mrsclem
mrsclem
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And they will be spawning soon! Any particular pattern of koi you ordered? You have a nice collection!
What does your pond look like ... Today?
- Thread starter JBtheExplorer
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The frogs and toads are back. They love the floating parrots feather in the 1000 gallon pond.
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Thanks for looking, @mrsclem ! This year, I purchased another lemon hariwake, a butterfly karasu, a butterfly sanke, 2 showas, a goromo, and a gin matsuba. I know lots say I'll never see the karasu, and truth to tell, from above, its dicey if I can tell it from the dark goldfish. But I'm taking the view that with the underwater camera, I'll at least see it plenty that way. I use to have large, 12" black shark tropical fish and loved them when I was younger, so I hope the karasu mimics them! The original reason I expanded from goldfish into koi is because there were more color patterns. Some of my shubunkin babies started out 'tiger-ish' with stripes of red and black and I liked them. When they grew larger though, that faded and I found I missed that look, so I got into the hi and shiro utsuris. That's why there's more of them than any other koi pattern. And once bit by the bug, I started seeing the other types and slowly but surely, am collecting one of each. Though, I think I may have to stop now; 25 is getting to be a lot but I'm betting the ones I have will never reach 25" let along 30+ as I'm not into growth feeding. They get fed maybe once a day, otherwise they're free to clean up the algae.
j.w
I Love my Goldies
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@brokensword beautiful fish in such a clear pond!
@JBtheExplorer your stuff seems pretty far along for this time of year in Wisconsin? Do you have some nice microclimate there?
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Thank you, @j.w ! Much appreciated are your kind words. I've been obsessed lately with improving the underwater view and clear water is a must. Brings back my multi-aquarium days...btw, the farthest point in the camera view is 25' away. If this isn't a poster for a bog, I don't know what is...
@brokensword I am sure you have been asked (MANY times), but which camera system are you using again? I have been toying with the thought of underwater cameras for some years, but never quite bit, yet.
I have seen others use the PoE security type and I can probably do this also, but still looking for that possible wireless (even just out of the pond to some local transmitter) camera system.
Oh - saw you had a GoPro?
btw - VERY nice pond and view.
I have seen others use the PoE security type and I can probably do this also, but still looking for that possible wireless (even just out of the pond to some local transmitter) camera system.
Oh - saw you had a GoPro?
btw - VERY nice pond and view.
Took my water down to the pros for testing they buy the good kits. And there's no point in me buying my I own as they do go bad, and they test so often they burn through their test kits they don't have a chance to go bad. And the good news everything looked good only ph was a tad low at 7.
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the vid is from a Barlus 2.8-12mm underwater camera. The gopro (knockoff) in the vid is attached to an RC boat so I can get different perspectives. Hadn't meant to even get it in the shot but was doing too many things at the same time to notice! The Barlus stays in the pond on a pvc tripod frame I set up. The PoE system was completely new to me at the time but with good customer service, they sorted out my problems.
I now have two PoE cams; the Barlus and another Chinese knockoff for above pond monitoring. Never thought I'd be as obsessed with 'watching' the pond, even in winter, as I am but there you have it. I'd heartily recommend any ponder getting one as it's great for peace of mind when the pond isn't easily accessible and the aquarium view is just great. This winter was my first and it was fascinating to watch them hibernate in that they don't just sit on the bottom and wait till spring. Add some way of seeing the pond water temps and you've increased the value of the camera!
If you go for a Barlus, I'd suggest the same or better than what I got as the min focus distance (12" or so) is a lot better than on the fixed focus models (6 feet). With the variable focus length (zoom) I can even see further, closer. I'd have liked one that also pans and tilts but don't think they make a model that does this. They do have the fixed models at about half the price I paid for mine (mine was ~$300 or so last year) and you'll need a PoE injector ($50 ish) for the system. Any other questions, just holler.
Thanks for the info -
Didn't realize you were using an RC boat for the GoPro
Interesting... and a good idea to get to areas out in the middle. One more thing to add to a list I have been toying with the Arduino UNO and programming it and recently got a ESP8266 which has wifi built in and will likely use it to measure pond temperatures remotely on my phone... just one of those things to keep the brain moving.
I have an idea in my head to be able to remotely add water and measure the dechlor remotely also and I think i can do it with the Arduino or ESP8266 with a small pump i have found that can dose small amounts of fluid. This will be useful when we get back to traveling again... some peace of mind that pond levels can be maintained even if we aren't there in person.
Hey what pond camera setup do you have? How does it work? Also, seems like a ton of fish in there! How many do you have?
EDIT: never mind, just saw all the posts before this one with all the info!
Thanks!
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JBtheExplorer
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We've had a nice stretch of warmer weather this spring, though to be honest, things aren't much ahead of normal.
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yep, all the info to set up your own underwater escape! Currently, I have 25 koi and about 100 gf, though it gets hard to really count them all. Since I get very few babies (until the year I expanded the pond), the total has been relatively steady. I don't feed when spawning is happening any more, just so I don't have to do a re-count!
JBtheExplorer
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Frogs.
