Pond pics

[capewind]

My water hyacinths did well at first, then all died or were heading that direction. I'm wondering if it was the extreme heat we had so early. Maybe your more temperate climate in Massachusetts is easier on them. Anyhow, saved a few, put them in very large pots intended for lotus (which had died), and voila, they all grew and bloomed. I also had blooms yesterday, but of course we are much warmer I would guess than you this time of year.
Thanks for sharing your pond pics! Loved them!!!

We had a heck of a time with the water hyacinths this year. They did really well at first, then the heat hit. I thought we were going to lose them, the heat was so brutal on them, so I threw about half up into the upper pond (gets a hint of shade) and they bounced back, so kept rotating them LOL.

 

[capewind]

Yes very pretty! Beautiful butterfly in that second pic just love them lol
Btw, HOW do you keep your fingernails so pretty playing in pond water?!?!? Had to stop getting mine done after 10 years, I was having to get them done every week! . Just can't keep my hands out of the dirt lol

Thank you I love all of our "babies"... As to my nails... The pond and plants are the least my nails have to worry about. Was stacking wood a couple of days ago too, and no breakage;-) My nails are real, BUT, I have a thin layer of acrylic on them. I get my nails done about every 6 weeks, the same way anyone with FAKE nails do. The only difference is I dont have fake tips like most do. My youngest made me go with her about a year ago to "get our nails done"... So NOT ME... I am a jeans and workboots kind of gal I'm not a foofoo girlie type at all. BUT what I did discover is with the acrylic on them, I dont break them, which with what I normally do, they would break low and HURT... A bit of reinforcement = no pain LOL.

 

[capewind]

Oh, and if your comets reproduce in the upper pond, you can bet the fry will go floating right around those rocks to the lower pond. I don't think even a fine netting would hold back any eggs and/or fry. I hope I'm wrong if you're trying to keep them separate! I have 2 ponds, and there is a stream between them, but they don't flow one into the other. It's an optical illusion. I didn't want the water to flow from one to the other because of the attempt to keep koi and goldfish separated. Now, if I can just catch the remaining goldfish in the koi pond ...

I am HOPING the barricade hubby has in place works... He has ONE 3-4" comet baby in the main pond that he can NOT catch. He has given it a not so nice nick name LOL... "Little F'er" LOL. I'll stand out there feeding, and when hubby is near, will make comments like "there's momma's little pumpkin" and the LOOKS he gives are priceless LOL. I love to razz him about it because he has gone swimming a few times now to get the little brat, and no dice! LMAO.

I attached pics of the little barricade. Have had a lot of rain, so the water level is high right now (about an inch above the gravel), but normally, the gravel behind the little rock wall just stays "wet" to partially dry. He had to put two pipes into the gravel to help the upper pond drain at the right rate into the lower pond.

 

[capewind]

Great pics capewind. Thanks for sharing. I'm sure I could look at them for hours and keep getting ideas. It's interesting how close you built everything to the house. To me that is the ideal situation so you have a nice view from inside as well as outside. By the time I walk out to my pond a lot of the other critters are gone or hiding.

I try not to go to the files here and just browse pics... Soooo many ideas! Hubby keeps telling me how many "rules" I am breaking with some of the things I ask him to do, but he makes it happen anyways! The biggest issue was worrying about the run off from the roof... we havent even gotten to putting gutters on the house yet, but as he dug the pond, got the french drains/dry wells in, so run off and erosion issues are nipped in the butt before they can become an issue.

 

[Fishylove]

That is amazing cape! Beautiful. That spill over is what I have in mind for mine ( except on a Smaller scale lol ) to connect my bog to the main pond. Did he just level out a large flat piece of flagstone? And how is the pea gravel contained there?

 

[Fishylove]

Oh wait, you did say that was going to be a bog. Ok the row of stone are just sitting on top of the pea gravel? Or is there a wall?

 

[capewind]

Oh wait, you did say that was going to be a bog. Ok the row of stone are just sitting on top of the pea gravel? Or is there a wall?

The gravel is 2' deep there... for the bog... the row of rocks are just sitting there to keep the comets/shubunkins in

 

[Fishylove]

Ahhh I see Little stinkers they are lol

 

[CountryEscape]

Capewind, good luck catching that little bugger! I have at least 6, if not 10 goldies in my koi pond that I've not caught. I had them all together last year, first pond, then this spring dug the goldfish pond, caught some to move over. Then on Memorial Day weekend (of course, after all that warm weather, and some spawning already had happened) I had family visiting, so we set up the seine net. Caught about 20 of them and moved them, but not all. Some were just too smart, got under or on the edge of the net. I'm hoping when the water gets colder, and the lilies are no longer in the way, I'll be able to try again with the seine net and have more luck. We shall see ... otherwise will wait until spring, BEFORE the water warms up much, and hoping they will be moving slower. Once they figure out you are out to catch them, the game is over, and they win! So, I sure can sympathize with your hubby ... and I've called them some pretty colorful names before, too! :twisted:

 

[capewind]

I can imagine the longer (s)he is out there, the more creative his name will become for it LOL. He netted all of the comets/shubunkins, moved them to the upper pond (babies came inside)... then the big comets figured out how to get over the gravel, and back to the main pond... so more gravel dam, and the little rock wall, and this one still got back to the main pond LOL. His patience is about gone, and we are talking about a man who will lay at the side of the pond with an aquarium net, and catch little half inch babies LOL. So the more he gets riled up about this one bratt, the funnier it gets. He is using a seine net too. The koi are too friendly (or dumb) to be stressed out by the net, they are in the way... I figure one of two things will happen, Either he is going to get really pissed off and DRAIN the pond to catch it, or it will over winter with the koi, and when the next/bigger pond goes in next spring, the koi will all just get moved and this little guy will win.

 

[CountryEscape]

The way I look at it, this time of year they are harmless to be with the koi. But, if you want to have koi breeding koi and goldies/shubies breeding their own kind, then in the spring you have to get them out of there before the water warms up too much. I see my water temp in the big pond is 54 degrees this evening. Pretty sure it was in the upper 40's this morning, though. They are not very interested in food, so have pretty much quit feeding. I'm hoping they will all get "slower" as the water gets colder, and I may get lucky and snatch a few of the goldies still in with the koi. Finally have some baby koi this year (well only 2nd year for the pond LOL) and now I'm wondering if they are full koi, or if a goldfish fertlized the eggs. They look totally different than the goldfish babies from last year and this year, though. Good luck to your hubby catching the brat! I sympathize with him. If he finds a trick to getting them caught, please pass it along to me!

 

[capewind]

I think it is fun to see what we get in babies, so I really dont care if we end up with a few hybrids, but he really doesnt want anything other than koi, and even then, I should say he favors the butterflies... He and I go round and round LOL. I like variety, and even in the koi, there are just some colors that he is not going to get in a butterfly. I have a really pretty standard fin Goromo that IS growing on him, so I will win that battle and get a few more standard fins. Specifically, I want a couple more Shusui and Asagi, and the actual color patterns I want, I am not seeing in the butterflies, not to mention the utsuri ... cant find "cheap" with a decent color pattern in a standard fin, I doubt I'll find what I want in a butterfly. Then of course I like the bratty little comets, and the not so bright shubunkins too;-) The way I am looking at the whole thing is our preference differences will just increase the number of ponds we have, and that, to me, is a win/win Unless he gets pissed off and drains the pond, I doubt he will come up with any tricks to catch the one bratt. I love taunting hubby by calling it "Momma's little pumpkin" LMAO.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Very nice pond capewind! You got a nice look to your yard and house!!! You should thin those floating plants out better next year as too many can spell disaster, especially when the fish start to get bigger. Too many floating plants tend to "smother the pond" and can reduce oxygen levels in the pond' well as trap in ammonia. I had that problem about 18 years ago, back then I had mostly floaters, similar to you, and one year I had disaster, healthy big goldfish just up and died! Then someone told me that as the fish grow, they require more space and open water to ensure they have enough oxygen into the pond. Now I just have mainly tall sedges that cool and shade pond without smothering.

If you change up the plants and go with more winter hardy sedges, like cattails, water irises and rushes, you will have tall plants that will come back early in the spring and they are very good cleaners early in the spring too. Then we will be able to see more of those beautiful goldfish!

 

[capewind]

Thank you The upper pond is SUPPOSED to be a bog, and next year, I hope it will be well planted with hardy plants (such as you mentioned) that can live there permemently. All the water hyacinths in the main pond are intentional. We have a string that runs across the pond to keep them all contained to one side. The reason for so many is to shade the pond, as we havent gotten to planting trees yet in the yard. The main pond is in full, South/Southwest sun, sun up, to sun down. NO SHADE at all. The bog gets "shade" for about an hour in the morning, and an hour just before sunset. We only have 50-60 fish outside, with a total water volume around 9000 gallons, with 3 waterfalls, so usable oxygen should be okay for awhile yet. I was more concerned with the potential sun amount causing alagae blooms, so wanted to do what was feasible to shade the pond. If you think we are too close to that fine line towards disaster with the added info, DO PLEASE say so, I just wanted to explain the info you may not know,

 

[callingcolleen1]

You should be OK, sounds like you got lots of water movement and large volume of water so not to worry!
My ponds were smaller way back then and the fish had grown so large, and I was unaware of the danger of too many floaters! You know, too much of any one thing can be a disaster. Live and learn.

So what are you going to do with the fish in the winter? How cold does it get down there?