Posted on 12/30/2004 9:15:47 AM PST by Pukin Dog
Welcome to the ongoing vanity saga of my new backyard Koi Pond. A while back, I created a frantic post after discovering that Great Blue Herons were eating my Koi, so I asked FReepers for advice. Later, after installing a "Scarecrow", an infra-red, motion detecting, water sprinkler, I created a second post describing my success in using this device to ward off the Herons and preserve my expensive fish. During that thread, some folks requested that I post some pictures of my newest pond.
So, after picking up a very cheap digital camera on Ebay, I started taking pictures. I am also an avid gardener (no Pukin-ette to keep me busy)so I also included some plants growing near and in the pond. These represent the best of the shots that I have taken so far. (DISCLAIMER) I am NOT a photographer, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express recently. I hope you all enjoy these, and I welcome advice for how to take better pictures.
I was supposed to still be flying this week, but after the way that my airline (and their computers) screwed up our feeder routes, ol' Pukin is free to come home and goof off on the Internet today.
Click on the thumbnails to see the full size images. Sorry about the ads, but ImageShack was the only way that I could post thumbnails instead of the full size images.
Happy New Years!
The bright green stuff is the water lettuce, surrounded by azolla and water hyacinths.
This is one of the two Scarecrows installed at my pond, which protect my fish from Herons, Racoons and other animals that might want to make a meal of my fish.
This is the pond from a side view, highlighting my first attempt ever to install flagstone and mortar.
This is a plant called "Salvia" which grows near the pond.
This is the view of the rear of the pond from over the waterfall/biofilter.
This plant is called a pineapple palm.
This plant is called a 'Peace Lily'
This is a plant growing in the pond called 'Papyrus', which grows over 6' tall.
I dont know what this thing is, I was hoping that FReepers could identify it for me.
This is where all the fish are hiding. I think the flash scared them.
This is a King Sago Palm (not a real palm tree, but a prehistoric 'Cycas revoluta')
Another hiding place for the Koi.
Almost got a fish on camera, but he ducked under the azolla when he saw me.
This is a close-up of a plant called 'Duckweed' (the little green stuff) which is actually the favorite food of the fish. They are 70% vegetarians. (but not Liberals)
This is a white Cyclomen, a favorite flower of mine.
That plant you can't Identify looks like "DOLLAR WEED" a noxious and fast spreading plant. Pull up every piece of it! Don't leave so much as a tiny piece of root, as it will sprout anew from pieces as small as 1/8"! My yard is infested and i have spent hundreds of dollars and hours trying to defeat it. My neighbors yards are infested and they have given up. It will kill your grass and choke out every other plant.......if in fact that's what it is......
Oh, and BTW, great pond! We have one too and worry about Blue Herons also. A man here lost a bunch of Koi a couple of years ago to them. I think he used a garden net streched across the pond, almost invisible. We have lost a few fish to CATS in the neighborhood.........
Koi=Carp=Yum
Muttly wholeheartedly encourage your wonderful hobby.
Great hobby - and great job at creating the pond.
I have a webpage with more here:
Sherrie's Pond & Watergarden
This is the kind of sensitive crap that retired Tomcat pilots do on their days off. Don't go readin' anything 'gay' into it. Its only a hobby.
LOL, no way. There are a lot of he-man types that are into watergardens and fish ponds. It's a wonderful hobby no matter who you are!
:-).
But then again. I could be wrong.
Pukin Dog, the plant you can't identify is Pennywort. It is very invasive but I grow it in my filter. My filter is 100 gallons and the top is open. I put Pennywort, Aquatic Mint, Parrots Feather and Hyacinths in the top to add veggie filtration to the filtered water before it goes into the stream.
Pond...
Koi...
I lost 6 Koi to Great Egrets, so I took drastic measures. My first step didn't work out so well...
So I kicked it up a notch...
Actually, through landscaping and placement of some rocks, I denied the Koi eating b*st*rds a place to "fish" from. They have yet to wade in to take the Koi.
That is so corney, you might not be a gay guy but I'll bet you the person who talked you into buying that thing was..........
With all the free time you have, can't you just hide in the weeds with a shotgun?
All kidding aside, I bought my brother-in-law an artificial heron for his pond and it worked. he was losing his koi to a heron that actually would land on the roof of his shed before dropping down into the pond....
Did you install a tsunami warning system in case of an earthquake? : )
How do you control mosquitoes from using it as a breeding ground?
Living on the Bay in the PNW we would be over run by the little suckers. It is bad enough at dusk and dawn getting bombed when walking. Hence we don't come out that time of day.
"Do you have enough open water to find out if koi will take a dry fly?"
Try a black ant, hook size 14 or 16. Koi are good fighters with lots of powerful runs. 'Fought one six pounder for a good 20 minutes before landing it.
If you were a real man, you would install a live webcam. ;-)
Mine.
Welcome to fr from another confirmed fisherman.
Very cool. I like the snow shot.
:-) My daughter was going to get rid of my granddaughter's playhouse so I confiscated it for a pond tool shed.
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