Sad, Glad, Sad

[alison]

The grandchildren have been staying for their 2 weeks holidays. Goodness knows why Leeds had to be different to everywherer else, but they have already had 2 weeks off and are now back at school until friday and then off again for the Easter bank holiday and then back at school again until the royal weddiing. Our grandchildren who live in North Yorkshire in Catterick had last week and this week off leading into the Easter hols. Anyway this is besides the point actually, but over the last two weeks we have had various of the children staying. Bethany and Lucy went to Wales on thursday to see their other grandma and 3 of our other grandchildren came to stay over. Abigail and Rachel and Imogen. Jasmine had already arrived as well and had been here for the second week of the hols. (which was her first.)
Anyway I was talking with Abigail and asking her if she had seen the tadpoles. She said only in the little pond/puddle and she hadn't seen them in the big pond. I told her where to look for them in the shallows and as she went round the far side of the pond she suddenly said "Grandma there's a fish on the ground. For some reason in my head i thought it was one of the sticklebacks as they could have been pulled out by mistake with the tads when one of the children had got hold of them. When I went to look, to my horror it was one of my biggest shubunkins. I don't know how he could have got out of the pond without a big jump. I was immediately sad when I saw him. Then as I picked him up I suddenly noticed a gil move and I ran to put him back in the water where his mouth opened a few times and he moved slightly. I was so glad and Abigail andI were congratulating ourselves and saying thank goodness she had wanted to see the taddies. I said he would be in a bit of shock so we were to leave him to rest, but the next time we looked he had died. It was so hard to see as we thought we had managed to save him. It is funny how our emotions can change so quickly from one feeling to another and back again in the space of a few minutes. Why he decided to jump out I can't fathom. Maybe he was trying to get closer to the tadpoles for a bit of lunch.

[Big Kid]

Hi Alison,

Long time no post for me. Have been trying to stay loyal to Ukponds because that's where I started out and got all my help from. Sadly, the site has been hijacked lately by goodness knows how many spam posts selling goodness knows what. I've contacted the site owners twice, but to no avail.

Sad to read about your fish, especially as you thought you'd got there in time. I was sad enough when I found I'd lost one goldfish this year! It must have got frozen into pond weeds overnight in the really cold weather.

Is Chippewacat a member of your site? If so, can you ask her to look into UKponds because someone official in Devon is interested in the area where there's Great Crested Newts that she wrote about last year. Thanks.

Happy ponding to one and all.
Big Kid

[retropwr]

Sorry to hear about your fish, but are you sure it jumped out?

Were there any marks on it as it could have been the Heron paying you another visit. I have heard of them taking fish that are too big to eat and therefore just dropping them on the ground.

Its sad when you think you have saved one only for it to die later. I thought I'd saved one that had been beached on a plant pot by the chaps doing what they do in the spring.

[alison]

Hi Big Kid
Glad you are still around. I don't think Chippewacat is a member. I remember her from the gardenweb site and I know you both chatted a lot as I still came to see the gardenwebsite even though I have this one. I noticed that there has been a great decline on it and lots of spam as you say. We found that this site was also getting some and so Sonny decided not to keep the new member registration open. If anyone wants to join now I think they have to email us and then he will do it for them.
Richard the heron was my first thought as well but I couldn't find any marks on the fish at all. I looked both sides for any claw marks or little holes but nothing. I was talking to the guy at the pet shop who has a lot to do with the fish and ponds and he said what I had needed to do was to put him right under the flow of the waterfall and make the water go right into his mouth. This would have given him a greater influx of oxygen. I had just laid him at the bottom of the pond in the shallows thinking he would be quite shocked so not wanting to do anything but rest in the water. At least if it happens again I know a better way of dealing with it. It was a great shame as he was my biggest shubunkin and we had had him probably 10 years.
I have noticed that my ghost koi has been getting right up in the shallows trying to eat as many taddies as he can find. It isn't as easy to shoo a giant fish away from his purpose. Thank goodness I have the little pond. It is teaming with taddies. We found one the other day with an air bubble over him and he was turning round all the time. We put him under the microscope and he seemed to have circular lines on him. It is hard to describe. Maybe sonny can put the picture onto here that we took. He thinks it was some form of parasite maybe stuck on his back but if so it was the same colour as him. I'm not sure if it isn't some form of deformity on the tadpole itself but it seemed strange that the airbubble was there. Maybe it was a parasite that had need of it's body but needed air to live. Hmmm I will see if sonny can post a picture.