My goldfish pond

[j.w]

Bummer @CometKeith guess your adjustment in the dark went awry. I'm sticking w/goldfish. Would never want to have fish in my pond that are worth more than my car
Keep in mind my car is pretty old but still worth more than my goldfish

 

[Tula]

Why not just enjoy the carefree joy of goldfish and relax this summer

 

[herzausstahl]

Well i played around with my waterfall on Sunday. Monday night i worked rather late and notice the waterfall wasn't splashing much so I made a slight adjustment with the hose from the pump and the rocks it splashed on to. It was dark out so it was a little hard to see. Well Tuesday morning my pond was down about a foot! That is about 1000 gallons. I have been filling it the last few days and it is close to normal. Update on the fish. The goldfish all look happy, The Sanke... I haven't actually seen in 4 months but I can kind of see him. The kuahku looks like it's dead, but it did move to another spot from the other day. I think I'm better off with goldfish for some odd reason....

I'd say wait till it finally is spring here & see how they domthen before giving up. Plus didn't you add these guys a little later in fall? I'd still get one more when it warms up a bit before summer hits with the high temps & let it acclimate to your pond for a season before giving up completely on koi or getting too discouraged.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks all. I feel that from all the construction both on my property and the one next door that is going on two years there is probably a lot of gunk and silt that has gone in the pond. I guess I could check the ph and see if it is too high for Koi, but for some reason the goldfish are doing way better. I took a quick count Thursday and I counted 35-40 goldfish in a few minutes and there are probably another 20 or 30 I didn't see. There are a lot of black ones that are hard to see and I have seen a few babies even smaller than one inch. Interestingly I have at least a dozen or more bright orange comets and I never bought even one. I think these were all black at one time and I never bought a black one either. Now the Koi.... My favorite fish my platinum Hariwake died over the winter. That was before I put my breather in. The Kohaku is the one that looks mostly dead but it does move to place to place sometimes but never swims. I have not seen the Butterfly Sanke swimming but it looks like it sits by one of the shelves fairly deep in the water. It moved the other day and I don't know where it is. I do have a lot of sediment on the bottom and have not cleaned it since I built the pond about 20 months ago. I don't know if that is bothering the Koi but the goldfish don't seem to mind. We are looking at doing pavers soon in the yard so I definitely will not even think about adding any fish until that project is done. I may put in my biofilter this weekend but it will be in the low 40's by us and the weather has been overall very cold. We are close to the lake and it's waters are only 40 degrees and we have been getting a cold wind practically every day for the last month . Here is a picture I took Thursday when it warmed up for a few hours. The plants are just starting to grow and I plan to clean some of the old stuff out when I know what won't come back.

 

[Gemma]

@CometKeith I'm thinking your koi are displaying normal behavior due to low water temps
Do you have a plan to reduce the number of goldfish, or are you keeping all of them?

 

[Tula]

I agree with @Gemma about the koi displaying normal behavior for the current temps. In my experience , the koi I have are slower moving then the shubunkin and comets, I used to have.

I fed my koi yesterday, but they didn't come quickly...took their sweet time

 

[addy1]

Three days of 85 F full sun, the pond jumped from 48F to 67F. Fish want to be fed!

 

[herzausstahl]

All of you & your warm temps & im in the middle of a blizzard! Lol my pond earlier today

 

[j.w]

Even I who love snow would not be too happy about that @herzausstahl , I mean it's the middle of April for Heaven's sake!

 

[CometKeith]

@CometKeith I'm thinking your koi are displaying normal behavior due to low water temps
Do you have a plan to reduce the number of goldfish, or are you keeping all of them?

Hi Gemma. I think my pond can handle the bio-load pretty easily. I'm guessing it's around 2500 gallons so I guess I'm keeping them all. There are some really cute babies in the pond and I have noticed some spawning behavior too the other day. Lately I realized I made some of the shelves way to big. I'm thinking of digging them out from underneath and that would give the pond more water volume. I'm ordering a new uv light because my old one broke. Also i'm getting a new pump just for the waterfall and some other accessories. I was looking at pond vacuums too.
Does anyone know...can I just use an attachment on a wet vac or do I need to actually buy a pond vacuum? I think the cleaning is way overdue and things are getting pretty nasty.
JW agreed, I'm complaining but this is nothing compared to WI and MN right now. Herz, that's crazy but...it's 37 degrees here now and they are talking about snow tonight!
Addy 80's wow. I wish. Have you seen any frogs yet?

 

[Tula]

I saw my first frog of the season yesterday He was sitting near me as I fed the koi.....he was back this morning, sitting in the drizzle.

@CometKeith , I've wondered the same thing about a shop vac or pond vacuum, so will be interested to what others say. Do you have a fine mesh pool net? They work very well to scoop up stuff on the bottom of the pond.

 

[herzausstahl]

Even I who love snow would not be too happy about that @herzausstahl , I mean it's the middle of April for Heaven's sake!

Deep enough you don't need the step to get to the patio. Just walk straight out onto the snow. Lol Dog had trouble at first but has paths through it now. Packy & drifted enough I made a snow cave for the kids.

 

[herzausstahl]

Hi Gemma. I think my pond can handle the bio-load pretty easily. I'm guessing it's around 2500 gallons so I guess I'm keeping them all. There are some really cute babies in the pond and I have noticed some spawning behavior too the other day. Lately I realized I made some of the shelves way to big. I'm thinking of digging them out from underneath and that would give the pond more water volume. I'm ordering a new uv light because my old one broke. Also i'm getting a new pump just for the waterfall and some other accessories. I was looking at pond vacuums too.
Does anyone know...can I just use an attachment on a wet vac or do I need to actually buy a pond vacuum? I think the cleaning is way overdue and things are getting pretty nasty.
JW agreed, I'm complaining but this is nothing compared to WI and MN right now. Herz, that's crazy but...it's 37 degrees here now and they are talking about snow tonight!
Addy 80's wow. I wish. Have you seen any frogs yet?

My mom has a pond fac but I'm barely around when she uses it. When the week of spring arrives up here & she cleans out her pond with it I'll try to take some pictures of it for you. As far as I know she likes it. And yeah pretty sure we're 10-20 degrees below normal temps right now.

 

[Lisak1]

I tried the shop vac @CometKeith thinking it would work, but it just fills up with water... and then what? I'm assuming a pond vac has a filter that catches the debris and then pump the water back into the pond, but maybe I'm wrong on that one, too!

 

[CometKeith]

Deep enough you don't need the step to get to the patio. Just walk straight out onto the snow. Lol Dog had trouble at first but has paths through it now. Packy & drifted enough I made a snow cave for the kids.

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Nathan. Great pictures. It looks like your children don't mind the snow at all! We are going to a campground close to Baraboo this weekend with a group of people. I'm hoping any snow there melts before we get there!

I tried the shop vac @CometKeith thinking it would work, but it just fills up with water... and then what? I'm assuming a pond vac has a filter that catches the debris and then pump the water back into the pond, but maybe I'm wrong on that one, too!

. That's what I thought too. I just bought a bunch of supplies for the pond. It looks like I'll need to order a vacuum soon too because there is a lot of muck.
Well I had to dispose of the Kohaku yesterday because the last cold spell put her out of her misery. I'm hoping the butterfly Sanke will be okay. She has been hiding by the bottom all winter.