[Evening]

I've decided that I am going to build myself a small pond in my yard, I got permission today and I've spent the day searching for stuff to line it with, and I got some free duck weed from the guys at the store (on top of a little extra lino because he couldn't be bothered measuring it to an exact point).
All I have to dig is a little hand spade, and my hands are actually shaking from all the effort I've had to put into digging! Hopefully I can get it done soon, I think it will be good to use when I need to relax, I think my therapist will be happy that I made it.
I'd type more, but my arms are hurting too much!

[DenisDonnacha]

I hope it comes out just how you want it. When the weather is good you could even put fish in it lol

[Evening]

Well it's the beginning of summer here, though it hasn't been overly hot, so I was hoping to get it done in the next few days and put the fish in. I have some water that has been sitting outside for quite a while with hundreds of mosquito larvae in it, so I was going to add that, instead of adding tap water and waiting for it to cycle for a few weeks (so the fish don't die).

Enjoy your pond Evening. After all your hard work it will surely be worth it. I have a pond and there's nothing more relaxing than listening to the fountain or the frogs that come visit for the summer.

[roads]

Evening, that's great! Your arms & hands may take a while to recover, but I hope your pond is a wonderful pond. Be sure there's enough greenery to hide the fish well or the birds will think it a shushi bar (Boo! Hiss!).

You're really a planner, with mosquito water at the ready.

Let us know how it goes. Don't know about the others ... I'd love photos (hint-hint).

[Evening]

It will only be a simple pond, there is all this hype that you need filters and stuff, but you really dont. But I love ponds. I used to have one years ago and there were some lizards that lived in the rocks, I would catch bugs and wait for the lizards, and if I stayed really still they would eat the bugs from my hand.

[purple_fins]

That sounds wonderful - Evening.

Good luck with it.

fins

[Evening]

My pond is close to finished now, all I need is rocks to put around it and then spent forever tidying up my yard. I already added some fish, I bought 4, and I bought a lily. If the fish don't kick the bucket in the next few days I'll buy some more. And, I might buy some I can actually see next time.
The critters are already starting to enjoy it, after I just put my fish in and was making sure they were okay, a butterfly came along and landed on a leaf on the water, and it floated around like it was on a raft while it drank.
I'd like to get a few tadpoles when my pond is better established, but I won't look too much into that until I've completed it and tidied up.
In the meantime, I am EXHAUSTED, I have been so occupied with this pond that I haven't even bothered going food shopping!

[Evening]

Okay here are a few photos!







It's still not quite finished, and I really need to get my yard cleaned up, but once it's all done it should look really good.

[Evening]

And now it's raining, so I can't tidy up my yard. It's supposed to be summer!

[lynn P.]

I think you did a beautiful job Evening. Are you going to put something to aerate the water? We have a pond in our backyard and its fairly deep with a rock waterfall. It had to be deep enough because we get Winter here and the fish can only survive if its deep enough. Since ours is deeper we had to go with a full filter and pump for the waterfall....also have to put a small surface heater to stop ice from totally covering the surface. I like the shape of yours - its very nice and natural looking.

[Evening]

No I'm not putting anything in the pond, I'm just leaving it natural. Generally if you have enough water and leave the pond/aquarium uncrowded, then having to use a filter/aerator isn't as necessary. Of course it won't do any harm to use them, and not having the right conditions without it can cause fish to die. But there are only 9 fish in there. I put 5 in initially, one died overnight (wish I had expected before I even put it in the pond, so it wasn't the pond that caused it), and then waiting a week to let the first lot of fish settle in and to make sure the conditions were right. Other than being really shy and hiding whenever they saw me, they were fine. They started to get better over the last few days and would come out if I waited, so today I bought 3 more shebunkins, and I decided to buy one larger fish (a bronze comet) to make the 8 smaller fish feel more comfortable and safer. And, it actually worked instantly! As soon as the big fish went in (We shall call her Leader Fish), the rest honestly didn't care less that I was there. Leader fish is a lot more confident than the rest so she comes up to the surface to eat and the others follow, something they didn't do before. They followed her around everywhere. And within half an hour of the new fish being put in, Leader Fish has found herself a clingy, desperate boyfriend fish. Initially I thought Boyfriend Fish was just being a bastard and chasing her, then after further observation it became quite apparent that they were getting pretty cosy with each other.

Here are some more pictures, including Leader Fish and Boyfriend Fish. They aren't that great because it was starting to get dark when I took them.

This is all the fish except one that tends to be mysterious and elusive, yet one of the more confident fish (who we shall call Mystery Fish)



Leader Fish and Boyfriend Fish



Mystery Fish

[gma45]

Looks great that will be so much fun just to sit by and relax!

[roads]

Evening, it's turning out beautifully. All that work, and what great results. And already a saga in the works ...

Thanks so much for the pictures & commentary. I'm following with growing interest in the players. Erhm.. I mean the swimmers ...