Pond Fish

I came across this article and video recently and wanted to share it with you all here. Ultimately it’s a happy story, of George the Goldfish.

George is about 10 years old and is owned by a lady in Australia who became rather attached to her fish. Many of us can attest that she’s not alone in that regard.

But George developed a pretty good sized tumor on his head and a very kind vet offered to help. Through a very interesting process, surgery was performed successfully to remove the growth and now George is back in the pond and doing well.

Along with the story though, there’s some good advice and information found in this article.

Here’s a few that stood out to me.

• Research now shows conclusively that fish feel pain.
• Fish have excellent long term memories.
• They have various emotions, anger for example, when confined in small, barren spaces.
• They communicate with one another through various signals and sounds.
• And when they’re cared for properly, they can leave several decades.

Now I’ll grant you that if you spend much time with fish at all, you probably know most of these things already but it’s nice to see that this information is being shared to a broader audience.

Another very good point of the article is the fact that many people look upon fish as “throw away” pets. They can be easily discarded through various means. One of which is to simple relocate them to a nearby pond.

But as we mentioned recently about invasive aquatic plants and the problems they are causing, non-native fish release can cause problems too. Ideally the best option of all is to find a proper home for the fish where it can be well cared for.

And speaking of care, you’ll find some other helpful tips on managing a fish pond in the article and there’s some additional information on finding an experienced fish vet in your area.

To learn more visit Mercola Healthy Pets, and for additional information on veterinary services go to fishvets.com.

It was a long, cold winter for most of us last year. It seems like so long ago, but now that the deep chill is drifting in again from the north, my thoughts have gone back to the spring when we found countless fish and other wildlife floating around as casualties of the ice.

Many pond owners experienced the same thing, but a few others weathered the cold in pretty good shape. Those folks happened to have the right defenses in place.

And the breakdown was pretty simple.

If someone kept just a little bit of ice open, they didn’t lose too many fish. For those that did not, the losses could be significant.

One community in Western Illinois lost around 9,000 pounds of fish.

So what’s in store for us this winter?

Well, in truth, no one really knows for sure, but as we head into mid-November things are already getting cold here in the upper Midwest, so now would be a good time to do a quick rundown on how you can win this seasonal battle with the ice.

The most important thing to remember is you don’t have to keep an entire pond or like completely ice-free. All that’s really necessary is small opening for smaller ponds, or in larger waters, several small open areas, that remain ice-free throughout the winter.

These open holes allow for oxygen to come in from the air above, and gasses, which normally might get trapped under ice, can escape or be vented.

There a few good tools that can help with this effort.

The Pond DeIcer

For a smaller backyard pond, a decent deicer will often to a lot of good. These will normally only heat up when the ice starts to form, and will turn off if you have warmer weather come along. You’ll find various wattages available but in general anything around 300 watts should be sufficient for most ponds.

Aeration – Subsurface

Pond aerators can be used in small and large ponds of all sizes and do a good job of keeping ice open under most conditions. The aerators we use actually release air bubbles from the bottom of the pond and these rise up rapidly to create a bit of agitation on the surface. The bubbling and ripples will keep ice from forming in all but the absolute coldest conditions.

Ideally these aerators would be electrically powered for constant operation. Windmills can be very intermittent based on wind speeds and may not provide around the clock coverage.

Pond Circulator

Another useful device for large ponds is a pond circulator. These use a motor driven propeller to circulate the water near the surface. They work great around boat docks, ramps, and other areas where keeping ice away is important.

Normally a circulator will create a larger opening than aeration might. They can also be controlled by a timer or temperature sensor so they will only need to run when the conditions are cold enough for ice to develop.

Preparation Is The Key

As with most things related to pond care, being prepared is the key to success, and this fits in well with winter protection too. Where the weather is concerned it’s always a bit of a roll of the dice in terms of just how bad things might get, and this goes for the high heat of summer, or the cold days of winter.

As you can see though, you (or your fish) don’t have to get beat up by the after affects of a long, frigid winter. And be sure to keep the faith…spring will be here again before you know it.

I have to admit I’ve never dreamed of the day when the two topics in the title would ever go together. Prozac and fish. But alas that day has come.

This has to be one of the strangest articles on fish I’ve ever come across, but maybe it’s not all that strange when you think about it. For some time now, we’ve known that our water sources in the U.S. are being influenced by the release of prescription medications into the environment. These are coming not only from discarded drugs but also through a person’s normal ingestion and elimination through the normal waste channels. And researchers are now finding that these chemicals are not all being “cleaned out” by waste water management systems.

Amazing but it’s apparently true.

So that brings us to the topic of fish. It seems that fish are also being affected by these rouge prescription drugs and in the case of one study, that drug was the often used tool for depression called Prozac. Below is an excerpt outlining a recent study on Prozac and fish health and behavior.

The drug has been known to cause some unwanted side effects in humans.

It isn’t just us though — fish also react badly to Prozac (fluoxetine).

The antidepressant makes them more aggressive, and alters their behaviour.

Male minnows exposed to the drug for four weeks become far more aggressive, and start attacking the female fish. In one group, just a third of the female fish had survived, whereas normal survival rates are closer to 90 per cent. The fish that died had visible bruising and tissue damage.

Reproduction, mating, general activity and levels of aggression were all affected by Prozac, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The only good news was that the fishes’ behaviour returned to normal once the drug was removed from the water.

Sadly, that is not an option for fish in rivers and estuaries that are constantly exposed to pharmaceuticals such as Prozac that are flushed down the toilet. The researchers fear that fish colonies are being badly affected by the practice.
(Source: Aquatic Toxicology, 2014; 151: 77)

I’d be curious to know your thoughts (if you have any) on this interesting finding. Share those below in the comments!