Hi all,
I wrote awhile ago that I had babies in the pond. Hadn't seen hide nor hair--or should that be fin nor scale-- of anyone in the last month, so I figured mom and dad had sushi for a few meals and that was the end of it.
Went out today to pick dead leaves and generally putz around, and when I was scooting the water hyacinths away from the filter, (they like to hang out right over the filter...) what do I see? Little fishies! Everywhere from an inch or so long down to mosquito wiggler-size! White ones, polka dotted ones, (methinks there may have been a shubunkin involved there somewhere
) the usual grey-brown ones...probably 10-12 of them, though it's hard to say with them darting in and out of the hyacinth roots.
SO, after all that, here's my question...
I need to rinse out the filter pads and do some maintenance on the pond bottom..right under the baby fishy hangout. If I gently scoot the hyacinths around the corner, can I safely mess with the filter and do some gravel vacc'ing without fear of sucking up or injuring the little guys? Bear in mind, I have never used a gravel vac, mine just came in the mail (python ulti-vac). It runs on the hose, but is not supposed to allow untreated water back into the pond, and I guess it works the same way an aquarium vac works. My pond is under huge old firs, and I want to do a little tidying up. Would I be better to do the filter maintenance now and wait a bit for the bottom? It isn't totally disgusting down there, just hasn't been touched since spring...
Sigh...will I ever learn to just say "can I gravel vac around my baby fishies?" and call it good? Doubtful...
Jen
I wrote awhile ago that I had babies in the pond. Hadn't seen hide nor hair--or should that be fin nor scale-- of anyone in the last month, so I figured mom and dad had sushi for a few meals and that was the end of it.
Went out today to pick dead leaves and generally putz around, and when I was scooting the water hyacinths away from the filter, (they like to hang out right over the filter...) what do I see? Little fishies! Everywhere from an inch or so long down to mosquito wiggler-size! White ones, polka dotted ones, (methinks there may have been a shubunkin involved there somewhere
) the usual grey-brown ones...probably 10-12 of them, though it's hard to say with them darting in and out of the hyacinth roots. SO, after all that, here's my question...
I need to rinse out the filter pads and do some maintenance on the pond bottom..right under the baby fishy hangout. If I gently scoot the hyacinths around the corner, can I safely mess with the filter and do some gravel vacc'ing without fear of sucking up or injuring the little guys? Bear in mind, I have never used a gravel vac, mine just came in the mail (python ulti-vac). It runs on the hose, but is not supposed to allow untreated water back into the pond, and I guess it works the same way an aquarium vac works. My pond is under huge old firs, and I want to do a little tidying up. Would I be better to do the filter maintenance now and wait a bit for the bottom? It isn't totally disgusting down there, just hasn't been touched since spring...
Sigh...will I ever learn to just say "can I gravel vac around my baby fishies?" and call it good? Doubtful...
Jen
