hi Tass
since the paint in the pond incident(my neighbour painted my fence and splashed fence paint into the pond) we have not seen one frog or newt ...but we are hoping to soon, before this happened the heron used to patrol the hedge and find some frogs and this might also of contributed to the disappearance of the frogs and some of the newts + there are many other predators.
since moving into the countryside from Brighton (urban) we have seen so much wildlife and the pity is the locals take it all for granted .......we even have a mole that comes out during the day who has a honeycomb of tunnels in a bank at the top of the garden he/she also had the misfortune to be caught by one of the cats but screamed and fought so much they gave up annoying it and I put him back on the bank and he/she disappeared within seconds bless him/her.

This post was last modified: 20-05-2009 12:47 PM by glasfryn.

Well done that mole!

We have tons of frogs-we have got some of this years tad poles inside right now-in a tank with only wild stuff in it-also have a few sticklebacks in it including a male who has built his nest and is currently guarding the eggs in it..he is doing a great job so far as far as i can tell so just waiting for them to hatch out..its quite fascinating being able to watch things which are normally hidden from view in the pond.

Tass

We have a pond too, however, we don't have a net or even any fish in it. We do have tadpoles which we've reared in a small aquarium in the conservatory. We had over 100 frogs in the pond during their breeding season and had quite a lot of spawn. We've been here just over a year and the previous owner had his bonfires next to the pond and we think he used some sort of fuel to light the fire. When we have heavy rain we get a oily rainbow film across the pond which we think is from the fuel he used and is still in the ground. A lot of the spawn died off but we did manage to salvage some and put in the small aquarium. We feed them gold fish flakes which they absolutley love. We've since cleaned out the pond and there was about one foot of sludge in the bottom, along with broken glass, a Yale lock, bits of metal and screws etc etc, no bicycles, fridges or supermarket trolly's though. We have since re-introduced them back in. We waited until all the tads had at least two large back legs and some even had the front two before we put them back. We can't really understand why we still get this oily film though, anyone any ideas.

hi Tass
we might have to get some frog spawn for next year hoping that by then it will be safe to put it in the pond (we would have to put it in a net barrel of some sort otherwise the fish eat it) sounds like your stickleback is a very proud father....lol.
Hi Woodmaster
we also have a very light film of what looks like some sort of oil it gets worse when the pond gets stirred up(like when the Heron visits) so it might be the residue of oils from the sludge our fish swim through it so it obviously not too harmful
on this subject e have a sludge pump winging its way to us at this moment so will let you know if its any good.
G

Dont know about the oil-maybe you have struck gold-your own oil well lol. I have been told it could be algae bloom if that makes any sense? We have plants over most of the surface so never noticed anything like that here.
Yes-our stickleback (clive) is very diligent and when we had minnows in the tank he was constantly chasing them away-we put the minnows back in the pond to give clives kids the best chance lol.

Tass

Re the sludge pump,
it is a hand operated contraption and is for want of a better word USELESS
the bag that is supposed to collect the sludge swings about in the way of pointing the thing in the right direction.
anyway I will try and adapt it to suit but at the moment the old net with a plastic jug attached does the job a lot better.

a slightly miffed G

This post was last modified: 27-05-2009 02:20 PM by glasfryn.

I had said earlier/

we have had a cross-tail goldfish which we were told would never survive in a pond since we have lived here (about six years) and he/she has survived
attacks from other fish
poisoning by my nice (not) neighbour
attacks from the fox
attacks from several herons
and he/she is still in there even after I rescued him/her from the lawn after being out of the pond for hours after an attack by the last heron ........swimming around without a care in the world battered and badly bruised, and stabbed .........man is he/she a surviver...it will be a sad day when dear old cross-tail goes.

Unfortunately that day has come.
I found him floating on the pond this morning and he seemed perfectly OK yesterday,we think it all became to much for him/her
poor old Crosstail

This post was last modified: 31-05-2009 01:23 PM by glasfryn.

Oh no..thats so sad GF..your avatar is very apt. At least he had an extra 6 happy years with you.

Hope this cheers you up..Clive has lots of little fry..they are so tiny almost impossible to see! He is now rebuilding his nest ready for another lot..he never stops bless him.

Tass

industrious little mite isn't he its so nice to watch these little one whatever they are and be able to follow their progress.

the fish are down in the depths today s the fox has been around( the evidence is that one of the pots is nearly in the pond where he/she has pushed it to get nearer the water) we suppose this is the way nature is but you might think he/she would be satisfied with the chicken bones (we buy legs and bits and cook them for the cats we are actually veggies)it gets very nearly every night along with the cats leftovers ect

Oh dear the net has had to go on again, the heron was wading about in the shallows and when he saw me somehow he managed to zoom through the strings.
we have not seen the fish for days they are so traumatised.

What a persistant Heron you have there. Hope by now the fish have recovered and you have managed somehow to deter your unwelcome visitor.

Update on clive..i have been offline for weeks..most of his fry were scoffed..however we introduced a new male..Jimmer..who also got straight into nest building. Clive began building a second nest and our female..Yvonne..was quite happy to "visit" both. Result..tons of new fry!!!
At this point we removed Clive,Jimmer and Yvonne and put them in the outside pond. This was to give the fry a better chance,however after several trips to the nearby wildpond we now have the following in the tank..the fry,3 large dragonfly larvae and 1 tiny(known as the predators),newtlets,tadpoles which could be frog or toad,pond skaters and some woodlousey looking things. Plus several snails including a huge one (kingkong)
The fry are growing well! We have taken several tiny frogs out and put them in the outside pond. They tend to sit on the floating wood ready to be scooped.
Am lovin this tank..so much to watch we wouldnt normally see.

Tass

How could i forget!!!!!!

Whilst we were dipping in the local pond..we scooped out a great crested newt!!! How fantastic is that?! It was so huge compared to smooth newts,and fab orange markings on it belly..i was thrilled as havent seen one like that before. I kind of think a law says you cant touch them so dont tell anyone,we got him accidentally and returned him to his pond after a few minutes looking at him.

Tass

sounds like you have been busy
we had a few dragon fly larvae and they looked nasty beasts and apparently eat tadpoles.
we have had our first frog back in the pond after all the disasters and the fish are very happy now the predators have gone.
finding the GCN was lucky they are rarish and protected and I'm sure looking is OK

G

Yeah..the nymphs arent so pretty-one hatched the other day though which was quite exciting-a female southern hawker emerged. We put the other 2 nymphs into the pond and now have 3 new ones in the tank-darters. Hve got some pics of the hawker hatching,will post when i figure it out!

Tass

Here it is-is it a female southern hawker or if its not i am sure someone will tell me what it is!

Ha-no stopping me know i know how to post pics...



More to follow..just waiting for them to upload.

Tass