Time for another pond update! The pond water, despite temperatures of over 100 degrees in Arizona, remains clear enough to enjoy watching the fish feed every evening. We find ourselves spending about an hour every evening watching their antics.

Water clarityWe also have Gambusia (Mosquito fish) in our pond. The females grow to about 2” to 2 1/2” and the males are about 1 1/2”. They live for a year, year and a half. They breed prodigiously and breed at least 2 times during our summers. They are our “canaries in the coal mine.” If something is going to happen to the water quality, they will die off first. So far, so good. No losses of Gambusia, Goldfish or Koi.

FeedingThe hula hoop aka feeding ring is working. It now sits about a foot from the edge of the pond, over the fish cave. The big fish, being ever wary, took a few days to get used to being so close to us but now they all come into the ring to eat.

Hand feeding 2Hand feedin 1We find that the littlest Koi are very curious and will come over and check out our legs when we are working in the pond. So the other day we decided to try to hand feed them. No problem! They readily came over and joyously ate to their hearts’ content without being bothered by the big guys.

Globe 1The Aqua-Sphere that we purchased several weeks ago is not a hit…yet. When floating food is placed within it the Gambusia will readily enter and eat the food. The Koi want no part of it so far. We have also discovered that it has to be taken down and cleaned about every 2 weeks. Since we get so little rain in Arizona it becomes quite dusty on the outside and whatever algae is in the pond tends to collect within it. We will hang in there for awhile longer, waiting for cooler weather to see if that makes a difference.

Yerba ManzaWe also did some work around the pond. We have discovered that Yerba Manza is almost weed-like (or else it really likes our pond environment). So we ruthlessly cleaned it out and ended up with at least 3 large trash bags of cuttings and root balls and still have plenty left around the pond.

In July I will be in California and plan to visit Andrews Koi International in Anaheim and the Laguna Koi Ponds in Laguna Beach. I plan to take plenty of photos and will share them here. I have also visited EBay’s auction site and checked out the Koi that they auction on that site. So far I have not been successful in acquiring a fish because I often forget to go back and check my bid status. I do not want to pay “an arm and a leg” for a fish when the shipping charge for overnight is $35.00 so I tend to be a very cheap bidder!!

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