To day I was wading around in the pond. Cleaning out some string algae
and re-stacking some stones that had fallen down from the sides due to
the occasional visit of our local raccoon (a big old bruiser - saw him
in the daylight last week looking a _LOT_ worse for wear, missing half
his tail - I think maybe he tangled with a coyote) The fish really
seemed interested in what I was doing in their home. I guess it is big
excitement for them - not to mention turning over stones giving them
access to nice snacks. Water temperature about 60 deg F. The pond
does not get a lot of sun so the water lilies are not doing too much yet
but the water cress in the top of the water fall came back and is
growing well and the marsh Marigolds just finished blooming.

(Had to post something to counteract all the spam happening lately.)

"Greg Cooper" wrote in message
news:O_jfe.52725$tg1.582@edtnps84...
The pond
does not get a lot of sun so the water lilies are not doing too much yet
but the water cress in the top of the water fall came back and is
growing well and the marsh Marigolds just finished blooming.
===============================
My lilies get enough sun but only 2 are blooming. We've had below normal
temperatures here. Even the garden flowers are growing slowly. My fish
have spawned several times. The water temps go up and down. Only the 2000
gallon pond fluctuates slowly. Where the heck is spring?
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
EVERYONE: "Please check people's headers for forgeries
before flushing." :-)
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

You luky guy, we only have around 55 deg. F
longing for summer
will the racoon take your fish ?

--
regards

Birgitte Windfeld
www.ninaweb.dk/havedam
www.koihus.dk
"Greg Cooper" skrev i en meddelelse
news:O_jfe.52725$tg1.582@edtnps84...
To day I was wading around in the pond. Cleaning out some string algae
and re-stacking some stones that had fallen down from the sides due to the
occasional visit of our local raccoon (a big old bruiser - saw him in the
daylight last week looking a _LOT_ worse for wear, missing half his tail -
I think maybe he tangled with a coyote) The fish really seemed interested
in what I was doing in their home. I guess it is big excitement for
them - not to mention turning over stones giving them access to nice
snacks. Water temperature about 60 deg F. The pond does not get a lot
of sun so the water lilies are not doing too much yet but the water cress
in the top of the water fall came back and is growing well and the marsh
Marigolds just finished blooming.

(Had to post something to counteract all the spam happening lately.)

"Greg Cooper" wrote in message
news:O_jfe.52725$tg1.582@edtnps84...
To day I was wading around in the pond. Cleaning out some string algae
and re-stacking some stones that had fallen down from the sides due to the
occasional visit of our local raccoon (a big old bruiser - saw him in the
daylight last week looking a _LOT_ worse for wear, missing half his tail -
I think maybe he tangled with a coyote) The fish really seemed interested
in what I was doing in their home. I guess it is big excitement for
them - not to mention turning over stones giving them access to nice
snacks. Water temperature about 60 deg F. The pond does not get a lot
of sun so the water lilies are not doing too much yet but the water cress
in the top of the water fall came back and is growing well and the marsh
Marigolds just finished blooming.

(Had to post something to counteract all the spam happening lately.)

Our raccoons have great respect for the electric fence. Momma even teaches
the young ones to stay clear.

My pond (puddle) sounds smaller than yours, so wading is not really an
option. I can foresee taking a bath if one were not careful with the steep
sides. I was rearranging the bricks and pail my fountain sits on (knocked
them over yesterday) and the GF were quite interested in the rake handle I
was using to move the bricks around. They seem quite brave today (spawning
frenzy).

The water is probably around 55°F today, but I haven't measured it in a few
days. It was quite chilly here this week, still dropping down to freezing at
nights.

My lilies were actually growing in the dark. They were already about 8" long
when I took the cover off, despite being in the dark for six months.
Although they have not reached the surface of the water yet. So far the
duckweed is keeping ahead of the GF, which seems hard to believe. Maybe it's
too cold fro them to be eating, although they look pleasantly plump.

wow, 55 deg water in May..my pond is already in the high 70's, at
around 6 or 7 feet of depth and today in water up to about 30 inches
deep hit 82 deg........

==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!

~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o

Spring must be a-coming.
The fish seem active though - water around 60 F.

Reel McKoi wrote:

"Greg Cooper" wrote in message
news:O_jfe.52725$tg1.582@edtnps84...
The pond

does not get a lot of sun so the water lilies are not doing too much yet
but the water cress in the top of the water fall came back and is
growing well and the marsh Marigolds just finished blooming.

===============================
My lilies get enough sun but only 2 are blooming. We've had below normal
temperatures here. Even the garden flowers are growing slowly. My fish
have spawned several times. The water temps go up and down. Only the 2000
gallon pond fluctuates slowly. Where the heck is spring?

Birgitte wrote:

You luky guy, we only have around 55 deg. F
longing for summer
will the racoon take your fish ?

He has - mostly we have had gold fish and small Koi but about 2 year
ago we splurged and spend about $150 on a larger koi (large for us
anyway) He seemed to us to be a very gentle soul and quite friendly.
One morning I went out to find him on his side drifted up to the skimmer
inlet. The Raccoon had gotten a good bite on his back about 1/3 of the
way down but the fish must have wrenched himself free. He was still
alive at that point but succumbed within 24 hours in spite of supportive
care with salt and raised temperature. We have lost some other fish but
this one hurt the most because he was so trusting and unaware of dangers
that he never stood a chance. This lost was in spite of having a water
scarecrow and an electric fido fence around the pond. I now have a
water scarecrow and a net across the entire pond. It is a fine black
mesh so is not too unsightly but it makes access to the pond less easy.

I dont really blame the raccoon he has to eat and he was here before we
arrived.

~Roy~ wrote:

wow, 55 deg water in May..my pond is already in the high 70's, at
around 6 or 7 feet of depth and today in water up to about 30 inches
deep hit 82 deg........

==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!

~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o
Where do you live Roy?
My water has never ever gotten close to 82 even in summer.

Lower Alabama

Now that temp is only within the depth I stated........so its not like
the fish are always in a hot tub. My pond is up to 21+ feet deep so I
do pull in and mix a lot of cooler water with my pumps and aeration,
but just for the heck of it, I have electronic thermometers suspended
at various depths throughout the water column.


I rmember when I lived up north, and we used to go to thre local
swimming holes....they never really were what you called nice and
warm..
On Mon, 09 May 2005 07:19:49 GMT, Greg Cooper
wrote:

===~Roy~ wrote:
===
=== wow, 55 deg water in May..my pond is already in the high 70's, at
=== around 6 or 7 feet of depth and today in water up to about 30 inches
=== deep hit 82 deg........
===
=== ==============================================
=== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
===
=== ~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o
===Where do you live Roy?
===My water has never ever gotten close to 82 even in summer.


==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!

~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o

"Greg Cooper" wrote in message
news:QYDfe.56986$tg1.35690@edtnps84...
Spring must be a-coming.
The fish seem active though - water around 60 F.
============================
That was the temp of the pond water here yesterday as well. My smaller
pond, all butterfly koi (except one baby from last year) spawned yesterday.
I saved one large string of hornward full of eggs. I was thrilled!!!
:-)))

I also found a home for some extra not-real-pretty goldfish. Farmers will
often take them to keep down mosquitoes in farm/stock ponds.
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
EVERYONE: "Please check people's
headers for forgeries before flushing." :-)
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

When we first put the pond in - before we planted the yard with trees we
were visted by both a King Fisher and a Heron.
The Heron never got any fish as we spotted him and chased him off and I
think he probably felt it was not worth the effort. Right when we
first stocked our new pond with 5 two inch gold fish the very next
morninng we awoke to see the Kingfisher dining on his second. The
strange thing is the Kingfisher did not come back for more.
Reel McKoi wrote:
## Before netting our ponds we were at the point of losing several fish a
week. We also use those fine black bird nets. We haven't lost one fish to
predators since and it's been a few years now. The final straw was when a
gorgeous translucent yellow butterfly koi with excessive finnage was
taken.... probably by a heron. We had terrible heron problems before the
netting. But then we're only maybe 1/2 mile from a huge lake (as the crow
flies).

Hi greg, thats terribel, I tried simular thing only at my pond it was a mink
and 3 big goldfish
have you considert some sort of cover for your pond

--
regards

Birgitte Windfeld
www.ninaweb.dk/havedam
www.koihus.dk

"Greg Cooper" skrev i en meddelelse
news:L7Efe.46924$HR1.17314@clgrps12...
Birgitte wrote:

You luky guy, we only have around 55 deg. F
longing for summer
will the racoon take your fish ?

He has - mostly we have had gold fish and small Koi but about 2 year ago
we splurged and spend about $150 on a larger koi (large for us anyway) He
seemed to us to be a very gentle soul and quite friendly.
One morning I went out to find him on his side drifted up to the skimmer
inlet. The Raccoon had gotten a good bite on his back about 1/3 of the
way down but the fish must have wrenched himself free. He was still alive
at that point but succumbed within 24 hours in spite of supportive care
with salt and raised temperature. We have lost some other fish but this
one hurt the most because he was so trusting and unaware of dangers that
he never stood a chance. This lost was in spite of having a water
scarecrow and an electric fido fence around the pond. I now have a water
scarecrow and a net across the entire pond. It is a fine black mesh so
is not too unsightly but it makes access to the pond less easy.

I dont really blame the raccoon he has to eat and he was here before we
arrived.

"Greg Cooper" wrote in message
news:QKYfe.47692$vN2.29122@clgrps13...
When we first put the pond in - before we planted the yard with trees we
were visted by both a King Fisher and a Heron.

$$ We also had a King Fisher for awhile. It would usually take the smaller
fish, preferring the most colorful goldfish and young koi. :-(

The Heron never got any fish as we spotted him and chased him off and I
think he probably felt it was not worth the effort. Right when we
first stocked our new pond with 5 two inch gold fish the very next
morninng we awoke to see the Kingfisher dining on his second.

$$ Sickening isn't it? We watched a KF carry off our prettiest GF one
day - as we drove into our driveway. He/she had it in it's beak. We
haven't seen any more KF since we netted the ponds. They wont dive into the
shallow kiddy pools, but I net most of those as well since we also have a
snake and bullfrog problem here. Although I've seen several large snakes
this spring I haven't seen one bullfrog, just a few small green frogs.

The
strange thing is the Kingfisher did not come back for more.

$$ It may have been passing through.....
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
EVERYONE: "Please check people's headers for forgeries
before flushing." :-)
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

Birgitte wrote:

Hi greg, thats terribel, I tried simular thing only at my pond it was a mink
and 3 big goldfish
have you considert some sort of cover for your pond

Current protection consists of:
1) black plastic netting across the pond,
2) One Water scare crow,
3) Modified water scare crow altered to activate a "party" strobe light.

So far so good - we took out the fido fence as it didnt seem to phase
the raccoon and mostly zapped us.
For some reason this raccoon does not attempt to rip through the mesh,
although he certainly code.

I imagine having a Mink come to visit could be really bad.
When I was a child my dad had a large earth dug pond mostly for swimming
in but stocked with some trout. It was next to a small stream. One
summer a Muskrat moved in, ate all the fish and frogs and finished up by
digging a tunnel through the bank from pond to stream and draining the
pond for us. I remember my Dad was not pleased.

"Greg Cooper" skrev i en meddelelse
news:9fhge.59066$HR1.22004@clgrps12...
Birgitte wrote:

Hi greg, thats terribel, I tried simular thing only at my pond it was a
mink and 3 big goldfish
have you considert some sort of cover for your pond

Current protection consists of:
1) black plastic netting across the pond,
2) One Water scare crow,
3) Modified water scare crow altered to activate a "party" strobe light.

So far so good - we took out the fido fence as it didnt seem to phase the
raccoon and mostly zapped us.
For some reason this raccoon does not attempt to rip through the mesh,
although he certainly code.

I imagine having a Mink come to visit could be really bad.
When I was a child my dad had a large earth dug pond mostly for swimming
in but stocked with some trout. It was next to a small stream. One
summer a Muskrat moved in, ate all the fish and frogs and finished up by
digging a tunnel through the bank from pond to stream and draining the
pond for us. I remember my Dad was not pleased.

Hi, Greg
I didn't know that muskrat would take fish, I never seen them here in
denmark, but heard that tey are comming up from Germany now and live in the
southern of Denmark now
Nasty little animal, sure hope they wil stay in the southern Denmark.
Must be terrible to find the pond whithout any fishand ending up whitout
water too .
wonder if the muskrat will go througe anepdm rubber ?
--

regards
Birgitte Windfeld
www.ninaweb.dk/havedam
www.koihus.dk