I recently moved to Upstate SC and inherited a fish pond. It is doing well. Algae problem was solved with new UV bulbs. New liner means we are good to go for years to come. The plants all got repotted before winter so it looks pretty bare. I will post pictures come warmer weather, fresh surrounding mulch, and plant growth.
I moved down from North Central Pennsylvania, so I am not used to 50's and 60's in February. In the last week, the frogs have been gathering and singing at the pond. Froggy Bottom Bluegrass. Now they are mating. There are a zillion frogs in my poor little 1000 gal pond, and more are coming across the sidewalk every hour. Three horny toads were trying to attach to one poor female. Hope they don't drown her! It is a bloomin' frog... zoo!
There are masses of eggs strands in the underwater plant pots. There are frogs getting tangled in the leaf netting. There are frogs on the sidewalk. There are frogs in juniper. There are frogs... EVERYWHERE!
And NOISY! These amphibians are singing around the clock. At first it was driving my dogs crazy, but they have settled down now, except for the occasional bark fest.
It is Spring at its finest, in February.
I have nine goldfish in there. They are schooling (for self-defense?) rather than their usual meandering. I know they will feast once the tadpoles start hatching and swimming. Guess I won't need more fish food for a while.
I was wondering about removing some of the eggs, wondering if there would be so many tadpoles that they would cause some type of problem. I wondered if their rampant breeding would cause a frog population explosion, die-off, and fly epidemic. Basically the worst parts of the 10 Plagues. Then I realized that this pond has been in place for several years. I suspect natural selection will keep the local frog population in check, and if I don't feed the fish during the tadpole explosion, they probably won't really eat themselves to death. Hey, maybe the little all-white one will grow a bit.
Speaking of the little white one, I have been working on names for my fish. They are distinct enough to tell them apart. Being a Vorkosigan fan, I named the little fellow Miles. The largest, solid orange with a big beautiful tail is Cordelia. The big healthy tri-color is Aral. The equally large, but scruffy tri-color is Bothari. The small, mostly white with an orange stripe on its head is Lord Mark. The slightly smaller, but equally beautiful solid orange one is Ekaterin. And there's Kareen, Alice, and Ivan.
I name and talk to my plants. I name and talk to my chickens. Now I've named and can talk to my fish.
Life is good.
I moved down from North Central Pennsylvania, so I am not used to 50's and 60's in February. In the last week, the frogs have been gathering and singing at the pond. Froggy Bottom Bluegrass. Now they are mating. There are a zillion frogs in my poor little 1000 gal pond, and more are coming across the sidewalk every hour. Three horny toads were trying to attach to one poor female. Hope they don't drown her! It is a bloomin' frog... zoo!
There are masses of eggs strands in the underwater plant pots. There are frogs getting tangled in the leaf netting. There are frogs on the sidewalk. There are frogs in juniper. There are frogs... EVERYWHERE!
And NOISY! These amphibians are singing around the clock. At first it was driving my dogs crazy, but they have settled down now, except for the occasional bark fest.
It is Spring at its finest, in February.
I have nine goldfish in there. They are schooling (for self-defense?) rather than their usual meandering. I know they will feast once the tadpoles start hatching and swimming. Guess I won't need more fish food for a while.
I was wondering about removing some of the eggs, wondering if there would be so many tadpoles that they would cause some type of problem. I wondered if their rampant breeding would cause a frog population explosion, die-off, and fly epidemic. Basically the worst parts of the 10 Plagues. Then I realized that this pond has been in place for several years. I suspect natural selection will keep the local frog population in check, and if I don't feed the fish during the tadpole explosion, they probably won't really eat themselves to death. Hey, maybe the little all-white one will grow a bit.
Speaking of the little white one, I have been working on names for my fish. They are distinct enough to tell them apart. Being a Vorkosigan fan, I named the little fellow Miles. The largest, solid orange with a big beautiful tail is Cordelia. The big healthy tri-color is Aral. The equally large, but scruffy tri-color is Bothari. The small, mostly white with an orange stripe on its head is Lord Mark. The slightly smaller, but equally beautiful solid orange one is Ekaterin. And there's Kareen, Alice, and Ivan.
I name and talk to my plants. I name and talk to my chickens. Now I've named and can talk to my fish.
Life is good.
But, maybe that is in part because I have large koi in one pond, and pretty good sized goldfish in the other pond ... and bullfrogs! Yes, as they say, bullfrogs will eat anything and everything it can catch and get in it's mouth ... and some things it can't get in their mouths. But, again, survival of the fittest. If all of my goldfish babies survived, I would have a population explosion that I don't want/need.
