yay! Spring has sprung!

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So happy, 2 yrs ago we dug out and deepened it. it was a crappy little attempt at a nature pond, but someone had stuck in some minnows before we moved here. Last year I was pregnant so nothing much got done, however i have found 5 young fish, obviously new from last year and we have about 8 newts and a pair of common European toads have mated and laid a serious amount of spawn in there too.
This year I am putting up a couple of bug hotels and also planting a load of indigenous meadow seeds to encoragw butterflies etc. we have a good 15 square meter area that we will allow to go wild over the summer then cut back as autumn closes. hopefully it will be good for encouraging the dragon flies.

Just so chuffed to see that not only are our pond inhabitants surviving but also thriving. :)
 
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Because it's all new, I feel really excited and proud. I put a lot of effort into learning how to created a good environment and was completely amazed to see the fish had also reproduced. Have now just started up a little aquarium with some warm water fish, in the house, too, bitten by the bug! Just love nurturing life, including the plants and so on. Need to research much more, to find out some solutions regarding creating shade, as the pond is very exposed. I am now thinking of just buying a load more lily pads... they seem hardy and easy to care for.
 

j.w

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Glad you are having such good luck w/your pond and critters. It's a lot of fun adding fish, plants, rocks, driftwood and attracting the natural creatures too. Would love to see pix of your pond now.
 
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I will try to get some and upload before long. I didn't know about adding drift wood. We are having a rockery done around the back of the pond, which is a slope, as that will be a nice habitat for various critters, and I am hoping to steal some mossy rotting wood from the local forest to put down in it.

Didn't know you could add driftwood, too? How does that work?

Also, tend to get algae and have a later of dead algae in the bottom. Struggling to know what time of year is best to get that out? Usually net it out, and pick out as many dragonfly larvae etc as possible. Now is a nono, as there is spawn, and don't want to upset that. I am guessing the best time is either early spring or late autumn?
 
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I heard tomes of Barry White, so went to investigate and found this lovely pair spreading the love. My question is are there more than one set in there, as there was already a load of eggs laid earlier today, or yesterday. or did they take a break?
20150412_203322.jpg
 

j.w

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I don't know about the toads as I never get any here at my pond. The driftwood we usually just add around the outside of the pond or on the edge just for decoration. You'll see photos on the forum of how different people use it near their ponds. Not sure if anyone uses it ever in their ponds. The string algae if that's what you are talking about can be grabbed out anytime it annoys you w/a stick or toilet brush or anything that hooks it out. The critters don't mind it tho, just us.
Good you aren't disturbing the spawn by doing it now tho. Neat photo of the piggy back toads having funzzies :LOL:
 
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cool idea re toilet brush. right now its just like a silt, as it is dead from last year. worried it will go toxic or something?

i think the number of eggs is awesome. The more the merrier - good food for the newts! hubby has made a barrier to stop critters bumbling down our cellar steps too. Had a few things die down there. :(
 

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Ok then you are not talking about string algae. Think maybe it might just be mulm silt dead fine junk that likes to cover everything. If you just leave it settled and your water is good it won't bother anything. It just looks kind of nasty. Some use a net to remove it if you have a really fine screened net but it will bug your critters trying to live so I'd leave it alone till later when they are all hatched. You can run a hose attached to a pump and slowly let it run over some of that white quilt batting in a plastic holed basket or pot to get fine floating silty stuff out later too.
This is what I do now and then when I stir things up a bit in there:
IMG_6096.JPG

IMG_6097.JPG
 
M

MariaTeresa

j.w, I have quilt batting around my pump so that it pulls the water through the batting. Is that the same idea as what you are doing with letting the water run back to the pond through the batting?
 

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Yep that's pretty much the same. I stir up the water when I do mine through the pot w/the holes in it other wise the mucky stuff just sits there.
 

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I leave it till I think the water is clear enough for my eyes. Sometimes just a few days, sometimes for a month. My fish are so messy I could leave it in all year and it would still collect muck. Sometimes I am too lazy to do it at all. If it was in a prettier type of container and covered w/a nice type of lid I could just put a hole in the lid and run the tube through and leave it in all the time but it looks rather ugly the way it is so I take it out. The quilting clogs up in a day or two so you have to keep taking it out and hosing it off to clean it. I net the bottom off before I do this the first time or it would clog up immediately and do so every 10mins. I sometimes also drain water out of the pond w/another pump and let clean well water run in the pond w/a hose hanging it up high so it splashes on the water creating more oxygen in the water.
 

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