Fish fountain

Hi,
The fish, our koi collection, have a new toy in their playground: a fountain. It was part of the package sent to us by the  pond chemical company after they tested our chemicals. They said the pond chemicals were not at fault for killing our last two batches of fish but their customer service representative that I dealt with was extremely nice and he sent us a whole load of new chemicals, food and a fountain-filter-pump-thingy.... It filters the water then shoots the water up, really high.

When we set it up in the pond it looked like Old Faithful going off. It's hysterical to watch this thing pump water up almost two feet in the air. The fish love it! They frolic in the splashing water like kids at a gushing fire hydrant in the heat of the summer. The fish jump and swim madly to get into the frothing water. I've never seen koi do this trick but it's a lot of fun to watch the mayhem. They would keep it up all day if I let the fountain run. I'm afraid they will die of exhaustion so we limit the play time to a few hours every couple of days.

This latest batch of koi were a gift from dad. He felt terrible that the last group from Toronto died when I cleaned the pond so we bought a big group from a web site out of  Florida. They shipped us 40, 3"- 6" fish in an array of colours and marking. They have all grown about an inch in the last month. There are also 8 feeder goldfish that I threw in two months ago to test the pond water with and they have increased in size as well. The goldfish don't seem as interested or entertained by the fountain as the koi are. Where the koi can't get enough of the fountain splash, the goldfish make a point of avoiding it. Very interesting indeed. I wish I knew more about different fish mentality, but they don't have a lot of info on fish brain process in my local library. Imagine that!

The pond is in full swing with koi, blooming water lilies, hyacinth and some other green plants. We had a frog but it committed suicide last week. It had just moved into the neighborhood and seemed to really dig his new pad. The next thing we know he's floating in the pond and not in a good way. It looked like he threw up the lining of his stomach. I asked my pond guru guy at the fish chemical company and he said that frogs will occasionally swallow something they don't like and regurgitate their stomachs to get it out... Not always successfully. Ours seemed to have lost his stomach, literally, and died. I am so tired of dealing with dead pond critters but it seems that it's the state of the hood no matter what we do. If it's not dead fish, it's suicidal frogs, birds that can't see the window and crash dive into them, or mice that break into the bird seed and eat themselves to death. The pet cemetary is over flowing in the backyard.... But the fountain is a blast.

xox
M