Trip through the bottom drain.

[Mucky_Waters]

With the onset of winter and colder water in the pond, all the critters in the pond started to migrate towards the bottom of the pond. With a bottom drain running full bore. and so many critters hanging out at the bottom of the pond and maybe looking for a nice place to hide out for the winter, it was inevitable some would get sucked down the drain. Fortunately my bottom drain flows into a settling tank where any unwary travelers are trapped and can survive for days or weeks (possibly months) at a time, until I can net them and return them to the pond. Normally I'll only find one or two fish in there at a time, or maybe a frog or a turtle, but with the cold weather water chasing them down to the bottom I set a new record, not only in terms of numbers, but variety as well.
Here's what I rescued out of the settling tank just before draining it and shutting the filter system down for the year.

They are all now safely tucked away for the winter under the ice.

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/gallery/image/2693-leftside/



https://www.gardenpondforum.com/gallery/image/2694-rightside/

 

[sissy]

well they look safe and sound

 

[capewind]

LOL... a nice varierty there!

 

[j.w]

I bet they've gotten to know each other quite well and will remain friends for life

 

[brandonsdad02]

Aww cute turtle. What kind is it?

 

[Mmathis]

The little baby turtle is so cute! Any idea where it came from?

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Thanks for watching.
The turtle comes from a local pond that has an abundance of hatch-lings every spring. It is a Western painted turtle. The skinny pale fish are some kind of minnows collected from another pond. The darker, minnow looking fish are are baby goldfish that were hatched this summer. The fancy goldfish came from a pet store, and the frogs came from a different pond way up in the mountains. Ya, a real mixed bag of critters.

 

[addy1]

Glad your lil visitors have a place to be safe while waiting for rescue.