My Pond

[Baccus]

The 1000L pond in my backyard has always been a kind of handy dumping grounds for fish that I have no room for in my tanks, excess plants and cull cherry shrimp. I knew that there was endlers in the pond from when their numbers exploded beyond a joke in my 4ft tank, as well as cull cherry shrimp that where not the desired colours of my breeding programs. There are even some macrobachium shrimp from local waterways, some other native creek shrimp and even gudgeons, and recently I added some Pacific Blue Eyes to the pond in the hope they will form a viable self sustaining population.
But what really surprised me this evening when shining a torch into the pond, looking for any black cherry shrimp that need to be in one of my tanks I was shocked to spy a Khuli loach happily resting in the thick plant life. I never put any Khuli loaches in the pond, but I do have a good number of them in one of my tanks. The very tank not so long ago I removed all the Hornwort plant because it was growing like crazy and taking over. So it appears my Khuli loaches must have laid eggs in the tangle of hornwort and those eggs have survived all the odds and are growing up just fine in the pond.
I know I will have to do a major cleaning and overhaul of the pond in order to rescue the Khuli loaches before winter, since the pond will probably get too cold for them. Its not a cleanup I am looking forwards to, there is a huge lily covering most of the surface, thick duck weed everywhere else and probably a few kilos of hornwort and elodea. Not forgetting where the Khuli loaches will be blilssfully hiding a few kilos of leaf litter and tangle of lily roots.
But still I am excited by the knowledge that even without meaning to or knowing about it I bred Khuli loaches

 
 

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Congrats...


(Pics or it didn't happen )

 

[Baccus]

I wish I could get pictures, I tried to catch the one I saw but missed it and it disappeared back down into the leaflitter and lily roots. I will have to make sure I drop some catfish food that the loaches cant resist and see if I can con it out into the open another night.

 

[Munroco]

Great stuff, must be an interesting pond. All I can keep in mine is goldfish and a few other coldwater species. If there is one kuhli loach there will very likely be others.
 
I do remember having to "prune" a huge water lily that was in amongst a bunch of reeds. I eventually ended up towing it out of the pond with my car.

 

[Baccus]

The pond used to house goldfish, but alas they all died in the heat wave after the cyclone last year, because I lost the huge shade tree that used to keep the pond cool in summer I decided to not restock the pond with goldfish. The endlers in the pond breed quickly during the warm months but tend to die off during the cold of winter, not all of them will die, just enough to severly limit their numbers. Hence my adding the local native fish and shrimp, they are better suited to our weather conditions.

 

[Chad]

Pictures! 

 

[Baccus]

I had another look lastnight in the only patch at clear water from the surface to the floor, saw endlers, Pacific Blue Eyes, Macrobachium, other shrimp and gudgeons but the khuli loaches wouldnt show themselves.
I am going to make a trap, so I can try catching the loaches with dismantling the pond, but I think I am more likely to just trap the shrimp and snails. Never know it might work.

 

[Chad]

I don't care if the loaches are in the picture, I  just want pictures or video of the entire pond. It sounds awesome. 

 

[Baccus]

Ahh, I have some pictures of the pond some where already but I guess I could take some newer pictures.

 

[Baccus]

The pond

 

 

 
 
 
I just made a trap and baited it with all the things I know the Khuli loaches in the tank can not resist, so I am hoping the ones in the pond will feel the same way and find their way into the trap.

 

[PepperjacksMama]

Pond? Thought it was a Lily planter.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

. Thanks B.

 

[Chad]

Thanks, that's very pretty. It's amazing what can live in it. 
 
Do you feed it at all or is everything self sufficient?

 

[Baccus]

I occasionally feed but its pretty self sufficient. It used to be more so when the icecream bean towered over it and dropped its fruit into the water as well as its leaves. I know it has a good popultion of bloodworms living in the leaflitter, aphids from the lily fall in the water all the time and mosqitos lay their eggs in there only to have the wrigglers scoffed by the fish.
In the pictures you can see the short "fluffy" looking shrub behind the pond, it used to tower above the pond with the icream bean tree. And behind that you can also see the mangled fence still not replaced after having the neighbours flea tree fall on the fence and also squash my trees in the cyclone.
 
The trap I made didn't work, it caught some of my empire gudgeons and nearly killed one of the males (lucky for him I rescued and revived him) and of curse dopey endlers got in it. This trap was a bottle with the neck cut off and inverted into the actual bottle, the next attempt with be a dilly pot.
 
Oh and what you might just be able to make out in the pictures over to the right of the pond, buried under an Ixora is a bathtub that is also housing a huge waterlily, a ton of leaf litter and goodness only knows what fish and shrimp are still in there.
 
And the pond is left out of the ground for two reasons. 1 being where it is, is the lowest point in the yard and I didn't want fish and shrimp getting flooded out in our downpours of rain. 2 the  height keeps cane toads out of the pond, those who don't know cane toads are a major noxious pest that was introduced to Australia and is steadily decimating nearly all our wildlife.

 

[Chad]

Very cool. Does it top off by rain or do you have to top it off?