Topic: I've got Babies?

[teresa]

Went on holiday for a week, son and girlfriend moved in to look after Dad/fish/dogs and garden. ::)

All the family have heard me going on I want babies after losing my white and gold Koi and hoping she had spawned before she died. ???

Every day I looked in to the pool and nought. :'(

So last thursday I am taking photos of the kids in the pool and through the veiw finder I saw a baby  :o

well nearly dropped the dig camera in the pool. Started screaming, I got babies, hubby come running our neighbrough came to the fence asked if I was ok. :-[

Then hubby started laughing, what says I :o

well it turned out our son and girlfriend were so sorry for me they went and bought two for me a white and gold and a black and gold Koi. :D

Kids dont you just love them and I have babies at last  ;)ha ha. Teresa

[Margaret]

Teresa,congratulations on your new arrivals!!  I had a "head" count the other night.Eight baby rudd and 3 goldfish.Wish i could get as excited as you.However I will not part with them of course.

Had no problems with the ponds while away,but got up this morning to find the level of my raised pond dropping rapidly.The "wrigglies" had blocked the pipe from the filter to the pond,which happens if I don't keep an eye on things.The"wrigglies" are very small larvae,which hatch into small flies but in great numbers they are an absolute menace.I thought they had finished for this year,as they are only bad in the hot weather.Sod hubbys lunch making,I'm rushing out in me nightie to see what the problem is.

Fancy a "larvae sandwich,anyone?"

[Chloe]

Congratulations Teresa, on your babies.  Sorry I am a bit late with my wishes but have been away on holiday.

Managed to get and have a good look at my pond, on Sunday, and counted 29 babies.  That's without Sunny, Romeo and Tara and the babies I couldn't see.  So quickly found a net and got 10 of them out and put them in my new plot holders pond :)

[teresa]

Hi Chloe
So you have babies 29 thats something ah so kind of you to give them away. Mine were shop bought but never mind next year.
Did you have a nice holiday anywhere interesting?
nice to have you back.
Teresa

[Dusty]

I am quite jealous of you all having babies - as mentioned before I have only every had one baby (Stephen).  We still have him and he is doing fine although not growing as fast as I thought he would.  We had some frantic spawning late summer early autumn and I thought I would see some babies but no nothing at all.  I wonder if the fish could have eaten all the eggs.  I still keep looking but giving up hope now.


Will you be bringing your babies inside for winter or do you leave them out?   We were told they might not survive a bad winter which is why we brought Stephen in for his first winter.

[Margaret]

Hi Dusty.Got your E mail,will reply soon.As to the question of saving fry.I brought mine in for two winters running and saved over 30 fish that way.Lovely to watch them grow,and of course,it does give them the best chance because they are not at risk from being eaten as a winter snack,succumbing to the cold,or not thriving through not putting on enough weight before the winter fast.

That is fine until you realise you cannot keep doing that unless you are going to set up a market stall selling excess fish!! So for the last 3 years i have resorted to "survival of the fittest" Some years i have more than others.When you only have a few then ,like you did the first year,I would recommend it.However,Stephen(who did you name him after?!!)will be fine now he's bigger.Probably the fish spawning late meant less places for the fry to hide.That is the time to save them,even the plants they have spawned on.If you look close you can see the eggs.Though there's no guarantee they will always be fertile.

By the way,ref your filter.I had problems on my big pond with flooding until I got a filter with a double pipe outlet.Instant cure.The raised pond filter we turned the pipe round inside to be horizontal so that the water could drain away easier.Hope yours is O.K.now.

[Dusty]

Hi Maggie,  Stephen was called after Stephen Fry (fry - baby fish!)

After the late spawning there was always a lot of activity around the grassy plants and we assumed the fish were eating some eggs but we thought a few would survive.  I had been reading about how many hundreds or thousands of eggs can be laid and so was sure we would have some babies.

Hopefully when the overflow is cut down a little lower that will solve our problems.    The water is still lovely and clear - even though it is late in the year - the amount of times it has been topped up I was expecting it to turn green with the amount of sunlight we have still been having but it is still lovely.  

I have posted two pics to Dan to include on here.  One showing part of the pond and the other of some of the fish.  Unfortunately Stephen is not on the picture - I think he is camera shy - kept disappearing.

[Chloe]

Hi Teresa,

Yes, had a lovely holiday, thanks.  Went to a place called Keyhaven, nothing there but sea and the birds.

I never gave it a thought to bring my babies in.  What did you put them in?  I really couldn't imagine me catching the ones that are left in my pond.  You notice I refrain from saying how many, as I dread to think.  I do worry about how they are going to survive as they aren't growing as fast as I had hoped, so they could survive the winter.  I went on Monday and bought 3 bags of daphnia to try and fatten them up, but they looked no fatter today :)  And if that's not worrying enough I still have babies in my small wildlife pond.