What I learned this summer...

18 years ago

Year 2 of the stocktank has brought a few new lessons I thought IÂd share for the other newbies.

1. Fish breed. Yeah, I know. You go trying to make the best environment for your little fishies and it just gets out of hand. IÂve found homes for some but IÂm still working on what to do with all the goldfish that reverted to the duller wild coloring. I think IÂll bill them as mosquito and algae eating "working" fish and go after the ranchers and their horse tanks. The minnows bred, too but I can handle them.

2. Wal-mart water lilies, bought early, re-potted and fertilized regularly can be spectacular. The Souix is pure joy. 3 blooms at one time, even. Now itÂs getting fall color to the pads. I didnÂt know they did that. The Sulphurea is a monster which brings me toÂ

3. You CAN have too many water lilies. Or too many big ones, anyway. One little root in a mesh ball turned into the lily that ate my pond with a kajillion pads up to 14 inches and stalks like rebar. It bloomed constantly. In fact, there are still 2 or 3 buds but, lovely as it is, I gotta find it a bigger home. Get me something more suitable for an 8 foot tank.

4. In an unnatural environment, technology is sometimes the answer. I love my UV light. Plants couldnÂt grow fast enough to outpace the algae until well into the season here. Barley straw wonÂt decay for the same reasons (cold water but lots of sun) and the extract just didnÂt work. Once I got the flow adjusted, it was like magic. WouldnÂt be without it, now. ItÂs drained and packed away for the winter, of course.

5. You Â or at least I Â canÂt have just one water garden. The big one is full sun & home to the fish. Then thereÂs the shade tub which has to be bigger next year because the plants grew. Then the lotus tub also needs to be bigger but needs full sun. Then the fish nearly destroyed my water clover which led to itÂs relocation into a spare tub that ended up so pretty I have to keep that next yearÂ

6. Any body of water anywhere near breeding fish will soon house fish. How do they get there? IÂm not sure but they do. I kept mosquito dunks in the water clover tub but I noticed I stopped seeing larvae. I assumed the mayfly nymphs were taking care of things till I went to clean it out last week and found a 2 Â½ baby goldfish in there. IÂll bet he thought he was the only fish in the world till he got relocated to the stocktank!

IÂm sure I had LOTS more lessons but those are the biggies. Wonder what next year will bring?

Vanessa in New Mexico

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Comments (10)

sheepco
18 years ago
LOL! Thanks Vanessa! That pretty much covers what I learned too. Oh, one more.

7. There's no such thing as a pot too big for an aquatic plant. An iris or a pickeral rush, for example, will fill any pot with roots and jump ship it's 1st year.

Anybody need baby fish?

Sarah
PKponder TX Z7B
18 years ago
For what it's worth, the wild-colored goldfish are just juveniles that will eventually get their adult colors. Most of my goldie babies are kinda olive-drab (good camouflage) until they start changing to yellow and then orange. The color change starts at the back and moves downward to the belly.

Pam
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catherinet
18 years ago
Hey Vanessa! I have been thinking about you and wondering how your pond was doing. You haven't been around much.
I've learned that no matter how much energy I have in Spring, I NEVER have that much in the Fall......so my husband needs to tie me down in the spring, so I don't buy more and more lilies and marginals! ........especially the tropical ones that I try to save every winter, and it never works!
I've dug a bunch of holes next to the house, and as soon as the weather turns, I'll be burying alot of plants.
Where did the summer go???
magdaloonie
Original Author
18 years ago
Sarah, I can't believe I left out #7! The pickerel rush, the water celery, the lizard tail and all the cattails are doing just that! Fortunately I know 2 people with barren ponds who are getting plants asap.

Pam, you really think these babies will change color? I've got some much smaller that are showing distinct sarassa and shubunkin colors but these have stayed dark. Are some later bloomers than others? They'd be easier to re-home if they had some bright colors, that's for sure!

Catherine, your ambition is my inspiration! I'm getting a tropical lily next year (it'll go in the up-sized lotus tub) and it's all your fault! I keep saying "If SHE can do it..."

Vanessa
catherinet
18 years ago
LOL Vanessa!
I got 3 tropical lilies last spring, and I have to say that I think I've enjoyed the night-blooming one the most. It greeted me very morning and again in the evening! Now how can I throw it in the compost pile, without trying to save it???
You'll do fine with the tropical, and you'll really love it!
How cold does it get up there in the winter?
Are you leaving your big stocktank filled?
I, too, have decided that 2 lilies in some of my tanks are too much. Remind me next spring that I said that, okay?
annedickinson
18 years ago
Vanessa,

Some of my comet mutts didn't change to orange until they were almost a year old and then it was in bits and starts of black and orange.

They were so cute when they had black lips! This one was really only about 1 1/2" long.

{{gwi:180417}}

Anne
sheepco
18 years ago
I have a few babies that have colors from day one, others that are grey/black and 2 1/2" long. Last year, the ones that were 1" and grey going into winter had orange bellies by spring, orange bodies with a black back and dorsal fin by mid summer, and are now completely orange (and 3 1/2" long). So mine changed color the opposite of Pam's, more like Anne's...interesting. Must be different varieties, or crosses...?

I love those black lips, Anne!

S
magdaloonie
Original Author
18 years ago
It's like a goth fish! Cool! When I saw the others changing so early, I assumed they all were what they were. This'll be something to look forward to. Except one friend has one in her aquarium named Metallica for it's bronze color. She's going to be disappointed if it goes orange!
Vanessa
always_outside
18 years ago
I definitely learned that baby goldfish evolve into beauties! I had about a dozen babies appear early this year and I was worried about raising some really ugly goldies (Shubunkins to be exact). I didn't have the heart to cull, so I kept all of them. I'm really glad I did bc they are gorgeous. They are all different, have different colors/designs and are very unique and different from ones I can buy from the store. Just gorgeous!
catherinet
18 years ago
When I first started having a small whiskey barrel water garden, I bought a couple comets for it. Unfortunately, a wild animal got the gold one, but the black one must have been camouflaged enough to make it. His name was "Blackie". Anyhow, when winter came, we brought him inside to an aquarium. It was amazing to see him morph. He went from black to calico, to bright orange. When he died, he was 9" long! (and about 9 years old!)