Crystal

I thought Thursday's sunrise looked neat. Later it changed to light purple, silver, and white clouds against a brilliant blue sky, but I was driving and didn't have my camera.

Nope, 'fraid not. Don't suppose you're coming down for the CAS auction next weekend? :hey: I don't really need any. Just had some once and thought they'd be neat to have again. Thegrandpoobah has given me a source for some too (thanks!) Nope, I don't get to go too far. Wish I was going, the Edmonton Auction was fun. If you ever come to Edmonton some weekend just let me know, I can probably meet you somewhere.

No experience in shipping, but I found snails shipped to me didn't have a high survival rate once past 4-5 days. Maybe better shippers would have a higher survival rate. Werner, as for spixis, I have about 5-6 to spare. But distance is a problem - don't suppose your coming to the Edmonton Home and garden show on Saturday by chance?

I found the "botia" loaches to be best with snails. My one yoyo loach destroyed the 30-50 MTS I tried to use for a clean up crew... I think a dozen would wreck havoc on the MTS, if the cichlid didn't eat the loaches.

I am planning on getting a few orfe in the spring. Aquarium Illusions in Edmonton says they will order me in anything I want. When I order I can ask if you want to get some too. The small goldfish are probably under 6 months. I get mine from a few places I trust, as most feeder lots seem to have diseases - mainly ich. I always quarantine before adding to my pond, those $30 kiddie pools work great for fish, and later on for kids/dogs. You can ask in the Buy and sell forum for any pretty feeders that are disease free. I would avoid the grey/olive feeders as that is a natural color, and will greatly increase the rate of the goldfish breeding back to the natural grey/olive coloration. I am not sure you can overwinter enough water lettuce to get a good start in spring - unless you had a large water trough/kiddie pool with grow lights in your basement. You can buy "floating Islands" where you drop an anchor in the middle and plant flower/plants on the island. Looks sharp with Parrot's feather reaching out into the water, flowers blooming on island. A few crows aren't bad - as long as they don't learn the art of fish diving. Those herons travel miles to get fish though. A fake heron will usually deter them and some other predatory birds.

Closer to mid April/May you will find various pond plants in the plant nurserys, and even Rona and Canadian tire. There is an good plant nursery in Spruce Grove with lots of pond plants. I hear Nature's Corner in Edmonton gets some nice pond plants around May. Just keep your eyes open. Go for a walk near a lake/river on a spring day and look at the local plants/flowers.

Most people say 4 yrs until maturity, but I have had 2 yrs spawn on me. As for native plants, marsh marigold are wonderful early spring bloomers. Cattail and reeds work well, but spread like wildfire (I sink metal troughs beneath the water line, but above the soil, and let mine grow in those - but they self seed too). I like spatterdoc, the lily has a yellow bloom and shades the pond and provides shelter from above (though more tropical lilies may survive as long as they don't freeze solid). Arrowheads are nice. Even perennials like tiger lillies, irises, crocuses, and others will thrive. There are numerous submerged plants - I am partial to northern milfoil and some other submerged blooming weeds. There are various tropicals that you can overwinter in an aquarium/house and put out starts in spring - parrots feather (wonderful floater/marginal), water lettuce, cana lilly, etc. Just take my word for it and don't plant trees that get big - or you get crows, ravens, and various birds of prey that love fish. Shrubs like lilac are fine though. I will give you a shout before I remove the fish to see if you want some. After a 'trial' year or two you could even try koi. sometimes they are even in with feeder goldfish. You could try golden orfe, they are bigger than goldfish, smaller than koi and very hardy.

Ensure that you say you are going to stock a dugout - I read that wasn't too difficult, just fill out a form somewhere. It is nearly impossible to get a permit for natives in an aquarium (believe me, I tried - even with good friends in Fish & wildlife). They may allow you to stock the pond with natives, but goldfish or koi would be more colorful and visible. The way I see it - Wild fish if you like to fish, as you will likely never see them otherwise. Or goldfish/koi for color. Come closer to late summer/fall I can offer you about 30+ 5-9" comet/common goldfish from my summer pond that won't fit in my aquarium. All colors, golds, creams, whites, red caps, greys, sarassa, etc. Or just announce on the "buy and sell" you are looking for goldfish feeders that grew too big for what people were going to feed them to.

I just use a feeding ring. I was unsuccessful at using anything else. Until the parrot's feather plant grew large enough to stop the food - but it was also stopping the leaves. I used one of those long pool noodles and glued a dowel into the holes in the ends to make a circle. Floats great, tied it to the pond edge with fishing line.

One of the LFS owners in Westlock has some koi and goldfish over winter in their dugout and it is a foot or two shallower. I would also add some sort of smaller minnow since I suspect the osprey/herons will love the goldfish snack - may need a wild type as I doubt the petstore variety would survive here... I would add some lillies (aka cow lilly/spatterdoc - very common) to the pond for shelter from predators and shade. I would just wait until late spring (or whenever the water gets above 16-17 degrees) and just add the fish. Don't dump the transport water into the pond as that is the best way to introduce ich - which I find tends to fall off the fish when they are in the transport bag/container. If you want to quarantine - use a kiddie pool, or stock tank and just jerry-rig a HOB filter/cansiter filter. A dozen won't help the mosquitoes much - you would need at least 50 to put a dent in the population, but any fish will help. You might need to add a small boat/dock to go enjoy your fish!

Even your common feeder goldfish get 8-10". Mine aren't even 1 yr old and are pushing 5-6" - I made sure to have a pond for summer and a 65g to overwinter 3-5 goldfish. I wouldn't even try koi (But I would sure love to!) but there is no way to fit a 3-4 foot koi into a 65g tank for half the year... Koi are truly pond fish.

My Dad used to leave the house all winter to go logging. No one home, no computer, no lights, no fish tanks, most electronics unplugged - basically just the fridge and freezer. The bill was pretty much the same as when he was home all the time.

I have never been to Nature's corner either. I looked at their website - does anyone know when they get their pond plants in? Or if they are already in? Specifically water lettuce, water hyacinth, and parrot's feather. I may have to go see their goldfish. All I ever seem to find are feeders that got stuck in a separate tank and called "pets".

I use those razorblades with handles. meant to clean those glass stoves, but work awesome on that hard algae. I buy mine at fields for $1, though they are found most often at $3-8 in most hardware places in the stove cleaning section.

Thanks for all the photos! I got more information in a few days than searching the internet gave me all week! Now I just have to make some room and see if I can get them in...

One of my adults Is this fish in breeding dress? If it is that colorful when not in breeding dress, I have a good chance of gettign them!

Those huge farm animal stock water containers are sturdy and not too badly priced, kind of like these ones - http://www.fencing-farm-ranch.com/stocktanks1.html. Most UFA or other places for farmers carry them. As for a filter, you could get a pond skimmer/filter. http://www.petsandponds.com/en/ponds-and-s.../p17078014.html - this place also generally ships for free if you spend over $200.

I am thinking about getting a pair of red jewels. Particularly Hemichromis Bimaculatus. The only way they will get in the house is if my mom thinks they are colorful. Can anyone post pictures of their fish? I really am curious as to adult fish in non-breeding dress. Do they really look that iridescent or is it the flash?

I came in early this morning from the north, at 10:00, just caught the tail end of the snow storm. I hear tomorrow is supposed to be clear, so I hope I can get home after the auction. As for plecos, I have some Albino Bristlenose juvies in my tank. Athabasca isn't too far from Perryvale, about 1/2 hour.

How do you clean the bigger tanks? I can barely reach the bottom of my 65g, how do you clean those 200+ gallon tanks?

They were brought in when temps started getting cold, I got most in at 17-18, but some eluded me until it was colder. It is a shallow pond, and no one was big enough to eat anyone else.

There are many automatic outside lights in our neighborhood, they have gotten used to them. The first flash in the face she ignored. The second one spooked her, within 2 seconds she was a good 150 meters away. I think the second flash reflected off the plastic and lit up my face and she saw me. I just had to be aware of where her hind legs were - they tend to kick backwards when they first leap away and I rather liked my window in one piece. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the Huge buck a few nights ago. He was a big boy and had 5 points on each antler. As he was digging you heard clunk Thunk, clunk Thunk - the clunk was his hooves hitting my window, the Thunk was his antlers hitting the window. I seriously thought his antlers were going to break the window.

The auction is fast approaching. :thumbs: Don't forget to change your clocks on Saturday!

It was a deer... The red-tailed hawk is a very realistic statue from Walmart.

This isn't the first time this has happened... You are fast asleep and suddenly hear clunk, clunk, clunk at your window. It is the deer digging in the snow covered flowerbed with their hooves hitting the window. At 3:00am... Here are her back legs Here is her head There is about 1 foot between my camera and her head... and you can hear the dried flowers she is eating scraping against the window. Sorry for the glare, I have that plastic to prevent drafts on my window and it reflects the camera flash.