An Isaan Pond

[ootai]

Mendip
When you were putting the fish back into the pond I hope you remembered to count them like you said you would, Engineers like precise numbers only Geologists are happy with guesses and estimates.

You actually make me feel guilty about not coming back on Saturday to help you with moving the sludge but those feelings of regret gladly disappeared very quickly.

My hands were also a bit sore after being spiked a few times with the fish when picking them up but nothing like yours, they look like they would be bloody sore to me.

I hope you are making notes on this whole operation, other than the story telling on here, so that nice time you will be right on top of it and the whole operation can be streamlined and be more efficient.

Here's a few pointers from me:

Set up ample overnight storage for the number of fish you have in the pond i.e. 200 - 300 hundred. Maybe even borrow my compressor to provide adequate aeration. I am sure the master of improvisation (i.e. Klondyke) could tell us how to set it up to have multiple outlets off the outlet point of the compressor. This might stop you stressing about the fish dying.

When you start pumping out the pond don't stop as we did just keep going until there is nothing but sludge.

Have a shit truck on standby to pump out the sludge and to deposit it where you could recover it later to use as fertiliser. I would suggest making a bunded area near where you pump the pump water to.
Those shit truck pumps will slurp up that sludge no problems and if the pla chon fry survive in it then all the neighbours for miles around will be invaded at a later date.

Finally have the water truck arranged, or even 2 of them to start filling when the shit truck has done their job. After 10 loads start repatriating the fish. Just a proviso here, I would take note of whether you think it better to get in 20 trucks of water to ensure you can put all the fish back in the pond ASAP. Also as you said you should work out a way to get the rain water from your tanks into the pond as every bit helps.

Hope you had/have a great "rest" day and don't partake too much of that evil alcohol.

[Saint Willy]

and don't partake too much of that evil alcohol.

you were making good sense up until this point.

[bsnub]

you were making good sense up until this point.

Agreed. Overcooked steak and no booze is a recipe for disaster. ootai likes to eat shoe leather, same as chitty.

[malmomike77]

I would say the moral of the story is not to build a bladdy great pond in your Isaan garden.

Mr Mendip. I think you should bought a load of the strong green netting and make a net that you anchor to bottom so that when you want to check on the fish you can get friend to help you by rising it off the bottom.

[ootai]

you were making good sense up until this point.

Agreed. Overcooked steak and no booze is a recipe for disaster. ootai likes to eat shoe leather, same as chitty.

More proof that opinions are like arseholes everyone has one!

[bsnub]

More proof that opinions are like arseholes everyone has one!

Ouch! But so true! Green sent your way mate as I value your opinion even though I disagree.

[Mendip]

Mendip

You actually make me feel guilty about not coming back on Saturday...

... so that nice time you will be right on top of it and the whole operation can be streamlined and be more efficient.

Hope you had/have a great "rest" day and don't partake too much of that evil alcohol.

A number of points here Ootai... but I am so knackered tonight I can't address them all right now.

Yes... you should feel guilty.

I'm guessing that a typo converted 'next' time to 'nice' time.

I would now say that there has been little 'nice' about this project, and as for 'next' time... well, and I've never used one of these teenagers' memes before, but LOL. So long as I'm in charge of my faculties there will never be a next time.

My 'rest day' lasted until I got up. I should have known that there is no such thing as a happy ending in Thailand... at least not for me.

And as for that evil alcohol... I pushed out the boat in anticipation of today as I always think there's not a better drinking experience than a decent beer with a whisky chaser... or in Isaan a Leo with a Hong Thong. Yes. I bought my first bottle of Hong Thong for some months.

I drank the first glass (of many) on the jetty tonight...



An astute observer will notice a dead pla nin drifting by... I've spent the entire day watching this, netting them out and cleaning them up. I am fukkin knackered. This one went over the wall because I was just too tired to sort it out.

I guess there's a fine line between having a hobby and having an all encompassing b@stard of a pond in the back garden, making you dread stepping out the back door to see what disaster has happened again.

Fukk me, I'm tired.

you were making good sense up until this point.

yeah, wasn't he just!

Mr Mendip. I think you should bought a load of the strong green netting and make a net that you anchor to bottom so that when you want to check on the fish you can get friend to help you by rising it off the bottom.

Mate, I have thought about that, but the build-up of organic shite above the net would just make it impossible to lift.

I have lot to write after today... but it takes so much time and I'm fukkin knackered.

Hong Thong and Leo knackered!

[malmomike77]

but the build-up of organic shite above the net would just make it impossible to lift.

Thats what you have underwater gardener for

[Klondyke]

I am sure the master of improvisation (i.e. Klondyke) could tell us how to set it up to have multiple outlets off the outlet point of the compressor. This might stop you stressing about the fish dying.

Not sure why - or where from - I have deserved such flattering. Nevertheless, what I would recommend - now of course coming with the cross after the funeral (a Czech saying) - for the sludge pumping a screw feeder could be better than your pump.

I see it in the villages when removing water from one field to another. It's some 6m long, not exactly as this picture, you surely can see it around. Similar is used for the grain forwarding.

[barrylad66]

cheers mendip,always a good read.

[Saint Willy]

tonight...



An astute observer will notice a dead pla nin drifting by... I've spent the entire day watching this, netting them out and cleaning them up. I am fukkin knackered. This one went over the wall because I was just too tired to sort it out

To be expected to have a few losses after all this movement and changing of water.

[David48atTD]

Mendip, since your fish are dying ...

Check your pond's PH level.

Our Fish Farm usually neutralises the ph level with a bag/s of bi-carb of soda

Your stocking levels are quite high, so would the residual effluent levels.

That wasn't all mud you were wading through

Aquaculture uses

Sodium bicarbonate also has important uses in aquaculture. The chemical is essential in recirculating aquaculture systems, where it is periodically added to replenish alkalinity destroyed by acid produced in nitrification. Without routine bicarbonate addition, system pH eventually drops to lethal levels.
Sodium bicarbonate is also a key component of some “transport tank aids.” When fish are transported in tight quarters, adding sodium bicarbonate to the water provides sodium to help animals maintain internal salt balance and bicarbonate to help buffer the pH of the transport water.

Your holding tank could have used some also ... might have reduced the fish mortality levels.

[Saint Willy]

How are the fish holding up today? Losses settle down?

[Loy Toy]

Next time get a bobcat in to bucket all the mud out of the bottom of the pond mate.

A machine such as this could knock that job over in a few hours for little investment and dump the mud exactly where you want it.

Anyway I did enjoy your little adventure.

[Mendip]

^ Good stuff David, and the bicarbonate of soda neutralising is definitely something I will build in to the equation next time. Nest time... ha!

And yes KW... losses were expected. The stress for a fish of being caught in a net and introduced to new water, and then into an over-crowded tank, for a night, and then introduced to more new water after, must be huge.

At work we used to regularly find kilometers of dead mackerel washed up against pipelines in the Norwegian Sea... they had been dumped by fishermen because the shoal was the wrong size. Once a fish is in the net it's future is bleak, you can dump them back in the sea to satisfy your quotas, but they are dead.

And also, I see a couple of comments about how wise it was to carry out this undertaking. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and if I'd known how many fish we had in the pond I wouldn't have drained the bloody thing to catch the pla chon. I was amazed at the huge fish population and can't understand why I wasn't catching many. I'm a good angler!

Anyway... after my morning off I awoke and walked down to the pond to check things out.

The gardener had already collected a bucket of dead pla nin... and he wasn't gonna eat these... they must have been well rank.

If the gardener refuses a fish I generally regard it as not even suitable for Dan.



We were in trouble... every few minutes another pla nin popped up to the surface and started floundering around.

As an emergency measure I transferred the aerators from the catfish tank to the pond and hung them off the jetty.



It was noticeable that the water level had actually gone down 3 or 4 inches over night. You can see the high tide mark on the smooth concrete.



The integrity of the pond had obviously been breached, or to put it in layman's terms.... we had a fukking leak!

After some investigation it appeared that a big crack had opened up in the splash zone of the waterfall, and water had been draining out of the pond here instead of returning to the pond. Maybe the usually submerged concrete had dried out, contracted and cracked during the drainage operations. This was only a tentative diagnosis but with fish dying by the minute we cemented over what looked like a crack.



You may notice that there were now two hoses feeding water to the pond. One was from the measly external water supply and offered just a weak trickle of water whereas the second was slightly stronger and came from out emergency veggie water supply.

This water came from our rainwater tanks... which incidentally have been a complete waste of time. I moved to Korat from the hills area behind Perth where every drop of water was precious. After trying (and failing) to discover the catchment potential in Korat I set up one 3000 litre and two 2000 litre water tanks fed from house guttering. Well, these filled up within 10 minutes of our first wet season storm and the water has sat there ever since. Meanwhile I've been paying around 600 Baht a month for unlimited water to the pool, pond and garden. Not to mention the house.

I can now see why no-one bothers to collect the rain water... you live and learn.

So anyway, a quick bit of re-rigging, and...



And on past the veggie garden, past the gardener's stinking drying fish (and they smell bad), and on to the pond.



But these trickles were no good... the temperature was rising fast, there was no rain on the horizon and floundering fish were popping up to the surface of the pond constantly. There was only one thing for it... I had to buy in more water.

[Mendip]

I arranged the water and agreed to an initial 5 loads (2000 litres per) and see how things go. Ridiculous I know... should have just said 10 loads straight off instead of piss-arsing about, but I like to think I'm in control.

While waiting for the water I decided to release the two big pla dook from the catfish tank... and any pla siwai still alive. The wife had pissed me off and all fish were to be released.

Here is the smaller pla dook with a load of the missus's pla ra pla dook... I was making big merit here!



Incidentally, in the pic above you can also see a dead juvenile pla chon. It sadly didn't survive the night... and I can't believe it but I was starting to feel sorry for the buggers stuck in a net.

And these are the gnashers on a 5 inch pla chon... not to be messed with. I don't mind handling a dead one!

[Mendip]

And then I netted out the big pla dook... I'm pissed off that I forgot to weigh her but I reckon she was around 6 kg.



And off she goes...



Of course, a dog will always chase a cat... Maya spent 20 minutes searching.



And was soon joined by Yogi...



But with no success. She had plenty of dead pla nin to keep her occupied though.



I found this fish in the catfish tank... no idea what it is or where it came from, but it went into the pond.



By late morning we had been losing around 5 or 6 fish an hour.



The gardener was over-whelmed.



So I joined in as well. Dan has enough frozen portions of pl bib to last her for months.



And then finally the first load of water arrived.

[Saint Willy]

Ridiculous I know... should have just said 10 loads straight off instead of piss-arsing about, but I like to think I'm in control.

I was too polite to mention it earlier...

[David48atTD]

Mendip, have you tested the ph level yet?

The fish are still dying

[Mendip]

^ I'll do so today. The new water stopped the deaths but it will be good to know the pH. I think is was the stress of being caught/released again and being put in different water. Strange that it was only the pla nin that were affected.

Anyway, while the new water was going in my attention turned to the pla chon. They'd been stuck in a net for a couple of days which didn't seem fair, so I converted the sandpit/frog enclosure/holding tank again... this time into a pla chon tank. I'm going to keep them as pets for a while. Despite all the trouble they've caused I find them fascinating fish and will enjoy watching them a while... apart from the one the wife's sister scrounged, of course.



There's 6 pla chon in there, 3 big and 3 small.



By late afternoon the final load of water was nearly in the pond and the fish deaths had slowed right down. The waterfall was also back on after the crack was fixed and cement gone off.



The water guys left after dumping a load of water (why couldn't that have gone in the pond?) and they were well happy with a big bag of pla nin.



... hopefully not to be required again...



So at the end of day 2 (after re-introducing the fish) the pond was looking closer to normal and the fish deaths had stopped. I put on the big pump to blast water across the surface and aid aeration for the night.



The water continued to trickle in (raising the level around an inch a day). A job well done... apart from everything that went wrong. All that's left to do is to re-pot the plants and put them on the steps before the water level gets too high. I've built up the lower steps with breeze blocks.

[Saint Willy]

it's looking good. I feel inspired to build one for myself. And add yabbies into it.

[baldrick]

I'm a good angler!

is this a protracted argument ?

[Saint Willy]

is this a protracted argument ?

Denial, I think.

[lom]

I've built up the lower steps with breeze blocks.

Visible through the water which has got a much nicer colour now.

[Mendip]

Yesterday morning there were just 2 dead fish and we found another 3 during the day. These looked old and even the gardener turned them down, so likes they had died the day before and just took a while to float up to the surface. They didn't smell great.

For lunch yesterday I had a pla siwai tom yam... using the flesh and eggs from one of the pla siwai. To be honest it wasn't the best tom yam I've ever had... but it was free!



After lunch I took the daughter to the fish place in town. It was too soon to restock really... but the boredom of this lockdown is getting to me and I just needed to get out and do something. I like to get out of the house at least once every day, just to see there is still a world out there.



I bought 3 bags of pla nin and a bag of pla tabtim. I've found the pink tabtim to have firmer flesh and make a better fish and chips.



We made lots of merit by releasing the two bags of big pla nin into the pond.



Am I the only person who has such trouble getting elastic bands off bags in Thailand?



There... merit made. This was, incidentally, the same spot that my daughter introduced the pla chin from, four years ago.



And after struggling to open the pla tabtim bag...



In they went. I'll hopefully be catching these in a couple of years to fry up with chips.



Any merit made was then lost. The bag of small pla nin...



Went into the pla chon tank for food. Sorry guys.

The irony of now buying pla nin for the snakehead to eat after spending years complaining about them eating my pla nin wasn't lost on me. Or is that irony? I'm never too sure.





One of the small pla chon took a pla nin almost immediately. The big snakehead are more reluctant to show themselves... but I'm sure this one ate soon after...



They always come out at night.