Its not over until the Fat Lady sings!!

The EA Blanket Weed Inhibitor seemed to do nothing. My filter box was pretty clean, whereas when we were using Extract of Barley Straw I was having to clean it out twice a week.

So if I have to turn the pond blue then so be it!

Product No.3 is Blanket Weed-Kit. I have removed as much Blanket weed as I could and put the recommended dose in. The pond has turned blue so will have to see what happens.

I did a water test and found that the Nitrites had gone up, so the fish will have to be fed less for a while. Thats probably why the Blanket weed is growing at a rapid rate. Its a shame really as the fish were growing nicely.

Blanket Weed

As you can see from the picture the long green strands are Blanket Weed, which I have declared war on!!

In the Spring we started using Extract of Barley Straw which was keeping the BW under control. However as soon as the weather got warmer it started to grow aggressively.

We are now trying EA Blanket Weed Inhibitor, however we are into the 2nd week or a 3 week dosing, and in my honest opinion its useless.

The fight will continue!!

Our First Fish Problems

Katie (Pictured left) has started to spit her food out, and a couple of the other koi are flashing and have strange markings on them.

Dean Bland kindly volunteered his services to show me how to do a koi scrape and look at the results under a microscope.

For his troubles Katie decided that he needed cooling down and poor Dean got soaked!!

Thankfully all the scrapes were clean which was a relief.

We are going to try Katie on some medicarp food , and the unusual markings were just shimmies.

Where has the sunshine gone?

We bought this picnic table two weeks ago so we could sit out in the sunshine, but it has rained ever since.
Tonight the temp is ment to hit zero and the pond temp has plumetted from 16c to 12c so perhaps the summer is over and back to winter.

Filter Maintenance

Since we bought the filter the Jap Mat has always been configured like the picture, and in my opinion the water can go through the gaps and the pond is not being filtered properly.

The bay on the right has the brushes in it and due to all the heavy rain and wind was full of tree bits from the skimmer.

So today I got some more Jap Mat and removed all the small pieces and filled the bays up completely.

I am hoping that this will do the trick.

Never say never!!

Gin Rin Kohaku 38cm.

The new showa was getting a bit depressed as all the other koi were a bit too small for her.

As soon as we introduced the new koi (Now named Bollard) they were chasing each other for ours.

Both fish doing really well and both always up first to feed. Should of really named him hoover as he leaves doesn't leave any scraps.

New Arrival - Dainichi Showa

We would like to welcome a new arrival to our pond - Dainichi Showa 49cm.

She is a beautiful 3 year old koi, and we are very proud to be the new owners.

A late night trip on Tuesday night (25th April) to Consett to see Graham's Koi pond and his amazing koi. I only wish I had been in contact sooner, and of course been able to raid the hole in the wall a couple more times!!

Good luck to Graham for the future!!

So about 11pm we added her to the pond , and first thing this morning my daughter ran out to the pond and said "Wow daddy, that is a big fish!!"

As you can see from the picture below her size is a bit intimidating to the other fish, but they seem to be adjusting fine. She was last seen chasing after the Albino Sterlet who as I have said in a previous thread can motor!!
As for getting anymore koi, that will be if for a while as we will have to watch the water parameters and empty the vortex regularly until the weather gets a bit warmer.

Pond is now at 13 degrees.