Two Fish Still Missing, Feared Dead.

I went down the back of our place yesterday and sat with the fish for a while. I had the fish food with me and fed them. This is how I can count them - the water is quite murky and I can only see a few inches down.


Unfortunately, I only saw the same nine fish that I saw last time, so the solid orange goldfish and the shubunkin seem to have disappeared. I haven't seen their dead bodies, but haven't seen their live bodies either. That's the way things go, birth, life and then death. That's the way it is...


While I was sitting there, I heard sparrows chattering, and I heard at least one frog, I love the fact that we have frogs! The creaky croak seemed to be coming from our smaller pond, about four metres to the west of the bigger one where the goldfish are. I love frogs, you may have noticed that.


So that's the news from the fish pond, I'll do another update when the time seems right. Do you have a fishpond? I'd love the hear about it!

Another Fish Count Day Today

I went down to our pond today to sit in the glorious late Autumn sunshine. Even though it's going to be winter tomorrow, today was a gloriously lovely day. The sunshine is nearly over, and we didn't have as much sun today as yesterday, but it was still a pleasant day to be sitting by the pond for a little while.

I put some fish food into the pond for our goldfish, and counted the ones that came up for a feed. I only saw nine this time. Last few times I've been down there, I've seen eleven. Our pond is quite murky and it's deep too, so the other fish may be there somewhere - I'll make a point of visiting them more often, and perhaps the others will appear.

Today I counted 7 goldfish, one shubunkin, and one other fish that is metallic in colour and may be a shubunkin. I've included a link which talks about the shubunkin goldfish - the one we still have left is a calico one, and is extremely attractively marked in orange, white and black. So a shubunkin is missing, and a pure orange coloured goldfish. I hope they show up again sometime soon.

I love to sit and watch the fish flitting all around the pond. It's quite a big pond, over a metre deep, and perhaps two metres across from side to side. Digging the pond was a mighty job, done by Graham and possibly Jake. We've had fish since our 18th wedding anniversary, and started with 18 fish from Graham's sister. Sadly, those first fish, and their offspring all died, and the fish we have now are from some that Graham bought.

They've bred since then, and we're hoping they will breed again next breeding season. I love watching the baby fish when they begin to start coming up for a feed - they're quite skittish at first, but slowly get used to the whole thing and gradually become more used to someone being there watching them.

We have Fish as Well as Dogs!

Our house is set on one and three quarters of land. It's separated out into different parts. There's the part our house is on, a fenced off backyard, fenced off pool area and a fenced off dog run.


The rest of our land has a fence all around it, different parts of the perimeter are able to be seen through or not, depending on which bit you're looking at. The front fence is a wire fence, easy to see through and get through.


The back fence though, is a high fence, and solid, so it adds privacy. The side fences are solid too for the back end of both.


Our fish pond is down the back of our place, near the back fence. We have a few pepper trees down there and other trees too. The pond is shaded for most of the day, and our fish are doing well down there, even though the water's a disgusting colour at the moment!


Anyway, I go and count the fish sometimes, sit there watch the splish splash of the fish and sometimes I write poetry there. It's a lovely way to de-stress. I wrote a bit about this and posted it  on my Facebook page today - this is what I wrote:


OK everyone, it's time for the Cordon Family Fish Pond Critter Count Report. 

'After a total fish count of a week or so ago of 10 fish, I can report things have changed, finally! So what did I count critter-wise? I counted eleven different swishy fishy, one inquisitive frog checking things out, and one buzzy bee collecting pollen from the Pepper tree blossom next to my face.

I heard the barking of one small dog, and various tweets from unseen birds.

A successful session down by the pond!'


I've received some lovely comments from some of my Facebook friends, and if you have any fish pond stories, please share them here - I'd love to read about your fish pond!

Weather Extremes - Remember Your Pet!

When the weather is too terrible for you to go or stay outside, don't forget your pet. Most pets can suffer too, when Nature gives us extreme weather. 


At the moment, South Australia, where I live, has a forecast of 39 degrees celsius, with rain expected in the afternoon and evening. 39 degrees celsius is 102 Fahrenheit, that's too hot for me and for my dogs! So at the moment, I'm staying inside, and so are the four dogs. 


Our other pets are goldfish. They live in a deep pond outside, with shade. If it's too hot for them at the top of their pond, they have plenty of cool water further down. I know they'll be fine out there. Some fish aren't so lucky, if your fish are in the sunshine on a very hot day, and they're in a shallow pond, it can get extremely dangerous for them.


Pet owners must realise the responsibilities they take on, when they get a pet. If my dogs were outside, and they didn't have shade and water available, it could become life threatening for them. I'm a responsible pet owner who cares, so I keep my dogs inside where it's cool, and I make sure they have water to drink if they want it.

Dogs in hot weather

I am so glad the hot weather has gone! We've had the evap cooler going almost non-stop for a week and a half and I'm sick of it.

Our dogs don't seem to have minded - they've been inside where it's cool almost no-stop too. They flake out on the tiles, or on the carpet under the outlets and only get up if they absolutely have to.

I've heard some terrible stories about dogs left outside and people coming home to dead or dying canine friends. I don't know how I'd live with the guilt if that happened to me. Well, I do have some idea about how I'd feel. We've had some tragic losses in our fish pond in the last week. Things just got too hot for some of our goldfish.

I've put big blocks of ice in the pond on a couple of days, and sprayed cold water in the pond to help the fish cool down. Our fish numbers have plummeted to only three, and I do feel some guilt about that.

I care about the fish, but I don't love them like I love the dogs. I like the fish, but I don't feel fish are people, like dogs are. Dogs have their own character, and they are friends and family members.

still too hot

The dogs and I are still spending lots of time in the house. Too much time, I'm afraid. Life would be better if I'd braved the heat more.

I had an awful shock this morning. I finally went down to the back and checked out the fish pond. I hadn't been down there for a few days. I guess I may have been afraid of what I'd see.

I was right. Two dead fish and some others missing. I could only see three live fish, and there should have been at least seven. I feel like a murderer.

I've fed the live ones now, and put the hose in the pond, putting more air and water in. I just hope the remaining fish can make it through this horrible heat wave. Maybe if we didn't have all these restrictions on watering, I may have been more attentive to the fishes needs, but I think I'm just trying to cover my arse there.

If I was the animal lover I profess to be I would have put the fish first and the government rules second. I think I'm allowed to use the hose for animal welfare issues anyway. No excuses. I'm sorry fish.