Pond Life
Things are improving in the pond. This morning Al was talking to me again. Also, when I fed him, the mfish came out to eat, which they had not done since the goldies moved in. The largest, adult mfish are really cute, with frilly fins, and very tame, but when the goldies first moved in they hid for a few days. Big fish are a little scary when you are a tiny fish, even if you're a tiny aggro fish! Today, the mfish not only came out to eat in the morning, but this afternoon they are cheerfully making their rounds of the pond and "doing their thing." They are so freaking cute! There are still quite a few of them and I think I will pull a few out and give them to my neighbor. She put about 9 goldfish into her pond at the beginning of summer and now she has more than twenty. Her pond is green and overloaded. Mfish will keep them from further breeding.
The goldies smell the food in the water when I feed Al, so they get all excited and start whipping around, but they don't come up to eat yet. I think they do pick up some of his leftovers. Of course the mfish steal Al's food and eat his leftovers.
Today the goldies started eating the hell out of the pond. This morning I saw them grazing on carpet algae. Then when I got home I went out there and saw, through a little window between plants, one of the goldies chomping a dead cattail leaf. He had the long leaf sticking out of his mouth and was slowly chewing it in. I moved the plants to get a good look at the fish and I saw the goldies grazing on cattail roots.
The cattails, as I have mentioned, are planted in a 10' square pond basket. They have some thick, strong roots coming out of the basket, but also a (formerly) big cloud of rootlets all around the basket, too. THe goldfish have grazed down more than half of the rootlets on the exposed side; when they get those all gone I will turn the basket and let them get at the other side.
When I was out at the pond, I shook/wiped loose much of the string algae in the skippy, so it fell into the pond. I hope the goldies will eat it, but I further hope that the freaking barley straw will kick in and get rid of the string algae. I added another quarter pad to the pond a few days ago. Come on straw, do your thing!
There is blue-green algae in the pond, too, which worries me a bit- I will have to look into that.
Tabby took this picture of the fish in the bucket before we brought them home:
I am so tempted to climb into the pond.
The goldies smell the food in the water when I feed Al, so they get all excited and start whipping around, but they don't come up to eat yet. I think they do pick up some of his leftovers. Of course the mfish steal Al's food and eat his leftovers.
Today the goldies started eating the hell out of the pond. This morning I saw them grazing on carpet algae. Then when I got home I went out there and saw, through a little window between plants, one of the goldies chomping a dead cattail leaf. He had the long leaf sticking out of his mouth and was slowly chewing it in. I moved the plants to get a good look at the fish and I saw the goldies grazing on cattail roots.
The cattails, as I have mentioned, are planted in a 10' square pond basket. They have some thick, strong roots coming out of the basket, but also a (formerly) big cloud of rootlets all around the basket, too. THe goldfish have grazed down more than half of the rootlets on the exposed side; when they get those all gone I will turn the basket and let them get at the other side.
When I was out at the pond, I shook/wiped loose much of the string algae in the skippy, so it fell into the pond. I hope the goldies will eat it, but I further hope that the freaking barley straw will kick in and get rid of the string algae. I added another quarter pad to the pond a few days ago. Come on straw, do your thing!
There is blue-green algae in the pond, too, which worries me a bit- I will have to look into that.
Tabby took this picture of the fish in the bucket before we brought them home:
I am so tempted to climb into the pond.