ICE ICE BABY
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Awesome.
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Beautiful pictures !
j.w
I Love my Goldies
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Love the pretty ice but glad our cold is gone!
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Can I be reincarnated as a piece of grass next to this place, please?
so it seems we got our first bit of snow - this was preceded by a cold snap which froze the pond but I was diligently boiling hot water to pour onto an area to open a hole and allow oxygen in and nitrous gases to escape - this was fine until it snowed - it covered a lot of the pond which is still covered with my net, keeping out debris and that nasty heron. I popped outside mid-afternoon and lo and behold Mr. Heron was walking on the partially frozen pond (at this point the snow was getting a tad slushy and a thin layer of ice on the pond with the net between icy pond and slushy snow. That heron dared to be walking around on it leaving heron tracks - i instinctively launched myself at it and chased it away. I am perplexed as to why the heck does it keep coming back knowing it cant get through the net? Is this normal behaviour? Do these birds never give up? And especially this time with a frozen pond and a net! The funny thing is it never freaks out when I catch it in the pond - it casually looks in my direction and only takes off when I yell at it and angily flap my arms. It has absolutely no fear. This bird is huge too - great blue heron fully grown - its head would easily come up to my mid-chest. Any way - I’m anxious for the snow to melt so I can readjust the net. Fortunately we do not get much snow on the west coast and I expect it will turn to rain in a day or two.
Hi Kelly. I have the same issue with herons in my pond in Vancouver. Our best deterrant so far has been to buy a supersoaker gun. Also, the garden hose sprayer on "jet" does a good job for longer distances (for example, when they fly up to sit on the rooftop, waiting for us to give up). The spray doesn't harm them but they don't like it. As you say, they are otherwise completely unperturbed by our presence. I wish you luck...for me this is a constant battle, especially because I am not able to put a net over my pond.
Thank you lamby - it is nice to hear how others are dealing with these pests - Vancouver is lovely, my sister lives in English Bay near Stanley Park - I love walking around there and visiting Granville.
They literally never give up. Until your pond is liberated of all the fish.
so now that the snow and ice is gone and the fish are swimming about - no longer afraid to leave their hideaways - today was one of the first days I was able to get a really good look - all the fish seem ok and are doing their fish thing - though still a bit lethargic due to the cold weather - I noticed that two of my goldies have a strange appearance (I actually saw this shortly after the heron attack as prior to the attack the fish were perfect in color - also that heron ate 8 of my fish) I am wondering if this is damage resulting from the heron attack? None of the others have any damage and all appear to be perfectly normal. I tested the pond water and it is well within normal range - also my pond water is quite clear. It was difficult to get this picture due to the tree shadows, the netting, and the fish moving around, but I have circled the areas of concern. Please if anyone might know if this is from the heron or something else - please post a reply. Again, the fish seem quite normal, and I did notice this mark in November after the heron attack which prompted me to order the net.
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If it looks like fuzzy mold that you would see growing on food as it spoils . That is usually bacterial in my pond in the beginning I use to get some of those on only a couple specific fish.
I found it to be a sign of my kh getting low. Keeping the kh up around 150 to 200 200 being more the ideal number.
But it is also more common to have these issues during winter.
I found it to be a sign of my kh getting low. Keeping the kh up around 150 to 200 200 being more the ideal number.
But it is also more common to have these issues during winter.
ok thank you - it may be exactly as you say that it is common in winter - it doesnt seem to be bothering either fish - they seem to be swimming normally (no flashing or upside or anything) and the other fish including my koi do not have any white marks and their eyes look clear and colors are good. I live in Canada (west coast) so the weather gets cold but also gets mild pretty quickly. I will keep an eye on them - my pond is about 30,000 gallons and tons of room to swim about as well as the pond pump and water feature keep the water circulating - up until I had to net the pond I was cleaning it daily scooping out leaves etc - now the net catches everything but I still lift to skim anything that gets in - I also add fresh water to top up all the time. Thank you for easing my mind - much appreciated. 