First Lily Pad!

My very first lily pad reached the surface this morning. It's tiny, but it's on the surface. SUCCESS!

Pictures Galore: 1 Month Pondiversary

Here are some pictures. The pond has been around for a month; I'm amazed - I thought it had been much longer. We have five outdoor turtles, one indoor turtle, pond plants, three plecos, and over 100 goldfish. And an active plant nursery that I have to tend to today - I need to pot some of the water mint cuttings before their roots get tangled in the mesh planter. Going to just set them in some rocks. Oh, and 17 water lily plants in various stages of growth. Man, I think I might be proud or something.

The plants before the turtles ate them.

I remember when the fish were this small.

Our wasp friend (one of two, it seems).

Kitty TV

Feeding frenzy.

I have a lot of fish.

They like the ring.

So many colors!

Getting so big!

I think that one with the black stripe is Bobak. 

Look at the size comparison between the big and small - the big ones are about a month into pond-living while the smaller ones are about two weeks. 

These are baby mosquito fish. 

Carrot greens in with the hyacinth and baby mosquito fish.

This is what the fish do to oranges.

A TURTLE HAS BEEN SPOTTED (I think this is Original Timmy)

Chewy, hiding under a floating raft thing I got for them to bask on.

Oh, to be a turtle.

This is one of the newbies; might be the second male Timmy.

I think this one is the female - I don't remember and I can't see the claws.

I SEE YOU

Thursday's Update

Well, I may have accidentally gotten another pleco. A dark black one. It's cool. It's in the spa / plant nursery right now because it's kind of green in there.

I have five or six rooted cuttings of water mint now, and I would cut more but there's a huge spider web that attaches to both plants and I don't feel like disturbing the spider right now. It's pretty impressive and the kids like watching for the spider at night. There is also a tiny black spider on one of the mint cuttings, which was a surprise. I didn't even see how a spider could make it over to where the cuttings were, but spiders are pretty good at moving around, I guess.

Got a hula hoop to feed the fish in. They kept eating the turtle food so I got them the hoop to hopefully train them to eat in it and leave the other food alone. It's been known to happen, and goldfish are trainable.

Built / rebuilt a better basking area that we can see from the window in my room. It's an old desk top and bricks. It's partially submerged and right in the sun most of the day. I see one turtle already checking it out.

I need to get an underwater camera.

Firetruck for Baby Timmy

Well, the boys really, really, REALLY wanted to get something for Baby Timmy, so, when we went to Petsmart to use up my $3 off coupon, the boys chose this for him: 

It was the highlight of their day to give it to Baby Timmy. Now both boys and the turtle can play firetruck.

Baby Timmy

Last night, my kids got their wish - I picked up my friend's baby turtle. His / her name is actually Powershell, but one of the first things BigKid said was, "We can name him Timmy like the other turtles!"

So we now have Baby Timmy. And Baby Timmy is so, so cute. Hatched in January of 2012. Baby Timmy is about the size of a half dollar.

Lilies Down

The lily tubers I had gotten last week were growing well enough in the water without soil or anything, but the roots were in the sun. I didn't want them to get burned so I put them under gravel and sank them to the bottom of the spa (shallow, maybe 18 inches tops). It's a temporary solution but at least now they will grow without direct sun to cook the tubers and roots.

I also "planted" my watermint in gravel that I put into an old baby sock. I eventually hope to have them growing bare-root in mesh pots along side the turtle islands (or at least in the main water).

Turtle Island

We have Timmy (of course), Chewy (the light colored one), and we have a male and female that need to be named. Any ideas?

I am so tired. I love my pond so much but the last two days I've had a sick kid so I haven't gotten out there as much. My pennywort came in today and my hardy lilies came in two days ago. I want to plant the lilies but I lack pots and stuff to hold them; I think I want to just sink them into the pool with gravel and mesh pots or ... something. The pennywort will grow just about anywhere, so I was thinking of putting them over the sides of the turtle islands.

OH, I forgot to update about the islands.

I'm making 3x3 wooden platforms (sanded), floated on PVC pipe (capped), with two ramps each. Eventually I hope to have pots on the tops for leafy plants and mesh pots hanging off the sides for those plants (like pennywort and watermint) that can be grown in up to a foot of water. This would eliminate the need for soil and pots inside the pond. I could also, in the same vein, connect the mesh pots with the water lilies to the anchor point of the islands OR I could hang them (weighted) underneath the island itself. I'm not sure of those yet.

One of these days one of the islands might have a sandy pit in it for the eggs, but I don't have to worry about that for many, many months at this point. At the other end of the pool where the shade cover is right now I was thinking of doing a 10x10 or an 8x8 island and taking the shade out. The island itself would provide plenty of shade and it would look a lot better. And it would be fun and easy to maintain since ... well, it would hold more plants and would be something else to fiddle with. Basking, shade, plants, and a hideaway for the fish and turtles underneath - what more could they ask for?

I just need to make sure I'm using the right wood before I end up making islands I can't use. I also have to figure a good way of attaching the ramp; I was thinking tie rope through holes on the ramp but I don't want the turtles gnawing at them.