My goldfish pond

[j.w]

Lol addy he can't stand long hair now. Keeps it real short or it itches! I always liked his long hair too! Now when he gets his hair cut and gets home I say "I see you got scalped again!"

Keith,back to the fishes. I too wonder how the fish can grow in the winter. What do they eat? All that's in the pond is some algae, left over plant parts, maybe a few bugs but they always look bigger in the Spring! I still see some really tiny fish in my pond and in the plant rings too. Hope our winter continues being on the mild side and that the little ones can survive. Noticed yesterday when it was quite a bit warmer here then it has been that some of the fish were up near the surface sucking at the air. Wonder if I should do a partial water change now to maybe refresh the oxygen some? I have water bubblers and the waterfall on and a small air pump too but maybe the water needs some new in it since it's been warm and we get some rain now and then that could be acidy. Suppose I shall do a water test and see what it looks like.

 

[CometKeith]

Country, I looked up the Wright House you mentioned. It's a different Wright! Dr. Charles M. Wright http://www.wrightman...org/history.htm
If you liked the Fallingwater light and sound show exhibit you might like this article about how the same people are going to light up the "bean" ie. Cloud Gate later this month. http://articles.chic...or-s-cloud-gate
Oh and by the way my theory worked. That if you post an interesting picture of a dog on this forum you will get triple the number of comments than what you would normally get!

 

[CometKeith]

JW, yes cool 70's pic. I assume he has less hair now, probably like me. Ever watch the 70's Show? It really reminds you of a lot of weird stuff from that time. I have a friend that grew up in Wisconsin and she says the show is exactly how it was there when she was a teenager. Re: fish growing in the winter, maybe the fish grew in the fall and we didn't remember since then how big they got? I know I spent most my time removing leaves and rotting plants and not looking at the fish a whole lot. I can't believe there is anything that nutritious in the pond in the winter.

 

[addy1]

This year some of my floating plants are still alive and doing well. The fish are nibbling on their roots. Darn bugs already flying around, flies etc. Need a good hard freeze to kill some of them off.

 

[CountryEscape]

With the mild winter we are having, I watched my goldfish eating last weekend, but then I have algae (and a curtain of string algae I left for the frogs) on the sides and they were happily munching away. I was going to clean out the stuff on the bottom, although there isn't a whole lot, then decided to leave things be for now, since I didn't want to stir things up too much. Helps a BUNCH using my Pond Perfect, as that makes all the gunk into a matt that is easily pulled out!

 

[j.w]

Aw yes I remember "That 70's show". Loved it! And yes hubby gets scalped regularly now!

I have seen my goldfish actually ripping tiny pieces of dead water lily pads off and eating them.............when they get all brown,soft and shrively looking. So it seems they like rotting vegetation?Hope they are doing it cuz they like it and not because they feel I am starving them to death. I've seen them w/ a worm tugging at it w/ one end in one fishes mouth and the other end in the other fishes mouth. It's funny to watch them....................geez but then I always end up feeling sorry for the worm. What if they eat worms in the winter when it's cold? Won't it hurt them if it doesn't digest? You know how we are not supposed to feed them under 50*?

 

[CometKeith]

j.w., I think we have to remember that we are talking about varieties of carp. They can probably eat what is in their natural environment without getting sick. I think it's us humans that screw them up! Addy, I wonder if the fish are eating the roots or scavenging for small organisms that might be stuck in them? i pulled some leaves out of the bottom of my pond the other day and it looked like there were some things on them that the fish may eat. Attached is a winter pic of my pond. The hole got much larger last week and now it is smaller since the temps dropped. They are talking about maybe 6" of snow tomorrow or Saturday.

 

[addy1]

Hard to say, on the camera it looks like a root just hanging down from the pond surface. Could easily have organisms on it. They go from root to root yanking on them.

 

[CometKeith]

This grew out of my pond last week. I had to take a picture of it. At first when I saw it from my house I thought it was a plastic bag or piece of paper stuck in the pond.

 

[CountryEscape]

So, tell us, Keith, what IS it? Your bubbler building a statute? Very cool, whatever it is .... looks like it's growing out of the snow. BTW, since I used bubbler 2 or 3 days ago to open my pond, it has only a skim of ice this morning, but that will melt in the sunshine and warm temps predicted for today, My goal is to get to sit and enjoy the fish this weekend! 40's and sunshine. Woohoo!!!

 

[j.w]

Keith I think you have an elephant in your pond!

 

[addy1]

That is really neat looking!

 

[CountryEscape]

Keith I think you have an elephant in your pond!

OMG, JW, he should put that on the picture .... lost elephant has been found! Soooo funny.

 

[CometKeith]

The airstone is in the water below it. A few days before that there was a hole in the ice and that area was just water. I guess as it got colder the air kept looking for a place to go and made a sort of chimney! It was all natural. I had nothing to do with it occurring. I had never seen anything like before in my pond and it melted a few days later. The area I have the aerator is a constant struggle between keeping a hole in the ice and then freezing up when it gets colder, but never had anything like that before! Here is a close up.

 

[CountryEscape]

Sometimes fluke things like this in nature are seen only once and never again, may never get the exact same weather conditions to copy this. Very cool. I still like JW's comment, and think you should use it in the photo of the month competition sometime.