And then there were fish part 3 – the first few weeks

Jumping, frogs and dogs

So the waters slowly but surely starting to clear and we can finally see the fish again.

This is late March and it’s fairly cool so we haven’t started feeding them yet. Another thing to learn, only feed when the water gets above 8 degrees as they can’t digest the food! However every morning and every evening we’re out there counting the fish and sighing with relief that there are no floaters and 14 are still alive and swimming.

One of them however has a severely bent back/tail. What happened? Has it swam too hard under the waterfall rocks and bent it? (I know we’re clueless!) Call to Roy me thinks! Response – oh yes the whitish one, didn’t we say? They have a tendency to jump out of the water and 2 of them ended up on the floor whilst we were at work one day, the other one died, that one just ended up with a broken back!  Pic below – not ours, but similar effect, David Bailey forgot to come round!

Our initial sigh of relief is brief until we realise that there’s another thing to look out for – jumping fish! Sure enough as the water starts warming up the little ones start doing their best impression of a flying Marlin!!! Little toads!

Toads, that brings me onto something else we had no idea about! For the last 9 or so years our pond had been left to nature so we had a large number of frogs and toads in it. (One jumped up underneath the dog on the steps one night – big brave German Shepherd – not! He’s now petrified of frogs to the point when it’s dark and damp you can’t get him up the sodding garden! I digress, sorry!) Frogs & toads & fish – Breeding season beware, the amphibians have a tendency to latch onto any orifice and attempt copulation! The fish aren’t too keen on this act and can actually suffocate so keep an eye on them!

Bringing you up to present day, we are now into Autumn and you’ll be glad to hear  despite, dogs, cats, herons and ‘L Plate’ owners, all 14 are still alive and well. (Yep, we’re pretty gobsmacked too!)