Pond Fish

Note To Catfish – Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew!

Here’s an interesting story from a pond owner that saved one of his larger catfish from some major problems.

It seems that he noticed a basketball floating in the pond and on closer inspection found that it was looking pretty edible to one large catfish.

Upon trying to swallow the thing, it got lodged in the fish’s mouth and he apparently couldn’t dislodge it. Since the ball was filled with air, every time the fish tried to dive, it would be brought back up to the surface again.

When the fish was found, it was tired and fatigued.

CatfishBasketball3

The pond owner tried to help the fish out, but couldn’t get the ball out of it’s mouth simply by tugging on it.

Why Do Koi Jump?

By Mark

Koi fish are interesting creatures to say the least.

For anyone who’s had fish, any fish really, for any length of time, you kind of get in tune with their habits and personalities, and yes, they do differ from fish to fish.

And one trait that some of them may have is that they like to jump.

Now before you “jump” to any conclusions, you can rest assured that sometimes Koi just jump for the fun of it. Makes sense if you think about it. From Koi to carp to whales and dolphins flying freely, tell me you don’t think it would be fun to go airborne if your world was mostly made of water.

Some individual Koi really like to leap, and that’s fine as long as they’re safe. The real problem with jumping Koi, isn’t so much that there’s anything wrong in the pond, but if they don’t happen to land back in the water, you’ve got a problem. It might end up being their last care-free act.
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When Fountains Are Not Enough

By Mark

This was a tough week for a fellow in Hendersonville North Carolina.

Clyde Halbert had spent years building up his fish stock and estimated he’d invested nearly $40,000 in purchasing catfish for his pond.

Halbert operates a business where folks can come in and fish for trophy sized catfish. They pay him a small fee, and can then fish the pond and try to reel in some cats weighing up to 90 pounds. The operation is completely catch and release so the fish go back and do what fish do. Relax, scrounge around, maybe fool around a little bit, and eat more to get bigger.

It’s not a bad life.

Unless you run out of air that is.
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Small Pond Emergency – Saving Your Fish In An Oxygen Crisis

By Mark

Last Saturday we experienced some of the hottest weather I’ve seen in a good while. The thermometer read a toasty 104 degrees around noon time while we checked out the local farmers market. Needless to say the crowd wasn’t quite as big as usual.

For just about everyone out there that day it was brutal stuff. And this got me thinking about fish.

You and I can pretty much get out of this weather when necessary, but fish are kind of stuck to deal with it. And while heat won’t necessarily hurt them low oxygen certainly will. Once things heat up, and they stay warm for a few days it’s not at all uncommon to find pond water temps well over 80 degrees and it’s right around that point that the capacity of the water to hold dissovled oxygen will drop dramatically.

In a small pond, you may see your fish hanging tight around any waterfall area. You may see them gasping at the surface while they try to pick up any amount of DO that they can in a last ditch effort to survive. They may get lethargic, much like you and I would if we are oxygen deprived. And in a worst case scenario, you may find them dying or dead.
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Frisky Koi And Limiting Overproduction

By Mark

On the one hand, it’s great to have happy and healthy fish. This is as it should be if you’re doing a good job at managing your Koi pond. On the other hand, happy and healthy fish are usually really good at making more fish. Or maybe it’s the other way around.

Anyway, this can often pose a bit of a problem for the pond owner.

We know that too many fish in a small pond will cause issues that are very common. Algae, in any form, and this means green water, string algae, hair algae, you name it, will likely appear because of high nutrient loading in the water from the fish waste. If these same nutrients end up getting so high that the natural cleaning and balancing mechanisms in the pond can’t keep up, you could end up seeing an ammonia spike, and this can be deadly for the fish. Neither of these issues are something you really want to deal with.
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Can Koi Fish And Pond Plants Co-exist?

By Mark

As many of you know, green water is a common issue in tons of small fish ponds. And one of the best ways I have always suggested to deal with it is with a combination of beneficial pond bacteria and desirable plants. But there’s a problem with this advice, at least where a Koi pond is concerned.

It’s fairly well known and confirmed by many pond owners that Koi fish love to eat almost anything. This includes some of the more desirable pond plants that you’ll find in most water gardens. Lilies, hyacinth, grasses and so on, are often preferred forage material for the usually ravenous Koi. It’s so common an occurrence that many pond owners just assume the you can’t have Koi and plants in the same pond.

But such is not the case…fortunately.

In fact, while most Koi have an insatiable appetite, not all of them will end up eating plants to any great degree. In some cases it may be because they’re more accustomed, happy, and well nourished by traditional fish food. Or perhaps they just haven’t developed a particular taste for the type of plants found in pond. For whatever the reason, it’s simply not a given that Koi will eat your pond plants into oblivion.

But they can…unfortunately.
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