- Joined
- Jul 14, 2018
- Messages
- 538
- Reaction score
- 486
- Location
- Huntsville, AL
- Hardiness Zone
- 7B
- Country
As some here may remember, about two-years ago I added five shubunkins to my new pond. Two nearly all white and three multicolored orange, blue, black and white. As it turns out, only one was a male, and he was one of the white ones. Two years later, we have about 15 grown-up babies: five all black or bronze depending on the sun angle, five mostly white with some blue on the sides, and five multicolored. I realize the distribution of survivors depended a lot on what eggs were eaten and how they survived otherwise but the distribution of white/black and multicolored seems more then random.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I found there are another batch of babies growing in the pond from this years spawning events. The largest one is all white and the others are to small to tell. I used to not like the white ones so much but now that the pond water is clear, their long flowing fins are just beautiful so they are my new favorites. I have even come to like the all black ones. Bu my favorite of all is “Patch” one of the original, who is a speckled female with all of the colors.
I had the net off for some maintenance and took some photos of the pond for a friend. I have included some of those photos of the pond and bog. The plants have really filled in this year and the water celery is about out of control. The Cala lilies are flowering and the other plants are all fighting to reach the sun. It has been a fun adventure building the pond, learning to accept that algae is good for the fish until the bog gets established, and now being delighted with the result. This year I turned my small upper pond into another bog with about 6” of slow flowing water on top that falls into the pond. In addition to a large group of spider lilies at the back of that pond, it has Hornwort and Red Luigia starting to multiply. I am hoping this new bog will compensate for the new baby fish that manage to survive.
Much thanks to all of the folks here for helping me through it all.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I found there are another batch of babies growing in the pond from this years spawning events. The largest one is all white and the others are to small to tell. I used to not like the white ones so much but now that the pond water is clear, their long flowing fins are just beautiful so they are my new favorites. I have even come to like the all black ones. Bu my favorite of all is “Patch” one of the original, who is a speckled female with all of the colors.
I had the net off for some maintenance and took some photos of the pond for a friend. I have included some of those photos of the pond and bog. The plants have really filled in this year and the water celery is about out of control. The Cala lilies are flowering and the other plants are all fighting to reach the sun. It has been a fun adventure building the pond, learning to accept that algae is good for the fish until the bog gets established, and now being delighted with the result. This year I turned my small upper pond into another bog with about 6” of slow flowing water on top that falls into the pond. In addition to a large group of spider lilies at the back of that pond, it has Hornwort and Red Luigia starting to multiply. I am hoping this new bog will compensate for the new baby fish that manage to survive.
Much thanks to all of the folks here for helping me through it all.
