Whoops + Fish

Baby Timmy peed on my husband last night.  (hehehehehe)


New bits to add for today's update:
High nitrate / nitrite levels in both the outdoor fish and turtle tanks. My error, working to correct. I have plants in the fish pond to help, and I have four bubblers going and a bubbling fountain. I treated it with some junk from the pet store... while I was there buying it and testing my water, one of the friendly salespeople said, "Oh hey, did you see the two huge koi someone dropped off?" They know I have the room so they let me have two seven-inch (not including tail) koi and one large goldfish. (Yes, I kept them out until I verified the nitrate issue was fixed / nearly fixed. It's a whole lot better tonight.)

And then I went to my friend's house to collect her two turtle pals and her four four-year-old goldfish.
I'm not putting the turtles into the tank until I fix the issue that I had earlier but I do have one very large female and one smallish male (both with orange stripes on their heads!) in an empty 30 gallon tank in my living room.

The fish are HUGE. I mean, I thought I had big fish. Nope, these are three times the size of mine. And they let you pick them up. WEIRD. They are named Turtle Food 1, 2, 3, & 4. I've named the new koi Lucky and Creamsicle and the large goldfish Frank.

Huge fish. I love my fish pond.

Now to fix the disaster I started in my turtle pond.

Oh, the new turtles' names are Ike and Tina. Pictures to follow as soon as I am not so tired.

An Update

Update:
Changed Baby Timmy's basking area to his old dock and he seems much happier now.
Took the ramp that was Baby Timmy's old dock out of the Musketurtles' tank and gave them some eggcrate. They have all been up on top and they get up a lot easier now.
Mollies are all pregnant except the boy (duh). Snails are reproducing like snails. Started with one, now have over 9000. (Actually probably close to 300 but that's a lot from one.)
Brought in some plants / plant clippings. Accidentally scooped up a baby mosquitofish so that one went in with the Mollies for now.
All the turtles are scarfing the latest bunch of dandelion greens. I might make it a point to pick the neighbors' weeds this coming spring just to harvest enough to keep from spending $3 a bunch.
Baby Timmy ate a fly.
I put pond lights into the fish pond and it looks GREAT. Wish the water was a little clearer but my husband misinterpreted my directions for feeding them and ended up overfeeding for two or three days. It'll go away with more filtration and less feeding, I figure. The little fountain makes the water just fine and nobody is gasping at the surface. I also put in more fake plants and it looks really cool, especially now with the lights.
Sheldon's been doing turtle jazz hands at Morkie. I just know he's going to show somebody his willie and I'm going to see it and be forever traumatized.
Big Timmy's been relentless with his fluttering at Betty this week. When I feed them, I have to shove him away with a stick or she can't eat. She is having none of it, though, and simply steps on his head and moves him out of her way. He comes back immediately, though.
I'm thinking I want to bring Betty in for some hardcore basking to get rid of those retained scutes. I have a box made up and an area I can wall off so she'll have plenty of room. I can poke at the spots on her shell and move the air pockets, but that makes me worry she'll get fungus or something in them, you know?
I think my goldfish might be about to lay eggs. I think that Poseidon the Pleco might eat them all though.
That's probably it for updates.

Finished. For today, anyway.

All the surviving fish are in the inside wooden pond. The four small turtles in there look overwhelmed. 

I have to put the lights for the basking areas down a bit because it's not warm enough on the platforms. The little ones are basking anyway, which is cute. 

In the works is a charcoal filter system for the fish pond, but ... later. I am so very tired. This week has been exhausting and full of panic and rush. 

Pictures to show my work: 

My reed fencing came in. I think it sets off the garage corner nicely. 

You can see just a bit through it, and it gives the turtles extra security and privacy.

Here you can actually see one of the little turtles basking.

The space behind the wooden pond allows the kids and me to watch the turtles up close, and to feed them.

 I got some dandelion greens on special at the store and I propped them up like real plants on the basking area. As you can see, the small turtles have already torn at them and pulled some out.

The big turtles eat what's hanging in the water.

And my kid, doing a turtle puzzle. He loves his turtles.

BABY MOLLY

Our first baby Dalmatian Molly is here! I saw it swimming around a little in the tank this morning.

IT'S SO LITTLE. It's too little to get a decent picture of, even.

The female is somewhere hidden, maybe pushing out more babies. I haven't seen her all day.

HOLY PLECO BATMAN

I SAW ONE OF THE PLECOS THIS MORNING

IT WAS HUGE

I MEAN HUGE HUGE

And so pretty. I saw it for only a second but wow, it was SO BIG.

A lot this week

A lot has happened this week.

I took the pump back and got a smaller one, a filter box, and a fountain attachment for less money than I had spent on the super huge pump.

After grabbing some large branches from my mom's yard, I made a new turtle basking area. It's a shelf, braced with large landscaping bricks, with the wood on top all locked together. I hope they start using it soon because it's within the view of my bedroom window so we all can watch the turtles being awesome turtles. I also put their little houses underneath it and braced those with other bricks.

We set up the pump, the filter box, and the fountain attachment in the pond this morning. We set it to the three-tiered setting and it's making a lovely noise out there right now. Very relaxing. I'm going to check the filter tomorrow morning to see how it's doing. I wrapped the cord around the top of the filter to try and keep the lid on in case of turtle accidents and then I put the cord under the brick the box is mounted on.

And, on the inside of the house, we have new additions to Baby Timmy's tank. I was at $petstore last night and saw that some fish were on sale. Some SPOTTED fish were on sale. Dalmatian Mollies - and, of course, every fire truck has to have a Dalmatian, right? So I bought two for $1 each, a boy and a girl, because of the fire truck that the boys bought for Baby Timmy. We have enough tank room for the two of them and the itty bitty turtle, so it works out. I also bought a cave for the tank and the first thing Timmy did was swim inside and stick his head out the window. I wish I had had my camera ready for that because it was so funny. The fish are named "Spotty Fish" and "Spotty Fish."

Pictures:

 Happy basking turtle.

Dragonfly! Baby Timmy's new friends.

I found the turtle like this when I walked out. I wasn't even noticed in the first picture, and right after the second picture, there was a turtle hidden in a basket.

 BABY TIMMY














Hi there.

This is my new wooden basking area. It's all sturdy and has enough room for multiple turtles. 

 Meet Mork and Mindy, two new rescues. The husband doesn't know about these yet so hey, honey, if you read this, we have two new ones I got while you were sick.

This is a turtle in my reeds. Kind of hard to see but if you look closely, you can see a shell.
















And these are my smashed reeds. 

Pictures

Hand-Feeding Fish

Amazing day. I blew up my new floating raft and had a relaxing float through the water, watching the fish, drifting around, being calm. And then the fish ate their fish pellets out of my hand. 

Amazing, amazing day. 

Big Fish

This evening, I put my feet into the pond as I sat on the side and I dropped fish food pellets in the water nearby. This brought the fish to me and I could get a close-up view of them next to a measurable object - my foot.

The largest fish are more than half the length of my foot, and the smallest goldfish are about the length from the tip of my big toe to the pad of my foot. So the big fish are about six inches long and the smaller fish are about three inches long.

I also bought some more floating toys and a mask / snorkel set for later. I'll be away from the pond for a few days this week so my sister'll be taking care of it all, but when I get back, there'll be a relaxing float around the pond in my future for sure.

Multiple Snails! (and stuff)

I found several more snails in the nursery area and did some research: They look like Apple Snails, which are  very popular in pet stores and aquariums. They're still small yet, but there were three. Research tells me that some types of apple snails can reach a size of six inches in diameter. SIX INCHES OF SNAIL. And turtles eat them so I won't have any overgrowth problems. I think these are the blue apple snails, which don't seem to get that huge.

All the turtles came to the surface while I was out feeding the fish (I only feed them a tiny bit now to stop the algae overgrowth we had) except Original Timmy, but I saw him this morning out the window. I have to get more little houses built for them; they all try to crowd into the two we have made out of pet carriers. Everybody looks healthy and happy out there.

I found a floaty thing in the garage for the kids and let them both float themselves in the pond to be near the fish. One fish nibbled on my oldest's finger, which made him giggle. I was, of course, near them at all times because it's still a body of water.

My small lily pad is still small and lily-paddy and growing just fine. I'm thinking I will create a small fish garden with that one and another small plant and one small fish for my sister, who's been wanting a fish of her own again. My big lily pad is still amazing and is now a little bigger than a half dollar. The others haven't reached the surface yet but I raised the planters so they'll get a little more sun. Maybe it'll encourage them to grow.

Snails, turtles, more baby mosquito fish, tons of huge goldfish... This is such a fun pond.

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