The pond is still cold...

12 years ago

but I caught a glimpse of one of my turtles today. It was rather surprising to see him this early, even the goldfish are not moving around all that much. He may have come out to bask in the sun (it was a beautiful day) but if he did, guess I scared him out of that idea. I was very happy to see that he survived hibernation, as they don't always. Hope the other little fellow fared as well!

Anyone else with a pond?

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Comments (11)

nanny98
12 years ago
No pond...but I envy you having one. Good wishes to the little fellow too.
lisa_fla
12 years ago
Where do you live? Does the pond freeze?
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sheesh
12 years ago
Yes, we have a very little pond in front of our house. We can look into it from the windows. It has been an awful lot of fun. We have had a mild winter, so I hope our goldfish survived again. They made it through last winter, which was much colder and longer than this. We also have frogs; I have no idea where they came from in the first place, but we have one or two, sometimes three every year. And the biggest toads, too.

The snowflowers and Russian squill are blooming now, the other bulbs poking up. I love having these things return every year.
sheesh
12 years ago
My pond is only 18" deep, about 3x5 feet, so tiny. Yes, it freezes, gets piled four feet high with snow most years, yet the fish survive somehow, and even reproduce. Don't ask me how. We do not have a heater or even a recirculating pump in the summer! The water is crystal clear, the water lily blooms all summer long, and several years ago a cattail showed up! The pond was already here when we moved in 18 years ago.
glenda_al
12 years ago
moonie, would love to see a pic of your pond!
lynn_d
12 years ago
For years I had a large koi pond, 8x12, a little over 5 feet deep. Brought a koi dealer from TN in to build it, I so loved it and the fish. We enclosed it every year, two years ago we opened it up, started bringing the fish into spring, feeding them, doing water changes.....went out one day and they were gone. My heart broke in two, it felt like someone had stepped on my soul. We drained the pond and this year it will be filled in to be used as a garden. The koi were a big part of our lives, I had nearly completed my koi health advisor training, we traveled to shows at least twice a year. I miss them.

We have a small garden pond, 5x12, it's just for lilies and frogs.
moonie_57 (8 NC)
Original Author
12 years ago
glenda - I just looked and do not have a pic of my small pond at home but here is our pond at work. (I work at a plant farm) You can see that we let the water hyacinth get out of hand and OH what a mess that was! This is why you do not want to release WH into the waterways.

My pond is small and I built it myself with landscaping timbers and a pond liner. It is 4X8, about 18 inches above ground and 3 feet into the ground with the very center a bit deeper than that. I believe it is approx. 500 gallons as opposed 3000 gallons to the one at work. It does not freeze here in NC.

lynn - so sorry about your koi. What do you think got them? We have one koi in the pond at work and boy is he a messy thing! You can see the lotus pots that he has turned over. He sure is fun to watch though.

sherrmann - I wish my pond was underneath a window where I could watch the fish and turtles from inside.
moonie_57 (8 NC)
Original Author
12 years ago
Sorry, I'm watching TV, too!

Pond at work last summer, please don't be too judgemental. It's still a work in progress! :)
{{gwi:215918}}
glenda_al
12 years ago
Thanks!
Lily316
12 years ago
I have two koi ponds. and this is the first year they didn't freeze at all and that's really scary. We took the heaters out the other day, never needed them once. When we moved here 30 years ago, there was a 1920's concrete pond someone filled in. We uncovered it and bought koi and goldfish. We knew nothing about ponds. We lost them one year when the pond froze over but did pretty well until the koi grew to huge sizes. So we built a big pond with a waterfall and the koi now are two feet long. This pond has caused me a lot of heartache though..like Lynn. One spring day about five years ago when the pond was new, my prize white koi was slaughtered by something. I found his decapitated body near by. The pond has been netted ever since. Then during the tornado and horrible storm last spring , we lost power for 36 hours and my big koi all died. The rest would have too if my SIL didn't run out and rent me a generator. At the end of last summer, I saw at least four tiny baby koi were born. My dead ones were like pets. I called them and they swam down to eat out of my hand.
lynn_d
12 years ago
Mine were the same way, lily316, especially the chagoi, Babyface. They were pets.

They loved watermelon and when they saw me with it in my hands they swam in circles until I gave it to them.

Moonie, I don't know, it could have been a bear, or it could have been an otter. The pond was raccoon proof and pretty much bird proof. The fish were huge, 20-28". Hard to tell, but whatever took them took my spirit. A couple of good friends are coming up next month, they will help us dismantle it, we are giving them the pumps, filters and uv lamps.

The ponds are side by side. Koi pond in the back, no plants at all in that pond.