Pond

Thank you Maura. I do have salt on hand, but due to my plants and snails have not used it. Instead I've used ich attack and microbe-lift anchor worm and lice treatment. I was contemplating doing salt dips for the fish, but since both parasites young are free swimmers it defeats the purpose and I'm afraid would just stress the fish more.
The ich treatment was great and I'm really hoping this anchor worm treatment will be just as effective.

Well I did my second water treatment today for the anchor worms. The bottle recommends doing 3 treatments a week apart after the first dose. So 2 more to go.
It also says to pull the worms off with tweezers I've been terribly afraid to do this, but decided to try it with the fan tails. After all, I did buy some bio bandage and need to apply it directly on them.

So this is polkadot (top) and no name (bottom) after I pulled the worms off and shortly after applying the bio bandage.
The arrows point to cysts where worms were removed or had been. My poor fishies

Beautiful fish! Love the black tips :-). I'm so sorry to hear about all your troubles, sounds like you're doing all you can for them. I've found that comets and koi are too expensive for me, both the initial cost to buy and the time and effort to maintain. I buy a few feeder fish and keep them in my pond year round, with a heater in the winter to keep a breathing hole in the ice. Here in Michigan we've had two record breaking cold winters in a row, resulting in a total die off when my heater couldn't keep up. I lost six large goldfish that had been growing for four years :-(. The upside was taking my
Grandkids to Petco to buy replacements, boy was THAT fun!!! They were so excited! Total cost under three bucks for 40 fish. Some are quite beautiful and brightly colored, and have more than doubled in size this summer. Right now I
Have far too many fish for my small setup, I didn't have the normal die off and loss to predators, but I'm the kind of person that let's nature find it's own balance, as much as possible. Good luck with your poor fishes, I hope all your efforts payoff! Keep
Sharing pics, love seeing your progress :-)

Thank you
So sorry you lost your fish! Winter has been very cold here the past few years too. Just another reason I can't see myself wintering my fish outside till I get a 4-5ft deep pond built. My little 2ft pond will freeze solid even with a heater I'm sure!
My comets were feeders too. Haha️ Unless I want a special type of goldfish I can't justify spending any real amount of money on them. The koi we did put some money into. 15$ per 4-6in fish. 16$ for a pond grade mutt from the pet store that was 6-7in. Now she's nearly 11in And my pleco was 25$!
Thinking about how much we have spent on the pond this year is kinda nuts, but the enjoyment we get from it makes it well worth it

Winter does have me a little worried since I'll be keeping them inside and my aquarium didn't go well this summer. It has shaken my confidence. The pool they will be staying in just came yesterday so I'll be setting that up the end of next month. It's going to be a long winter! I hope everyone makes it ok.
I'll keep posting pictures of the pond and the new basement setup next month. I really like being able to come back here and see the time line for how things have gone And hopefully it can help others too. Even if it's as a "what not to do" haha

I can't wait for my first water lily bloom to open up! The bud has been above water level for a couple days now so anytime! I'll post pictures of it too!

My first water lily opened yesterday Not the best looking bloom due to aphids having a field day on it Still pretty though.

Our two biggest koi. Female and male I believe, 10+ inches long.


And just a shot of the pond. I took my sappy bog plant out. I don't understand why it seems unhappy. It's leaves have gone brown and crunchy, yet it's sitting in 3inches of water. My only guess is the reflection off the water is burning the leaves?

Beautiful! It's matured so much just this season :-) your koi are beautiful, want some now!

Thank you I am very shocked just how much the plants have grown in a matter of a few months! I've tossed out about half of my water plants because it was so crowded I was losing too much oxygen at night. It sure makes the pond look more natural though

I love our mutts! I wasn't thrilled about their color or patterns when we got them, but they have grown on me️ If you ever decide to get some look for a nearby farm. Even their culls are nicer then what is at pet stores. And here the price is the same at both. Wish I knew we lived so close to a koi farm when we were In the market for buying. The selection was nearly overwhelming! Someday we'll have the space to go back for more

I finally got a perfect bloom!