You Capture - Play

Beth's you capture subject this week is Play.  I struggled.  While I was at Beth's this week, I shot a couple of quick pictures of Eli and Clara.

Sometimes play can be a lot of work for a two-year-old.
 
And Clara loves to play ball already.
 

Here you can see that all the toys in the world aren't as intriguing as Grandma sitting on the floor with a camera.


Finding Play at home was very challenging so I turned to the koi for help.  Here are the youngsters from the spawning just a couple of months ago. 

And here are the parents playing with their food in the pond next door.  You can see what a commotion they make.
 

For more Play, visit Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Monday Musings

This was one of those uneventful weekends that I have to remember to appreciate. We didn't have to be anywhere or do anything at any time. That's cool. The downside is that like a couple of irresponsible teenagers, we stay up too late then sleep too late in the mornings.

The results of that are a night like we had last night where Mr. Right is restless and jittery all night and I can't sleep - not because of him but because I haven't been up long enough AND I have a lot on my mind. More about that another time.

We did do something interesting and different yesterday. We moved three of the biggest baby koi into the big pond with the big guys.

The first one I caught will probably be named Bubba because that's how I think of him. Almost since he was an egg (only about 18 mos. ago), he's grown bigger and faster than his siblings. Here he is panicked and pouting in the bucket.

I can hardly believe how big he is. This is either a 4 gallon or 5 gallon buckets. I'd go look except that I'm not home right now.

Here he is about to enter the big world of grown-up koi.

Next to go was this rather unusual (to me anyway) multicolored koi. I would be so excited to have him as part of our collection except that he's missing a whisker and his head color is a little dark.
He's not quite as big as Bubba but he's still one of the biggest of the babies.

Next is this redheaded specimen. He's interesting because he has all that black coloration just below his skin and I think that may come out nice and black some day but that dark, rather ugly head is not a good trait. What is a good trait is that he's another fast grower and I think in the world of koi breeding, that might be a really good quality.

It was fun adding them to the big pond, because the large koi (parents of these babies actually) were so fascinated. They all gathered round and I'm pretty sure they were trying to figure out which of the three were their own offspring. It was so very cute.

This morning, when I fed the big fish, those three young ones were right at the top feeding like the big guys. Normally the younger fish in the small pond hide until they think I can't see them. I guess being with the grown-ups changed all that.

After the koi moving project, I took a walk at Striebel Pond. I couldn't walk as far as I wanted because there was so much going on and I had a camera in my hand.

The swans had a huge drama because there was a large, new swan in the South pond and their antics were just too interesting to ignore. I might address all that another time. For now, I'll share the amazing sunset.

And here's the last picture I took which is proof positive that I'd dallied way too long at Striebel Pond. Again.
And once again, Mr. Right drove out to Striebel and lingered around the parking lot in the dark, just to make sure I was okay.

And there's (he's) another thing I appreciate in my life.

Versatile Blogger Award

Thank you Nancy for sending me this Versatile Blogger Award. I really enjoyed reading the post you wrote when you received it and, based on that, I thought to participate. What I didn't think about was that it might be difficult to think of 7 interesting things to write about myself. Then I remembered, you never said they had to be interesting so here goes:


1. When our first daughter, Lori, was born back in 1969, the doctor didn't recommend using plastic pants (disposable diapers didn't exist as far we knew) for at least three months. So every time our baby wet her diaper, it required a complete change of clothes. And we didn't think anything of it.

2. I'm retired and love it more than words can say. I was very unhappy in my job and I firmly believe that life shouldn't be lived unhappily. Now, though, I'm challenged to enjoy this retirement to the fullest because, guess what, there aren't enough hours in the day. I'm still working on sorting all this out - doing the things I love to do, doing the things I need to do, and doing the things that I just want to get done. It's a process but I think I'm making progress.

3. When my sister, Laurel, and I drove our brother back to Ft. Leonard Wood after a weekend leave from the National Guard back in the spring of 1966, we arrived so late in the day that we had to spend the night in a motel. It was located right on the cloverleaf that would take us back to Indiana so we didn't need to look at a map to find our way home. We drove all day and had a great time. The muffler went out on the VW so we bought some white shoe polish, painted a huge mouse on the side of the car and the words 'the mouse that roared', and laughed and laughed. We saw signs that said Springfield so we knew we were headed in the right direction and since we didn't have to worry about changing highways until we got near Chicago, we just kept on going. About the time we were wondering why we weren't seeing signs of Chicago, the engine blew on our little 'mouse that roared'. A couple of helpful motorists, a truck driver and a local resident, stopped to help us. They looked at our license plate and asked where we were headed. We said, "Home, to Indiana". They said, "You're eight miles from the Oklahoma border". Laurel and I looked at each other and, you guessed it, laughed until we couldn't breathe. We had driven all day - the wrong way. And the Springfield signs we had seen were not for Springfield, Illinois like we thought. They were for Springfield, Missouri. How we got home will be a subject for a future post.

4. I'm a koi pond enthusiast. I love my big fish and my tranquil ponds. What I don't love is cleaning the ponds and this spring the cleaning of the big pond is doubly challenging because we're completely re-working it. Some of the rocks that Mr. Right and I are moving were put in place with a tractor so it's a big job but we're finally making some progress. I'll be posting pictures of the finished project if and when we ever get it done.

5. When I was 18, I bought a red '64 Volkswagon Beatle that I loved. My friends and I went out almost every night meeting people we already knew and people we didn't know and having the time of our lives.

6. I used to smoke 3 packs (or more) of cigarettes a day and NOBODY thought that I, of all people, would ever be able to quit; but one day (and I remember exactly where I was when it happened) a thought came into my head that I believed in my heart, "If you don't quit smoking, you will never see your grandchildren". And finally something was powerful enough to make me quit.

7. Lynn, Betty, Rosanne, and Laurel are four very special women that I've known most of my life. Some I seldom see, some I never see but they will always be close to me in my heart. Each one has profoundly affected my life in some way and I'll always love them for it.

That's it and it was a lot of fun re-visiting these amazing times for me. Thank you again, Nancy, for the opportunity.

Now, I'll address the next prerequisite of the award - passing it on to other bloggers. Since Nancy sent it to me and Rhonda, they're both out so I'll send it to Beth. She started me on this blogging journey and I'm very grateful to her for that. The second goes to Mendie. I don't personally know her but, despite the disparity in our ages, I feel like we have a lot in common. The third and fourth go to Toadmama and Imadramamama both of whom I've recently discovered and very much enjoy following.

I hope we're allowed to pass it to four people because I'd really enjoy hearing what each one has to say!

You Capture - Love Around Your Home

I couldn't possibly do a post of things I love around my home without including the baby koi that we've invested so much time and effort into. The fact that I don't really love them that much anymore doesn't mean that I don't love the idea that we finally had that spawning that I was anticipating with such fervor. I could go on and on but I won't. I'll just include some of them.

Then, there's this grouping that I look at often. Like Beth, the birds represent for me little ones that I'll meet someday. The pictures were taken in younger days and show our big, little family when it was just getting launched.
And how could I post about things I love around the house without including my husband's balls.

They represent innumerable vacations, all over the country to places where our sons were stationed. And believe me, they've been around. Although, I haven't started golfing yet, I accompanied the golfers and took scads of pictures of the men in my life having the time of their lives. If Beth, ever does a You Capture featuring golfing photos, I'll be all set.

For more pictures of household treasures, visit Beth at Ishouldbefoldinglaundry. You'll find lots of beautiful photos and an invitation to participate.

Ridiculous

This really is getting ridiculous. I don't even want to admit what we've (I've) done now. It's downright embarrassing. My gosh, if I could have foreseen how all this would play out less than 4 months later, would I have been so anxious to have that spawning last Spring? Of course, I would have.

Ever since that first exciting moment, I feel like I've done nothing but move eggs and then fish around. We've had two aquariums in the house before and I didn't like it. One tank is enough, and to tell the truth, I could do without that. I like the fish and everything but the upkeep and the room they take up are just too much. The fish that I really like are the outside fish. There when I want to visit them but out of sight when I'm relaxing in the house. I'm also not keen on the sound of filters. Just because the brand name is Whisper doesn't mean that they do.

So here we are again with two aquariums in the house. One for the littlest babies (some not much larger than a thread) and one for the bigger guys who keep accidentally finding tiny babies in their mouths. But guess what. Here's a picture of the big guys' house and there's getting to be way too big of a disparity in sizes again. See?

So I bought another aquarium. Just a 10 gallon one this time. That's where those two big pink fish that look suspiciously like goldfish are going to reside. And I'm not going to buy or install another aquarium no matter what.

And once again, if I would have known then what I know now about koi husbandry....I'd do it all over again. If fact, I can hardly wait until next Spring's spawning. And the good news is that if even half of these babies survive and we can sell each of them for $5,000, we'll probably break even. Yeahhhhhh!

Naughty Fish

As I have discussed many times, there was talk that young koi could be given to cannibalism if there was too much size disparity among them.

Every day I take one of the larger babies from the hexagon aquarium and move him to the rectangular one reserved for the bigger kids. Today I actually netted two. Then I went back to do some maintenance on the hexagon aquarium and I still don't believe what I saw!

One of the bigger guys, not huge just bigger, was swimming around with a baby koi sticking out of his naughty mouth. Just the front half of the little guy was sticking out and his eyes looked so scared! And the culprit had the unmitigated gall to look surprised. Like he couldn't figure out how that baby got in his mouth.

I got my net and went after him with single minded purpose. I would not take my eyes off him until I caught him and when I did, there was no baby fish in his mouth. He must have been so surprised at getting caught that he spit it out.

Just now I went back to be sure there wasn't still a dark-colored big guy swimming around with a baby sticking out of his mouth and to my shock, there was another fish swimming around with a baby with scared looking eyes sticking out of his mouth. This one was gold though so I know it wasn't the same one. And when I caught him, he too spit out the baby.

Now I'm afraid I know what happened to this unusually marked little beauty that I haven't seen for awhile.


After all I've done for them, this is the thanks I get. Well, I moved them and now they're little fish in a big fish aquarium instead of vice versa. I hope they know why they're there and I hope it teaches the rest of the bigger guys in the hexagon aquarium a lesson.

I'll still feed everybody 5 times a day BUT now I'll be watching them very closely.

"I Slipped and Had a Turrible Fall"

Do you remember these words from Chuck Berry's timeless song, My Ding-A-Ling? The words go on to say, "I fell so hard I heard bells ring but held onto my ding-a-ling-a-ling.

That's the song that kept going through my head after my turrible fall. I was catching the last of the tiny little dark colored, hard-to-see babies from the goldfish pond. I had just snagged the last two (at the time I thought only one of them) when my foot slipped on that wet liner and I fell. Hard. On the lovely rocks that are supposed to decorate the pond as well as provide hiding places for babies. My shoes and jeans were SOAKED with some really foul smelling water. I skinned my left elbow and several places on my right hand and I was pretty sure my left little finger was broken. But I held onto those two little babies in my net and that's all I thought about as I struggled to get out of that pond and to the pitcher where the babies needed to be deposited. Pronto!

I got those precious little entities into the water and went in the house to change clothes. Then I scrubbed all the places where the skin was broken as ruthlessly as I could. I put on dry clothes and went back out to retrieve the waiting babies.

And that crazy Chuck Berry song kept running through my head.

And, friends, that's the difference between falling when you're doing something you want to be doing and falling at work. Because when I fell at work, no song went through my head. I always felt angry, betrayed, and hurt.

I won't say I liked falling in that smelly pond because I didn't. All I'm saying is things sure look different from this perspective. And it's a perspective that I like.

Oh and, by the way, if you aren't familiar with the Chuck Berry song, My Ding-A-Ling, try to find a copy to hear because it's REALLY cute.

I Can't Stop Moving

In an earlier post I reported that I had caught seven baby koi in the goldfish pond and moved them to the aquarium in the house. I really couldn't feel comfortable leaving them outside in the small, rather shallow pond over winter.

Since I felt better about moving seven of them, I went fishing again. This time I caught sixteen more.


This was very encouraging to me because I had now retrieved 23 of the baby koi that I had so recklessly dumped into that little tiny pond. Up until then, I wouldn't have put really BIG money on finding even 10 of them in there.

Somewhere in the back of my mind a new plan started to present itself. Maybe I should move all those babies into the house. There probably weren't that many left out there anyway and at least I wouldn't have to worry about the remainder of them becoming encased in ice in a pond where the bottom is above the frost line.

So I had a big ol' fishing expedition. And I caught 50 more babies. Here's part of that group.

Mr. Right and I finally culled a few. I think we lost a total of eight. Some just died (probably from the stress of being moved constantly) and some were so misshapen that it didn't make sense to keep them. This part still makes me sad.

A day later I was gazing into that almost empty goldfish pond when I spotted two dark colored babies swimming across the bottom. And I was determined to get them.

Those two turned into about 10. And as I was scooping the last two, I slipped and fell. But that's a story for another day.

We've set up a second aquarium for the bigger babies. There is already such a size disparity that I can hardly believe it and I've read that koi are given to cannibalism if some get too big while others remain very tiny. So as the big ones continue to get even bigger in the old aquarium, I choose one of them a day to move to the new aquarium for the big kids. And so it goes.

I just know that next year it'll be easier; but for now........ I just can't stop moving these baby koi.

It's Getting Cold Out

Our You Capture assignment the other day was The Feeling Of Fall. I think I made it quite clear in my submission how I felt about Fall. Overall, I'm not a fan. I used to think it was just because for the last fourteen years it meant that I was getting real close to spending some miserable days and hours outside but now I'm pretty sure it's not all about that because I'm not working and I still dread winter and I'm not enjoying Fall.

I just cleaned the filters in the ponds and that water was cold. I looked at my big koi and didn't feed them because once it gets really cold, they can only be fed once a day and I fed them earlier. It wasn't that much fun to feed them either. They kind of drifted to the top and ate but it wasn't voracious, enthusiastic eating with splashing and assertiveness. It was picking and partaking but not really enjoying. They're definitely losing their appetites.

And then there are all the baby koi in the goldfish pond. I didn't feel great about putting them in there when I did it but now I feel even more uneasy. In fact, I've captured seven of them so far to put in the aquarium in the house. I just don't have confidence that they'll get through the long cold winter out there.

I have a hard time going outside for anything now. I like to be in. I like to nest. And I like to be warm. I'm pretty sure I was meant to live somewhere else.

Busy Times

I can't believe how much adjustment is required in retirement. I can't, seriously CAN'T, believe that that there's so much to do daily and that, even though I make an ever growing 'To Do' list, I've never accomplished everything on it in a single day. I like having the list though. It helps keep things from falling through the cracks and it keeps me on track. I include everything from taking my pills to making my bed. I make sure to do some laundry every day and I edit some pictures too although not as many as I used to because I found out how little time I really have. I love these days though. I'll always be grateful for every single one of them and for everything I've been able to do that I couldn't have done if I were still giving more physical effort everyday than I had to give. I just can't wait until Mr. Right joins me. We're going to have such a good time and part of the reason will be that we can travel at the drop of a hat if we want to.

I've been trying to evolve my koi husbandry skills with some degree of success. There are no longer any koi in the two tubs outside. I've moved a total of 100 of them into the goldfish pond (where there are no goldfish of course), and the last 42 were moved into the aquarium yesterday. Here they are just before they were introduced into their new home.


Cute aren't they?

I was able to add this many to the aquarium, first of all because they're so small and secondly because the numbers of the ones that had been in the aquarium seemed to be diminishing ever since we put Mr. Algae Eater back in there. So before we added the 42, we netted the fast growing algae eater and took him for a one way ride to our local tropical fish store.

I'd estimate that there are about a hundred babies in the aquarium now and I did put 100 more into the goldfish pond where I never ever see more than six at a time which is worrisome. Also worrisome is the plan is to keep the outside koi in the rather shallow goldfish pond over winter with a pond heater or two. (Mr. Right doesn't know it yet but my next big push will be to get a portable generator. Otherwise a power loss in the middle of winter could result in the loss of our entire stock of koi.)

So it goes.

And I muse about people who hate retirement because they're so bored. Could it be because they don't have koi ponds? Or maybe they don't have a computer and a blog and Wii Fit (that's a story for another day) or gardens or books or a camera or WHAT? I don't get it. I really don't but I thank God that as long as I have my faculties and can get around unaided, I don't think I'll ever be bored with retirement. It's really too splendid for words!

Not To Be Boring With The Fish Again BUT

We finished with our fish rearranging project. The biggest of the baby koi had the cleanest, freshest little pond to swim in that you ever saw. It had to look like a universe compared to what they had been living in. We had about 13 of our biggest babies in there and of course they were doing a good job of hiding in their protection tunnel and among the rocks so I was looking for them WHEN I saw something land on the net that we have over the pond to protect them.

But first, let me show you what I'm talking about when I'm talking about protecting them.

Here is the tunnel that we built with our bare hands so they'd have a place to hide from evil predators.


Here is the net that we covered them with lovingly and anchored it securely on all sides so that nothing could harm them at all.

Here is the heron that we bought even though we aren't fond of them but we had heard that they're so territorial that if another heron saw this heron guarding our pond, he'd pass on by and forget about eating our baby koi.

So imagine my dismay when I saw a frog that I had startled jump unto the net, wriggle around a little bit, and plop cheerfully into the pond. And we had the hardest time catching him. We actually had to dismantle the cave before we could get him out.

So we did a little research on the internet and the general consensus seems to be that frogs will eat fish but only when they're really tiny........like ours. Whether or not he ate most or even any of the little guys, we probably won't know for some time but I'm just saying. How do we stay ahead of all the things that could happen?

I've seen as many as 6 at once of the 13 babies that we put in there and the rest may have been hiding. But at any rate, I'm up for this challenge. It's me against all the enemies of tiny baby koi fry. And I intend to win!

But don't worry. I'm not taking it THAT seriously. I know after all, that they're just fish.

Always Something With The Fish

Sometimes I think the best way to ease a worried mind is to throw yourself into something like a great big project.

So today that's what we did.

My granddaughter, her husband, and Superbaby have been staying with us and they've always taken a very gratifying interest in the koi and every aspect of koi care. They were here when we finally had our spawning and they were very instrumental in collecting so many eggs that we had such a large hatch.

So I've been musing about what to do with the babies. We have a large pond with 13 large koi. We have a smaller pond for the purpose of quarantining new fish to be sure they're disease free before introducing them to the large koi population. That pond used to have 3 grown goldfish only Then this Spring just to make the koi look bad, they started spawning like madmen or mad fish. There were so many baby goldfish in there that when you fed them the surface of the water just churned with fish. Finally we had to release the 3 parents into the wild to stop the population explosion.

Then we had the aquarium and two tubs with baby koi. And the koi are the fish I value.

When we had to find places to put the unhatched eggs back in June, we removed the 3 fish that were in the aquarium. There was one algae eater and two long, skinny, fast-as-lightening tropical fish. We put them in the goldfish pond, crossing our fingers that they would be fine as long as the weather was warm.

Today we decided that we'd take all the goldfish out of their little pond and put all the baby koi into it at least until cold weather sets in (which I realize is probably sooner than we were thinking).

So we netted all the goldfish and put them in two buckets. Big Daddy was in there (more commonly known as Fat Bastard) and we put him in the big pond with the big, honkin' koi and crossed our fingers again. Then we put two more suspected baby koi in the tubs.

Now we had two buckets teeming with baby goldfish and the two long, skinny, fast-as-lightening tropical fish who seemed to have grown significantly. We dumped the algae eater back in the aquarium assuming that he was interested in eating koi eggs and itty, bitty, tiny koi fry and not the slightly bigger little guys that are in there now. Then we came in for lunch. Before we did I noticed that a lot of the goldfish in one of the buckets were hovering near the top and I commented that I thought they needed more air. But you know me and thinking I had more time, I thought to take care of it after lunch.

When I walked back out, one of the long, skinny, fast-as-lightening tropical fish was laying on the ground, dead of course and the other long, skinny, fast-as-lightening tropical fish was laying in the bottom of the bucket, also dead. And the little goldfish were dying in droves.

So I raced to Meijer and bought two aerators and the necessary accessories to keep alive the goldfish that we were desperately trying to figure out how to get rid of. $20 to keep fish alive that we didn't want...... at all. Sometimes I defy all logic.

They're doing quite well now. They have plenty of air and I'm confident they'll be fine until morning. But what do we do with them then? Any ideas? If we put them in a pond somewhere, would they upset the ecological balance? I need some ideas.

Oh, and as for Big Daddy alias Fat Bastard, he was swimming around happily, came up to partake of dinner when we fed everybody, and generally seemed to adjust very well. That is until all the giant koi came down to that corner to clean up the dinner scraps that had drifted over there and had their usual feeding frenzy. After that, we didn't see him again. I guess he's either scared to death and hiding or eaten to death and dead.

So the day was successful. The small pond is clean and waiting for baby koi and I was so busy that I my mind was diverted from that uneasy feeling. I'm pretty sure it was your prayers that set me on the road to that project. Thank you all very much.

Where Have All The Fishies Gone?

As I've reported extensively, we had our long awaited koi spawning on June 28th. Since then, a good deal of our time and effort has been focused on bringing these little tiny, fragile babies to adulthood. We suffered extensive losses that I talked about on July 28th but after that the numbers seemed to stabilize quite nicely.

Then we went on our short vacation and came back to find that one of the tubs outside has once again suffered significant losses. In fact, when I first checked on it, I was hard pressed to find more than 2 or 3 babies in it where there had been a minimum of 50 or 60. We had very responsible, dedicated caretakers and they reported that the tub was never left uncovered but that they, too had noticed declining number in that tub.

So I studied it very carefully. I was trying to find more than the 2 or 3 babies that I had initially seen when I saw something else. A monster if you will. A true mutant. He slid so swiftly and stealthily from one hiding place to the next that I almost didn't believe I had really seen him. He was easily 10 times bigger than the biggest babies we had until then. And all of a sudden the mystery was solved.

I had read that cannibalism could be an issue with these guys if the sizes became too disparate but I'd not seen any evidence of that being a problem...yet. But now I knew where all the little fishies had gone and I knew why Big Daddy was growing disproportionaly compared to the rest of the babies. He was feasting on his brothers and sisters. That fat bastard!

It was a task but I finally captured him. You might think that he was summarily executed but hold your horses. A fast growing koi is a koi with a great attribute and rather than punish him, he was to be rewarded. I removed the large goldfish from the goldfish pond and put him in with the baby goldfish. If he feasts on them, it's okay because I don't have much love for goldfish - only koi. But he won't because most of them are about the same size as him. So he's safe from big fish eating him and he's in an environment where he should continue to grow fast.

After I captured him, I left him in this bucket while I tried to figure out what do do with him:

Later on I checked on him and he had seemed to have disappeared. I had to look closely to see that he had cloaked himself with the one leaf in the bucket. See how smart and wily he is?


Now I know where all the fishies have gone and I know that I have one smart, wily, fat bastard to nurture in place of about 40 babies. But I'm just gonna call him Big Daddy from now on.

Oh and don't forget to leave a comment in yesterday's post for a chance at those valuable prizes that I'm offering to celebrate my 100th post anniversary. Hurry 'cause so far all the entrants have a whopping one in five chance of winning!

Baby Koi Update

The baby koi began to hatch on June 29th. Then on July 28th, I reluctantly reported that their numbers had been diminishing at an alarming rate but that I thought they were finally stabilizing. I'm happy to report that I still think they were. I've only seen a couple of lifeless bodies in the last couple of weeks and overall it looks like about the same density of koi to water.

Here's kind of a close up of one of the in-house babies. You can't get much perspective on size but they are starting to look more like fish now.

Obviously, I have a VERY hard time photographing these guys.

And here's a picture from one of the outside tubs. You can see that there's beginning to be quite a size disparity.

I'm pleased though that there are as many survivors as there are and I still don't know how we'll get them through the winter, but we'll figure that out when the time comes. Our wonderful granddaughter and her wonderful husband have offered to set up an aquarium to get some of them through the winter. Certainly that will help.

With all these fish babies, and walking for exercise, and hitting plastic golf balls (more on that later), I wonder how I EVER had time to work and why my days are going so much faster now and I'm full of wonder that life is so much better. I am one lucky chica.

My Biggo Back Yard

I'm always posting pictures and going on and on about Striebel Pond and I've even slipped in a few pictures from Indiana Dunes State Park, but another one of my favorite places is our backyard.

We've seen a huge variety of birds this year and now we have some new residents and visitors. We have a baby rabbit who is actually semi tame.

Then there are the tiny little baby koi we have in two tubs next to the door outside. I took these pictures while standing on our back step. Really, you'll probably have to double click on these to see the beautiful babies.

A frequent visitor to our big ol' back yard is this lame goose. He's the only goose we allow on our property and he's pretty arrogant about it. I mean we're avid goose chasers but the way this guy limps around all by himself is just pathetic. So we allow him to stay and glare at us when we take pictures of him.

And I can't forget to mention the grown koi. You can't step out the door without them rushing to the edge of the pond to visit (really they're hoping for food but I like to pretend we're friends).


Lots of squirrels visit our backyard too but I typically don't take their pictures. I have but it would take me eons to find one to post here. We also have lots of baby robins right now and they're always bathing in the shallows of the pond and sometimes the robins and wrens who've nested in the wonderful birdhouse that my brother made for me, even make use of the birdbath that Mr. Right does a good job of keeping supplied with water for bathing.

All in all it's a pretty busy place, our backyard. And it's going to be really beautiful once I get all the flower beds weeded. I can hardly wait.

They're Still Swimming - Just Not Very Many

In my post on June 30th, I excitedly reported that we had literally hundreds of swimming koi fry. Things progressed swimmingly up to the post I wrote on July 7th showing a picture of hundreds, really probably thousands of koi fry. In that post, although I was a very proud koi mom, I did express some trepidation about the likelihood of bringing so many to adulthood or even teen hood.

There was a good reason for that. I planned to post pictures weekly to show their progress but then something bad happened. They started dying. It seems like it should have been simple to figure out what went wrong but it was so complicated. Everything I read was either vague or contradictory. For example. Koi babies are very hungry and must eat at least 5 times a day. BUT don't overfeed them because koi babies will eat until their tiny abdomens literally burst. Oh no.

Then, there was the problem with aerating. Koi babies and koi eggs need lots and lots of air. But when we put two aerators in, the tiny little bodies seemed to get bounced and battered all over the place. Some hid on the bottom or in the corners but most seemed to swim around in this never ending circulation. Later I would realize that a lot of those swimmers circulating around were dead. Oh no.

Then the filtration question. We covered the vent on the filter intake with mesh so that nobody would get sucked in but guess what. The first day that I cleaned it there were probably fifty koi bodies stuck to it. Well, if they're dead it's good to get them out of there I thought; so I cleaned it and put it back in and guess what. I watched as live koi bodies got stuck to it and couldn't get away. So we invented a large cage covered in mesh so that we could get some filtration but no bodies would stick to it. That sort of worked but I think the filtration we're getting is so minimal that it's questionable whether it's worth it.

Then, the problem of water changes. Most sites I visited stressed the importance of doing a partial water change every day. I tried that but there was difficulty getting the precisely correct amount of dechlorinator in the tap water. Some sites suggested adding pond water. I tried that but I wasn't convinced that our pond water was healthy enough for these fragile little babies. So I tried a combination of the two. I don't think that was the answer either.

I don't know what spelled doom for so many babies. All I know is that I don't have it figured out. I suspect now that overfeeding was the main cause.

Anyway here are pictures of where we are now. This is not to show how few there are left (although it will) but to show how they're changing. And, knock on wood, the numbers seem to be stabilizing. You'll want to double click on the pictures to see what they really look like.


So you can see that the tank isn't real clean (we had to take the algae eater out because in additon to algae they eat anything they can get their mouths on including koi eggs) but they are starting to look more like fish and we have maybe 40 or 50 more in the tubs outside that didn't get as much tender loving care so they had a better chance of survival.

I'm still thrilled to have koi babies though. And I'll keep you posted. Literally.

And We Still Have Koi Fry

We still have koi fry although not as many as we started with. I guess I should be thrilled though that there are any left because they seem so fragile when they first hatch. Some of them are starting to look more like fish, too. I think my dream business would be to raise koi but at my age it's probably unrealistic to go into a business where the product takes a few years to fully develop. I'm going to give it some thought though and part of the decision will be based on how many of these I can bring to adulthood.

I know one thing. I'm not going to be a koi fry photographer. I'm having the hardest time getting a decent picture of them. While I was scanning through the many pictures that I've taken I noticed that I captured a halfway decent photo of a few of them on an algae covered rock in the bottom of the aquarium. Here's that one enlarged:

What do you think? They're looking a little more like fish aren't they? Don't start thinking of names yet though because these could be dead before I publish this post.

I've even taken out the mesh covered filter because the last time I cleaned it there were about 50 dead babies stuck to it. :(

So, since koi like algae filled, murky water, that's what we're going to have to have in the aquarium until these guys (or at least the survivors) are ready to go outside.

They're Still Swimming

On the 30th I announced the hatching of lots of baby koi. I'm happy to report that we still have lots of baby koi, that they're swimming more than ever, and that they seem to respond when I put the powdered koi food in the aquarium.

Here they are:

Aren't they adorable!?

The overriding question we're getting is, "What are you going to do with them?". And the answer is we don't know. If they're really beautiful, we may be able to sell them. If they're not so pretty, we might have to give them away.

But right now, I'm still not confident that we can get them past the baby stage. Once we get to the toddler stage (maybe about 4 weeks) I'll breathe a little easier.

In the meantime, share our joy and start thinking of names!!!!

They're Swimming!

They're swimming and there's lots of them.

Yesterday I talked about our miraculously big spawning event and today I'm updating you on the babies.

In the aquarium in the house there are hundreds of koi fry (babies). In the larger tub outside, our grandson-in-law counted between 30 and 50 and in the small tub he saw about 10.

Although they're supposed to be stuck to the plants and walls of the abode by the sticky pad on their heads for 3 to 5 days, they're swimming around like crazy. That sticking thing lasted less than 24 hours.

Now the trick is to feed them enough but not too much and to keep as many alive as possible. I'm still in disbelief that this has happened. It's absolutely awesome so far!

Cross your fingers for us. Hopefully we're in it for the long haul.

Something's Fishy

Well it's almost time and I can hardly wait.

Last year when we went to the Chicago Koi Show, our intention was to buy one large, breeding size koi. But when we got there, it was way too hard to pick out just one so for the same money we picked out seven. I called them the magnificent seven because I thought they were so special. Well, it's not good to take too much pride in your koi because that (or something) caused the demise of my three favorite. A beautiful, fast growing green one, a gorgeous tri-colored butterfly, and a black and gold one named Goldmine. There are technical names for these types but I haven't learned them yet.

Anyway, here are the four that are left:









Now the big event that is coming up is that soon the young koi that we've kept in the aquarium (or inside nursery) are going to join these big guys in the big pond outside:



And soon after that, the winter pond will turn to a summer pond and it will be beautiful again with lots and lots of happy koi that I'm hoping against hope will spawn lots of little koi this year.