An Isaan Pond

[BLD]

^ I like to think of myself as a geo-environmentalist... with a Ya Dong habit.

I do often think that I'm too soft for this life in Thailand... hence 7 street dogs, around 40 chickens... half of which stopped laying years ago and a 7kg catfish in the pond that I won't let the gardener 'harpoon' because I think of it as a pet.

However I do have a huge stock of both tinned and frozen peas just now so one out of three ain't bad!

Lol, crack on old son

[BLD]

Fook me. Your gonna need all them peas when the 7kg catfish eventually turns up on the menu on fish n chip night. I feel yer pain though. Her indoors cooks constantly but nothing that turns me on in particular, last night I cooked some corn fritters( frozen from a box) onion rings likewise frozen,nuked some frozen peas, opened a tin of Heinz barbecue beans and found some fried rice in d fridge. Probably do that again tonight

[Reg Dingle]

Heinz barbecue beans

Snubby will be creaming in his pants

[David48atTD]

Lately I've been noticing more and more clumps of pink snail eggs laid on the reeds and around the edges of the pond. I'm pretty sure that a thriving water snail population is an indication of a healthy pond. We certainly didn't get this before last year's big clean out.



That was an empty water snail shell I put next the clump of eggs, just to show the type of snails we have. I hope the wife doesn't notice the clumps of eggs because if she realises we have a thriving snail population she'll mercilessly harvest them to eat.

Mate, get rid of those fuckers quick smart.

Squash those pink eggs. The snails will take over the outer rim of your pond.

At our Farm, it's a constant battle with them.


As for those tadpoles ... did they become frogs or (more likely) toads?

[CalEden]

You don't get that pond properly aerated now, history repeats itself including toes and all! If you're not willing to relocate the nest. You need to purchase a couple of pumps and fountains to properly aerate the pond. Your pond is a biosystem with many living interdependent living organisms, beginning spin out of balance and you're the human god responsible for the husbandry of the ecosystem. For you to walk away from the health of your pond because of an intrusion of nature of your cause, for reasons of economy (in my ponds aeration was a year-round process). This is hypocritical especially in light of recent postings of being a man of compassion for all animal life. You choose to create this biosystem now be benevolent husband of this Mendip's pond.

If you're going to walk away, hand Grenades are always an option.

End of rant!

[malmomike77]

^ Hear hear, i too demand Mendip be tried for Ecocide

[David48atTD]

You don't get that pond properly aerated now, history repeats itself including toes and all! If you're not willing to relocate the nest. You need to purchase a couple of pumps and fountains to properly aerate the pond. Your pond is a biosystem with many living interdependent living organisms, beginning spin out of balance and you're the human god responsible for the husbandry of the ecosystem. For you to walk away from the health of your pond because of an intrusion of nature of your cause, for reasons of economy (in my ponds aeration was a year-round process). This is hypocritical especially in light of recent postings of being a man of compassion for all animal life. You choose to create this biosystem now be benevolent husband of this Mendip's pond.

If you're going to walk away, hand Grenades are always an option.

End of rant!

^ THIS

[ootai]

Mendip
Is there a way you could cut into the waterfall water line and divert the water differently so it doesn't interfere with the birds nest but circulates the pond water.
It is starting to heat up as you are no doubt aware and that could spell doom for your fishes.

[Stumpy]

Here we go again.... Isaan pond 2 (Directors Cut)...

[bsnub]

Here we go again.... Isaan pond 2 (Directors Cut)...

He reaps what he sows.

[HuangLao]

Here we go again.... Isaan pond 2 (Directors Cut)...

Sequels don't usually hold up as to match the original.

[Stumpy]

Sequels don't usually hold up as to match the original.

They don't. But we gotta give ol Mendy a crack at it.

I really think Mendy should fill the pond with Piranhas. Could be some exciting fun. "Isaan Pond 2, Attack of the flesh eaters"

[Mendip]

Snubby will be creaming in his pants

I thought it sounded pretty good as well. All that was needed were a couple of slices of fried SPAM to finish off a great meal..

You don't get that pond properly aerated now, history repeats itself including toes and all! If you're not willing to relocate the nest. You need to purchase a couple of pumps and fountains to properly aerate the pond. Your pond is a biosystem with many living interdependent living organisms, beginning spin out of balance and you're the human god responsible for the husbandry of the ecosystem. For you to walk away from the health of your pond because of an intrusion of nature of your cause, for reasons of economy (in my ponds aeration was a year-round process). This is hypocritical especially in light of recent postings of being a man of compassion for all animal life. You choose to create this biosystem now be benevolent husband of this Mendip's pond.

Ummm... I do take all this on board Cal and you are very correct... but are not the birds living around the pond part of the ecosystem as well?

In my world, rightly or wrongly, there is a hierarchy... mammals trump birds, birds trump fish and fish trump snails. These birds can stay.

^ THIS

I'm glad you agree with Cal, DavidHCNYatTD, you show your compassion, and yet...

Mate, get rid of those fuckers quick smart.

Squash those pink eggs. The snails will take over the outer rim of your pond.

At our Farm, it's a constant battle with them.


As for those tadpoles ... did they become frogs or (more likely) toads?

Out of interest, what harm to the snails cause? I always thought they were a good thing and helped to keep the water clean? If I decide to rid the pond of the snails all I need to do is advise the wife of their existence and every snail catching method known to man will soon be employed. She seems to like boiled water snails dunked in some kind of chilli sauce concoction.

And as for the tadpoles, they all suddenly disappeared. There's not a single one to be seen now so either they headed down to deeper water as they developed or the pla nin acquired a taste for them. Fish also trump amphibians so I don't feel so bad about this.

Mendip
Is there a way you could cut into the waterfall water line and divert the water differently so it doesn't interfere with the birds nest but circulates the pond water.
It is starting to heat up as you are no doubt aware and that could spell doom for your fishes.

Yeah Ooyai it is starting to heat up... we had 24 degrees at 8am today. The chicken fan is now on every day and they get a hosing down every lunchtime.

I checked the position of the nest this morning and had a peak inside.

There is only one chick in the nest and the mum is a darkish colour and not one of our common birds. Shutree didn't turn up yesterday so I'm still waiting on a definitive identification. The nest is a flimsy affair and wouldn't survive relocating... and I think that once disturbed the mother wouldn't return anyway, leaving the chick a slow death by starvation.



Here is the position of the nest... immediately below the waterfall reservoir and would be directly in line with the cascading water, should I turn it on. I surrounded the reservoir with cemented in rocks to allow the water to pour between the gaps between rocks to make it interesting. It really would be pretty well impossible to divert the flow.



You can see my dilemma... and not the only one. I haven't been able to top up the windscreen washing fluid in the car tank for a couple of weeks... there's chicks in this nest too!




Anyway, I had a brainwave this morning. The last of my pla chon passed away last week so I had a spare aerating pump now that the 'snakehead' tank is no longer being used.

Not ideal but certainly a help.



There's certainly a lot of air bubbling up through but no circulation unfortunately.



If I see a problem developing I can always set up our big pump but I think this is a pretty good compromise in the meantime.



All done during my morning cup of tea... not a bad job to start the day. I tried to catch the bubbles in the morning sun but the photo doesn't do my work justice.

[DrWilly]

Water looks a bit green…perhaps you should drain it again…

[David48atTD]

Water looks a bit green…perhaps you should drain it again…

... carefull now, he might take you seriously

[Headworx]

^Ootai is on the way. Not to help him drain the pond again, but to get that AC power source off the jetty before it ends up in the water and obituaries are in order

[malmomike77]

I tried to catch the bubbles in the morning sun but the photo doesn't do my work justice.

i thought we bobbed around this buoy last year, you need one of those paddles they have in prawn ponds but a solar one? get on Lazada

[Shutree]

There is only one chick in the nest and the mum is a darkish colour and not one of our common birds. Shutree didn't turn up yesterday so I'm still waiting on a definitive identification.

Definitely one for Nev!

[Shutree]

^Ootai is on the way. Not to help him drain the pond again, but to get that AC power source off the jetty before it ends up in the water and obituaries are in order

Fish and chips all round.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

There's certainly a lot of air bubbling up through but no circulation unfortunately.

You need to get one of this ,

They are not very expensive, I got mine at Pet Mart, you can attach a pipe under it so that it pumps water from deeper in the pond, thus better circulating the water, the front swivels so that you can direct the flow, and the flow is adjustable, at full flow it shot water a couple of meters across. It sucks air through that little air hose attached to the nozzle and it mixes with the water .

[ootai]

Here is the position of the nest... immediately below the waterfall reservoir and would be directly in line with the cascading water, should I turn it on. I surrounded the reservoir with cemented in rocks to allow the water to pour between the gaps between rocks to make it interesting. It really would be pretty well impossible to divert the flow.

Anyway, I had a brainwave this morning.

Mendip
As is normal when you get an Engineer talking to a Geologist you didn't understand what I meant and as for you having a brainwave I call BS on that as it is impossible given you are a geo.

I didn't want you to divert the waterfall around the nest, what I actually meant was can you cut the pipe that feeds water from the waterfall pump, which I understand is in the pond, to the top of the waterfall.
Then install a "T" piece and make a diversion pipe, flexible or PVC, that you could then use to create water flowing/circulating over one of the boulders you so proudly placed at the edge of the pond to create a temporary waterfall/aeration system.
If you did that you need to remember to put a tap in both lines after the "T" piece.

Hope that's clearer.

[Mendip]

^^ I'll look into that, thanks BB.

Hopefully the waterfall will be back in action in a couple of weeks!

^ Edit: I'll look into that, thanks Ootai!

[Buckaroo Banzai]

If you want to make your own venturi and hook up to your existing pump
many different options on youtube

[Mendip]

^Ootai is on the way. Not to help him drain the pond again, but to get that AC power source off the jetty before it ends up in the water and obituaries are in order

I was wondering who'd spot my deliberate HSE error... should have known it'd be you HW.

Yes... 'power supply not secured above water and not partitioned off and the cable an obvious trip hazard' would have got you top marks but a green owed nonetheless.

Rest assured these issues are now addressed. I just hope it doesn't rain.




As for this mysterious bird holding up the waterfall commissioning I spent an hour tonight trying to get a decent photo. One of the parents finally flew out of the waterfall foliage but directly behind a flower.

I took this pic... the mother's (I assume) tail can clearly be seen protruding from the right-hand side of the leftern-most flower. I was almost embarrassed to post this picture but then I remembered some of Shutree's efforts! I guess that half a bird is better than no bird at all.



I watched the pair flitting around the trees for another half hour but with no photo opportunity... and it wasn't easy looking towards the setting sun. But then finally the money shot.



These birds have a cream-coloured breast and a distinctly darker (olive/brown/grey) back. And possibly a black crown to the head. Their call is similar to the hoopoes' but not quite so harsh and in shorter clusters of notes. And ideas?

[malmomike77]

^ its a lesser spotted trogon