess I do not have an inch of restraint!
I tested the water again today, and the parameters were still perfect. I also noticed more clarity deeper down. All good signs. Knock on wood. Tap! Tap!
So, I broke down my upper pond today (very weird to do), and had to take the 6 goldfish that were residing in it (3 sarassa's and 3 watonai). I threw the watonai overboard into the lower pond to wait until next week, and I decided to put the sarassa's in my new pond.
Here they are in a small bucket--all I had. They look tiny, but the biggest one laying sideways is as big as my entire hand. Excuse the blurry photo (I forgot to set the macro setting and I was too close, but you get the picture). He's the the one furthest down in this photo:
Top one in this photo:
Anyhoo, I acclimated them and let them go. I think they were in shock. They stuck mostly together and to the corners for the first few hours. I can't imagine what they're thinking. Theny they started swimming about the pond and under the spitters. They had these looks on like, what-the-hell-has-happened-here-have-we-landed-on-Mars?
But now I know why DoDad says he won't buy anything below 14"--in a large pond these little guys (and they ain't that little), look like specks.
I'm already talking to Tarheel Koi Farm to have them send me a bunch of fish. It's gonna take a lot of fishies to fill this thing.
If the sarassa do well this week, I will introduce a few of the koi later in the next week. I can't wait to put Big Alice in. She's my biggest fish and I think will have a blast in the new pond. I named her for the 3 hulking smoke stacks in NYC (together referred to as Big Alice), as my dad was a pipefitter that worked at the site when the stacks required work. But as you can see, sarrassa do look like kohaku koi to the uninitiated. So those of you who can't have koi due to smaller ponds, should take a look at sarassa as an option.
- I thought that watonai was some kind of bog plant and sarassas was sassafrass:surprised:
