My goldfish pond

[MitchM]

Great looking pond, Keith.
Love all the plants.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks! Before you know it the plants will be taking over the pond and it will be a fancy bog with goldfish in it!

 

[C-Note]

Your water and fish are SO GORGEOUS!!!!

 

[haver79]

What a beautiful group of fish Keith. And I'm jealous of your nice clear water. Mine is still doing the green thing.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks C-Note and Haver. Of the 30 plus fish only three were store bought and the rest were born in the pond and survived without any help from me. I think I got lucky with some of the interesting coloration they have and it's fun watching them start out small and seeing how they change over time. The fish are very busy in the mornings chasing each other and I can see them from our window making some nice splashes as they turn. Even at night once in a while I spy on them and with the lights on and I can see them chasing each other like mad due to spawning behavor. This year I have a nice balance of mature males and females so it's not like one female gets chased all the time until they get bruised by being knocked into rocks which has been a problem in the past The water has improved a lot lately. i think partially it cleared up with all the extra water i added because I had a waterfall leak for about a week or so and also I think my water gets clear from all the plants. I have a little bit of floating algae by my waterfall but I try not to disturb any of it in the hope that it provides a place for dragonflies and damsalflies to lay eggs and Yey! I saw my first damselfly of the year!

 

[addy1]

Love your combination of fish Keith! Your pond is looking wonderful

 

[tbendl]

Wow. All the rain that we got has cloudied up my water. I'm jealous that it's so clear and pretty.

 

[rodsboys]

Amazing that your group was only 3 to begin with as it looks like a combination of sarassa, shubunkin, and commets. Great genes in that group!

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks, Rodboys there were a few more store bought originally but of the ones that have lasted there are only 3 left of which one is a spotted sarasa comet and the other two are shubunkins. At one time I had a really pretty orange spotted sarasa too and I think some of her genes might have been handed down. After the three oldest I have two about 5 years old that were born in the pond.One is all white and the other is orange with a white nose. Thanks Addy. It seems like a good combination but there are probably at least 10 black ones in my pond now of all sizes. I can see hints of color in some of them and I'm really curious what colors they will turn into. Thanks tBendl. We have had a decent amount of rain here too but nothing like what is coming out of Texas now.

 

[CountryEscape]

Fish pics are so crystal clear. My goldfish pond is like that, and if I wait for the sun to be shining on it at the right angle, I get good pics, but yours are wayyyy better! Must be your camera. LOL
I don't have any babies because of the hungry mouths of the fish, frogs, dragonfly nymphs, snakes, etc. I suspect. I have not seen any fry or anything for 2 years, but am certain the fish are spawning. I saw the goldfish spawning, and put a mop in the area the next day. It's unlikely any survived from that series, but we shall see, as they have spawned again, too. Lilies in my pond are growing VERY slowly this year, except the deep pink from Addy. Not sure why the Georgia Peach died, but it did. It was slow growing, so I fluffed the clay, added fertilizer below the tuber, and placed it back, and now I have nothing. Boooo Other nice lilies I had in the koi pond are really struggling this year, too. Must be something in the water that they are not appreciating, or maybe the cooler nights we had a couple of weeks ago so late. Will wait another month, see if they don't take off better.

 

[addy1]

My lilies have been slow to, some are blooming like crazy some have not even budded yet, but have leaves.

 

[CometKeith]

Hey CE, Thanks, It's one of those Samsung Galaxies. I think it has a pretty high megapixal camera. Good luck with your lilies and baby fish. Sorry the lilies aren't doing better. Mine are taking off this year and It's only June and I can see them being too much for my little pond soon. Every day I am getting several new leaves unfolding and i can see 4 flowers getting ready to come up soon. I think they are happy because they are at the bottom where the most gunk is. Also I put in one water hyacinth and one water lettuce about 4 weeks ago and suddenly they are taking off too. The wl has about 7 or 8 plants attached together and the wh has about 5 or 6. The pennywort I got from you is trying to come back. It has about 10-15 little leaves. They are all underwater.Do you think I should try to raise it up?
Addy your lilies are always so nice. i'm sure they will come around!

 

[CountryEscape]

All of my penny wart is in the bog, so roots gather in masses above the pea gravel in about 2-3" of water. I'd raise up the PW, but beware ... once it gets going, it will really take off! Good news is that they are easy to pull, just don't let it "jump ship" and get in the ground outside of your pond.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks CE. Oh, my pond is sooooo noneventful there is almost nothing to write about except the skeeters are almost as large as birds this year so it has limited my time sitting by the pond. Plants are growing like crazy and the water lettuces have definitely multiplied much faster than the water hyacinths. I already have free floating plants if anyone wants to pick them up. My lilies are growing like crazy and......my fish are growing nicely. I have been feeding them the same flake food but feeding them more often. Still losing water in the pond every day and I can't find any leaks but am missing one gasket on my biofilter and will try replacing that before anything major. My wife is on board with me changing the liner but ugghhh don't want to do that in the middle of the summer and have to risk needing to recycle the pond.

 

[CountryEscape]

I should have stopped by last weekend, Keith, and helped you out with your abundance of floating plants! ;-) Was in WI for family reunion. My ponds have been "losing water" daily, too, but it was because of the heat and wind, not because of any leak. When I have both ponds losing the same amount of water, I know it's from evaporation, not from a leak. Loving the cool weather this morning, though!!!