A Tale of Two Fish

My fish tale started when my son and his girlfriend won fish for my garden pond at our county fair (first post and second post). So, my little pond has been bubbling along with my little fish colony for about a month now.

We went for a day trip on July 4 and were gone all day on July 5, so I turned the fountain pump off in order to save my electric bill, mainly because everyone tells me that my pond pump will skyrocket my bill and I have enough trouble keeping the AC going! So, without my pump going and two days of full sun, I arrived home on Monday evening to a pond of totally grass green water. Now all of my pond maintenance "expertise" is coming from magazines that say how soothing and wonderful the sound of running water is and how much you will enjoy your new water garden. It would be more enjoyable if I could see the fish.

My son decided that we needed another algae eating fish, so he purchased that (even though it made an odd number of fish in the pond, he is living with it). It can't possibly eat enough to make a difference this year. So I purchased some algae eating chemicals. They didn't work either. We are experiencing serious green stuff here people.

After having a family discussion, we decide to scoop the fish out into another container (my son was pushing for my husbands cooler), drain the pond, scrub it out and start over. My husband thought that most of this work would fall on his shoulders, so he stopped at a local bait store and asked the fishermen there for advise. I can only imagine what they thought - they live to fish. Anyway, they talked him into buying 2 more fish. I can't expain why two more fish will help, but brought them home, he did.

The first fish was a lovely (??) orange and white spotted goldfish (yes, I know they are really carp) that matches my other fish - except that he is 100 times bigger than they are. The second fish - also a carp of some kind - is just a fish. He's is brown and gray and black and my first thought was that my husband had brought home supper. He is skillet size. If we had been fishing, he would have been a keeper. In my family, he probably would be wall-worthy. But he was added to the pond and sunk into the green depths.

Now for a week I have been feeding fish like crazy because we have all of these monster fish now. Last night as I was feeding the fish (for the third time that day) I noticed a 'bubble' scooping huge amounts of food up. Upon closer examination the 'bubble' turned out to be a fish mouth. My 'ugly' fish has been scooping up all the food, leaving the other fish to starve.

No! Wait!! They have been eating my lovely $15 water lily!

In a desperate attempt to save what's left, I scooped the lily - or more accurately the roots and two leaves - into the top of the fountain, where the bubbling is threating to drown what's left. We have a serious overpopulation of aquatic life, for which there is only one solution.

Build a bigger pond! (Yeah, right!)