My goldfish pond

[CountryEscape]

Larkin, my sister acts like spending thousands of dollars on her koi is no big deal when they went missing. I didn't know that owls and hawks would dive into the water to get the fish, I stand corrected if that is what they do. Her koi she moved from AZ were very large, 12-18" long I would guess, and now they are all gone. She seems indifferent as to keeping her fish safe, only that she wants to plop some Shubunkins in there (she will not buy feeder fish, she will spend money on pretty Shubies, if I know her), and then buy more when the predator eats what she has put in there. Maybe the predator will get full and then stay away. I just suggested that she could easily put up a net that would not be that unappealing to the eye, but she refuses to hear or think of that. Her bog plants were not touched, so figured it wasn't a raccoon. I had a raccoon not 100' from my ponds last week, dogs spotted it in the tall grass by the garden. I doubt it ever got close to the pond, as nothing was messed with, no plants dug up. Pretty sure there would be tasty morsels in the bogs for it to find! I agree, we can't give up having fish, I would never do that. If I lost all of my fish, I would figure out the problem, fix it, then get more fish. That's what I meant about the whole banter about her.
Sorry to have taken up more room on your thread, Keith. Heehee Your fish are gorgeous! I agree, I have favorites, but none are named except the black spotted fantail, Speck, and a few of the koi.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks CE, No problem on taking up space on my thread. There is plenty of room for everyone! I feel that when someone enjoys something then it should be for their own personal satisfaction and not to show off what it costs. I think my favorite things to do like chess, biking, and tennis are all hobbies I can pursue with little investment. I don't know if I am a product of the great recession and have sought out low cost activities in recent years, but most of these things I have done all my life. Obviously the same thing with my pond. I don't think how much you paid for something should be a gauge of how successful you are in life, but obviously a lot of people think that way. JW/Addy We are so sad about the frogs. They started as tiny tiny tadpoles. I'm sure the falcons got them. I see them flying around with things in their mouths all the time. We had a robins nest wedged into one of our gutters and suddenly one day it was all on the ground. I'm sure one of the falcons got to it and the poor babies.

 

[j.w]

Ok no Keith that is so sad. Not much you can do to stop mother nature tho. The falcon has to feed it's babies too but why does it have to be w/ all your baby critters at your house

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks JW. My wife and I went looking around our property tonight for the frogs to see if we could spot them Even though she complained about the frogs getting so big i know she really liked them except for once when one of them tried eating a bird. She mentioned that she wanted to video them this week and also invite her uncle over for dinner to see them so I guess both of those plans are shot now. I have a couple really tiny tadpoles that you can barely see but it seems like it will be forever until they reach the size of the missing frogs assuming that they can even survive that long.

 

[CountryEscape]

Last night, friend and I watched and laughed and watched some more at the little turtle in the koi pond. He/she watches for me to stand in the feeding spot, then I talk to him, "Come on over" and pretty soon here he comes. It's funny, because I know he doesn't understand me, maybe they don't even hear, but he comes over. The koi never get fed in the evening, but when they see him coming across the pond, they ASSUME food is coming, and come to the surface. So, I fed and had to get the koi distracted so the turtle could get a morsel or two. What a hoot! He would do his best, and we would watch, cheering him on, "Hurry, get that piece before ... ohhhhh shoot, you weren't fast enough!" I even would toss the pieces right in front of him, but he seems to not notice unless he goes underwater. What fun. So sorry your frogs have gone missing, likely stolen by the falcons. I think that is what has cleaned out the robin nest then dove nest here, too. But, in the wild, it's survival of the fittest. They just have to get lucky once and survive an attack, to be more wary and careful. Good luck with your little taddies!!!

 

[j.w]

I think 2 of my frogs got mad at me for messing around too much w/ the big pond and moved to the bathtub pond cuz I spied them in there yesterday just hanging out at the waters surface w/ their bug eyes watching me. Prolly wondering if I was gonna mess w/ the tub pond now. Nope I left them at peace but did top off the water in there which didn't seem to bother them.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks,CE A neighbor of ours has a little beer club that meets on Thursday nights. It's nothing formal ...just a bunch of guys that show up and stock his frig and everything is free for the taking for anyone that wants a beer and good company. He parks his little red 65 corvette in the driveway and everyone hangs out in his front driveway under a tent enjoying good conversation. Well I met one person tonight that lives about three blocks away from me and he tells me that these small green aquatic frogs keep showing up at this little pond he has and he has no idea where they came from. He says that they are definitely not bullfrogs and they have smooth skin. Also the beer club sponsor has a little pond too and says he has had frogs show up too. So I am wondering if my frogs are pond hopping? How far can a frog safely travel in an urban environment? It's all single family houses by us but there are some busy streets around us so the frogs wouldn't be roaming just through fields and wooded areas to get to other houses.
JW, at least you know where they are!

 

[CountryEscape]

I suspect your friends have frogs that have ended up in their ponds by default ... from plants, or birds, or ..... Who knows! I know the bullfrogs have plants of places to go around by me, but I'm very rural, too. We do have a road, LOL, but not much traffic, so they are all pretty safe even crossing the road to check out the ditch by the neighbors, which almost always has water in it, since it comes from their septic and gutters, and is lower so doesn't drain down the ditch like it's supposed to. Snapping turtle goes there every year to lay her eggs, and I spotted a pretty good sized painted turtle there, too. Then all the babies cross the road and head back to my farm pond in the pasture. Somehow, frogs, dragonflies, etc. always seem to find water. One person said a snapping turtle will find water no matter how far away it is! When the baby I caught got dumped out of the bucket here in my house (by my cat), I found it about a month later in the sump pump pit in the basement. Not sure if the cat carried it down the stairs, or if it crawled (carpeted steps), but that proves they CAN find water!

 

[CometKeith]

CE, That's interesting how the turtles et al keep moving around by you..... but by here it is pretty urban. There are alleys and streets criss crossing our whole area and some very busy streets too. My wife is worried she might have squished one of the frogs with her car because there is an alley right on the other side of the cedars that back up to the pond. There is a golf course about 500 ft from our house. Maybe they went there but they would have had to cross a fairly busy street to get there...... This is not a great picture, but you can see my two year old black fish that decided to start to change colors recently. There are still 7 all black ones in the pond. I'm hoping some more of them change color too!

 

[CometKeith]

Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of our frogs came back!! I have no idea where he went for two weeks. The other one is still missing but maybe there is hope he will come back too. I know now there are other green frogs in our community and they probably started at our pond. I wonder if they can hear each other for several blocks away because I know someone 3 blocks away that has green frogs too now and maybe it was mating calls that made him/her leave?

 

[addy1]

awww the call of the wild...............love.....................

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, great news, Keith!

 

[CometKeith]

Yup,Thanks CE. It's really cool. At first we didn't think it was one of our frogs because it was really skittish and very scared around us. Now the frog is very relaxed and I'm sure it's one of them. It sat on a water lettuce almost the whole day and didn't even move when I fed the fish yesterday only a few feet away. Still don't know what happened to the other one but i am going to assume they must have gone on a big adventure together and only one made it back so far...
I am still trying to breed some baby tads from eggs and so far I only have a lot of snails, mosquito larvae, and I found one baby fish about an inch long which I took inside and put in a vase for now. i threw in some hornwort and anacharis and now there are two more babies but they are a fraction of the size of the one i rescued. At first they looked like a tiny thread that was moving and when I saw the eyes I knew what they were!

 

[CometKeith]

Some recent pics. my succulents decided to grow some flowers!

 

[j.w]

Neat Keith, I didn't even know they could do that......bloom that is. Mine never did that but guess I had a different kind.