THE POND PAGE

Here's a bit of info about my pond. Basically, it's a rubber liner stuck in a hole in the ground and filled with water. The capacity of the pond is somewhere around 300 to 500 gallons. Its odd shape and variable depths make it a little hard to figure what the exact capacity is. Living in this pond are about 10 koi, an indeterminate amount of large and small goldfish, and 3 brown bullhead catfish. These are the desired inhabitants. Also in there are a few golden shiners that were leftover bait fish from a fishing trip. There are frogs, spiders, and other transient visitors as well.

Two of the koi are older than the rest. They were two "leftover" fish I got at the end of the season. These fish have grown quite rapidly and are the real dominators of the pond. In these images, the koi are about 2 years old.

One of the two large koi is solid yellow, which is called a ki-goi. This is a picture of that fish when it was in isolation in an aquarium
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The other is actually a reject of the ogon variety; a gin kabuto. This is kind of surprising, since these particuar koi are often sold at garden centers as "ghost koi" for a lot more than the koi that are of more desirable breeding.


Here is the same fish from a top-down view. This fish is about 10 inches long in this image. Some younger koi are swimming near it.

Water gardening is another necessary part of pondkeeping. The plants and the fish work together to keep the whole pond system in a balanced state. The most interesting thing about water gardening, though, is the exciting variety of plants that are available. The novelty of these plants really gives the pond an "exotic" quality, since these water plants bring with them new shapes, textures, and flowers.

Here are two varieties of lilies that have bloomed next to each other. The yellow lily is much more vigorous, with larger leaves and absolutely huge blossoms. The white lily tends to change color; sometimes the flowers appear pink, and sometimes white. The blossoms generally last 2-3 days, at which point they dissappear under the water once again.


Sometimes these flowers appear so perfect, they almost look fake.


The water hyacinth, for those not familair with it, is a tropical water weed that is an annoyance in many parts of the world. However, here in NJ, it's only found in ponds. The bizarre shape of this floating plant and its purple flowers make it a very interesting pond plant. This picture shows the first time I ever noticed 6 simultaneous flowers on the same plant. The yellow spot on each flower is another curious feature of this floating wonder. The flowers last a few days, and then turn back into the water. A new plant forms at the end of the stem where the flowers were. If left to its own devices, this plant could conceivably form a huge floating mat of plants in a relatively short time.


More to come in the future.... maybe.... ^^;

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