My pond love affair is still going on :-D Have any of you REALLY looked in the water close up? In my pond there are thousands of little swimming creatures. When I go out to the pond at night (with my flashlight!) and shine it into the water they are swimming everywhere. No clue as to what they are The water has cleared. Now I can see to the bottom where all the leaves are! When I attempted to remove the leaves to many living things came up in the net with them I decided to just leave them there. Now, when I startle the frogs that is where they go. This weekend I bought 20 goldfish. They are "feeder" fish, about 1 in. long. They look really great swimming around. They are to small to eat the tadpoles that I think hatched. They are keeping company with "Aaron" the 1 in. catfish that was destined for death by toilet until I said I'd take him :-D I so love this pond and wish I was home right now so I could see what is going on.
You feel the same way about your pond as I do about mine. I go out and stand for ages just watching what's going on beneath and on the surface of the water. I have newts, toads and frogs as well as a great variety of different insects. I don't have fish but nevertheless there's plenty out there to keep me riveted throughout the year. :-D
Sounds like you have something to really take the stress away at the end of the day. Don't forget to share pictures as the season goes by.
Glad you're enjoying all the critters a pond can bring. My pond is a favorite stop for birds too, both in summer and winter. My goldfish and frogs all survived the winter, and are very active now that the weather has warmed up. I wait until mid summer to clear out the leaves and debris from the bottom.
Ponds are great...there is just something about having water in your yard and everything that is attracted by it. Can't wait until the dragon flies appear.
I really like that suggestion about removing the leaves in mid-summer. Every single time I netted up some leaves something living was in them....a bunch of frog eggs, a giant water bug, a frog and two giant tadpoles I bought at a garden center. Like I said I gave up and just let everything alone. This fall I will definitely use that leaf net I bought last year
my parents had 2 ponds when i was younger and i would play with my he-men and action men in there. It was exciting pretending they were diving and stuff.. me and my sis would often play around with the water boatmen and try to catch them hehe.. we had mostly koi carp in the ponds and we would pick favourites! i remember liking the yellow and black ones the best. was quite disturbed to see a toad or maybe a frog latched onto the back of one at times, it looked like it had its front hands in the fishes gills, im not sure but it was riding the back of it. My dad would grab the frog/toad if he could and throw it against the garage wall real hard, i figured it was endangering the fish? do ponds increase mosquitoes or do other natures creatures balance it out with feeding on them?
Didn't those boatmen bite you I got "stung" by one of them once and have never touched them again. That's kind of an awful story about your Dad throwing toads/frogs against the wall. They just wanted to ride the fish! When I was younger we had was a brook to play in. My "boats" were pieces of a 2 x 4 with a nail banged in the front and some yarn to tie it up. I had Johnny West dolls and horses and spent hours and hours at that brook! Its probably why my pond so fascinates me
i think my dad and us were under the impression that they were harming the fish. It kinda seemed unusual that the frog was stuck on its back like that ya know.. oh and i mislabeled the water boatmen, i did some searching and i meant to say pond skater which ive found is also known as.. water striders, water bugs, magic bugs, skaters, skimmers, water scooters, water skaters, water skeeters, water skimmers or water skippers.
I have always known them as water striders. There sure are lots of colorful names for them! Magic Bugs?? Haha
