Cleaning out the Pond..............

The pond was clogged up with a lot of leaves. It smelled horrible. This year with hardly any snow the pond did not freeze as it usually does. Normally we have a heater that keeps it a little open but we had no need of that. Well the only two surviving fish died. Poor things. I always feel sad when they die. We now need to scrub the pond out well and put in fresh water. Get it at the right level for survival and anti chloride it. Although other people say that does not bother their fish, it has always seemed to bother ours. This year I want the pond to be a happy place and for the fish to have a good chance to survive. I will buy bigger ones to start off with I think. Here is Tristen helping Granddad.

I think I will go out to the fish place and ask some questions. I can not afford to have them come and set it up or I would do that. We go to Waterscapes Unlimited in Lake Ann, Mi. Its great for an afternoon out just browsing around their gardens, streams and ponds. Then always, the feeding of the Coy. This year I must get the pond at the right Ph levels. It only very small but intil we get this one right I can not really put in a larger one.
Here is the pond looking pretty.

Fish Pond.

We really enjoy the small pond that we have in the back garden. Its a challenge though. We started 3 years ago. The first winter we brought in all surviving fish and put them in a big tank. They did very well and grew over the winter. Come Spring they went back outside and did well all summer. Then we had a visitor and fish kept disappearing. We had a couple of misshaps with the pump. That's a long story but to make it short we unintentionally emptied the pond a couple of times. Lucky the fish had an inch or so and survived. All those fish had names so we were not happy to loose anyone. That winter we left them in the pond. Got a water heater that would just stop it from freezing to the bottom. The fish made it through with flying colours. Then just as we thought we had it all down pat, someone ate the fish. My fish that had names. I was really pissed off. So now we were down to just a couple, I bought more fish. They all died. Bought more and they died. Then we realized that the water has floride in it and I had forgotten to put in the stuff that neutralizes it. This year we have two fish left. They are happy fish and are doing very well. We have made hiding places in the pond for them, they can get away from cats or racoons that may fancy a snack.

These are the two survivors.



These two have grown over this summer and should be able to make it through the winter OK. If they do survive this winter they will just get bigger. I wont get them any new fish because I dont want to introduce any disease. I want to try to keep them healthy.



The pond is 3' in the middle but not too big around. Bigger than it look here though.