Koi Stone

This morning Steve and I did what people in the Yahoo ponding group suggested we do. We netted Red Guy and checked his perpetually-open mouth. Sure enough, we found this stone lodged in there!

While I held Red Guy firmly, Steve managed to pull out the stone. Mind you, Red Guy is about 7 or 8 inches long (if you don't count his amazingly gorgeous butterfly fins). As you can see, this stone is no pebble. (That's a quarter next to it.)

We were both so happy that this procedure went well. It was relatively easy and quick, and obviously successful. I feel like a bad koi mommy, though, for having taken so long to figure out what the heck was going on with this fish, but in my defense, this is something I had never heard of in my 12+ years of ponding!

Many thanks to Barry for the net and Bill for the long tweezers!

I think I should get one of these for my water garden.

[Shamelessly stolen from The Sneeze]

Fairy Sighting

Not much has been happening with the pond lately. We're exhausted from all the hubbub with the baby shower last Sunday, and it's hot weather time, so we haven't been doing much beyond keeping the fish and plants fed and watered, respectively. I did like this pic Steve took yesterday...

Lilies

New water lilies for the pond...

Taking Shape!

Over the last week Steve and I have been wicked busy, preparing for the baby shower on Sunday. (For visitors, that's a shower for my oldest son and his wife, who are expecting a son on November 14th.)

We bought a whole bunch of plants for around the waterfall and filter. We also bought a lot for the pots around the patio.

More Progress

Here's how nasty it looks - and is supposed to look - inside the filter box






The waterfall...under construction




As you can see, we're going to have to think of something to make the bottom of the pond look nicer now that we can see everything so clearly!