-There was an old woman who swallowed a fly, I don't know why she swallowed a fly, I guess she'll die... -There was an old woman who swallowed a spider, who wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her, She swalled the spider to catch the fly, I dunno why she swallowed the fly, I guess she's die... -There was an old woman who swallowed a bird, Oh my word, she swallowed a bird! She swallowed a bird to catch the spider - who wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her! She swallowed the spider to catch the fly, I dunno why she swallowed the fly I guess she'll die... -There was an old woman who swallowed a cat, imagine that, she swallowed a cat! She swallowed the cat to catch the bird, she swallowed the bird to catch the spider - who wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her! She swallowed ths spider to catch the fly, I dunno why she swallowed the fly, I guess she'll die... -There was an old woman who swallowed a dog, what a hog! She swallowed a dog! She swallowed the dog to catch the cat, she swallowed the cat to catch the bird, she swallowed the bird to catch the spider - who wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her! She swallowed ths spider to catch the fly, I dunno why she swallowed the fly, I guess she'll die... -There was an old woman who swallowed a goat, just opened her throat and swallowed a goat! She swallowed the goat to catch the dog, she swallowed the dog to catch the cat, she swallowed the cat to catch the bird, she swallowed the bird to catch the spider - who wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her! She swallowed ths spider to catch the fly, I dunno why she swallowed the fly, I guess she'll die... -There was an old woman who swallowed a horse... She died of course! Andrea, sorry you're having so much trouble with your guy! My best suggestion is to put him in a bigger holding pen. That means a bigger aquarium, I suppose. You could keep him in a drum of some sort, but then you couldn't see him from the sides. Is my conversion correct that a 20L tank is only five gallons? Your blueggill is big and messy, and with his sensitivities, it would be very difficult to maintain consistant and healthy water perameters in such a small space. Especially in a tank that is not established. I seem to remember that your blugill is six or sevn inches long? I'm sorry to say this, but a 5 gallon tank is pretty much a death sentence for any fish smaller than an inch, and any tank that small and unestablished (good bacteria cultures in the filther) is a death sentence for a fish of any size, let alone a sick one! I'd get a 20g (app. 75L) tank. Really. You could maybe get by on a 10g, but I still think that's too small for a fish of that size to get well in. Get some bacterial culture from your fish place and load it into the filter. No amount of medicines or curealls will do your guy any good if he's suffering from burning ammonia. Good luck, I hope he pulls through!

dang it....I had a really well though out response all done, and my internet explorer crashed. So I'll try again...lol!! First...a few comments regarding how koi ponds compare to aquariums. Normally, aquariums are lightly stocked with small fish. It's really easy to keep the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate cycle operating perfectly in a correctly stocked environment. Same as a rock bottom pond...lightly stocked and properly maintanied it can work. In a pond's bio filter, ammonia is converted to nitrite and then to nitrate. Nitrate is most easily removed froma koi pond by way of regular water changes. Ever try to keep an aquarium with goldfish? Many goldie keepers I know keep no gravel in the tank at all, because of maintenance. That gravel gets really filthy very fast. I had a lovely goldie tank once....and gave it up. the maintenance was a nightmare! I'd rather deal with a huge koi pond any day of the week. Some people are reporting sucess with rock bottom ponds and no maintenance. Again...it is directly related to stocking levels. I hope these ponds continue to perform well for years to come, but for the vast majority of people, they will not. Most watergardeners install their ponds (and rocks) and then run out and buy a bunch of adorable little 5" long koi. The koi grow.....fast. They produce mountains of fish waste, which all gets trapped in the rocks. But because the pond looks clean, the owner is lulled into a false sense of security and does not think that there is a thing wrong, until the fish start dying or the fins start rotting off. Then they do one of two thing....they learn where they went wrong and correct their mistakes, or they just buy new fish (which is unfortunatly what most people do). Matt...you are on the right track with your new pond. You certainly can install your bottom drain now and add the rest of the system later. But instead of using a pipe cap, install a 4" ball valve on the end of the line. The water can't be permitted to sit stagnant in the unused drain line for too long or it will start developing the dreaded hydrogen sulphide gas. Opening that valve every couple of weeks and allowing the water to flow out for a couple of minutes will prevent the problems. I am attaching a link to the Atlanta Koi Club's web site. They have an excellent pdf that explains a lot about how a koi pond works, water quality, stocking levels, how much biofiltration is needed and many other wonderful facts. Cindy

I have both kinds of horsetail growing naturally in my yard. The hyemale is a plant that used to grow on the beach of the house I grew up in. As kids we'd play house and pull apart the sections to use as green beans. I have a few of them growing in more or less natural areas of the yard and they don't really bother me. I can't kill them, but there are only a few of them. Equisetum arvense, on the other hand is a plant from hell. I can relate to Pegnj and her pachysandra problem. I planted lots and lots of vinca minor as a groundcover and had horsetails popping up thick in it. I tried pulling it. No luck. I decided to dig up one section that was maybe five feet square or a little more. That just made it angry. It came back much thicker. The roots are a nightmare. They're just everywhere and are black so they match the dirt. I don't ever dig them anymore. I finally sprayed RoundUp on a huge bed of vinca minor because it looked horrible. I've been knocking it down with RoundUp, but it keeps coming back. In other beds of vinca where it's not as thick, I carefully pull the tops off when they get above the vinca. After about the second time I pull them in a summer, they don't come back (at least not higher than the vinca). When we first build our house and had the driveway paved, one or two pushed up through the asphalt. That's a tough plant.

For me lupines aren't really perennial, but I always have some since I let some of them go to seed each year. I think for me it's more that the voles really like them and after two years in the garden those big juicy roots are just too yummy for the voles to miss. They might just be blooming themselves to death, though. I remove those that I don't want where they have planted themselves and let the rest just do their thing. This post was edited by nhbabs on Thu, Jan 1, 15 at 19:46