could AQUAPONICS help.seems to work in any conditions.
^ Aquaponics is a few levels up from what I'm blundering around with... See Will has an excellent thread on that stuff and it's very involved.
I decided to take Baldrick's advice and try out fish pellet bait... it can't be worse than my last advice to use peas!
I cut off an old sock at the ankle and the littlun put a few handfuls of pellets inside.
Banged the stake in to tie the trap tether to... in case we get a big one!
And we're set! Roll on tomorrow!
I'm quietly confident this time... but I can't see us catching a pla chon with fish pellet bait. More likely one of the big catfish... but we shall see.
Mendip,
I always wonder why when I see Thai's using hammers they hold them up by the head losing all leverage and pounding force. My FIL, wife, BIL and my few neighbors do the same. I see your daughter holding the hammer the same way.
Its a weird thing here. Maybe its the cheap nails that bend so they tap them in little by little versus a few swings and done.
^ Something I'd never really noticed, but I think in this case the lump hammer is just too heavy for my daughter to lift from the end.
Hammer lessons coming up!
We went down to the pond today full of hope.
The littlun started pulling in the fish trap... baited using Baldrick's great idea of fish pellets wrapped in a cloth.
Dan joined us during a rare break between modelling assignments!
It took some getting in... I'd thrown the trap right out into the middle of the pond, where the big fish should be.
Finally it was near the bank...
And.... nothing.
That was a waste of a perfectly good sock.
On the Falklands Is there is a permanent Met Office Department (its part of the MOD anyway, or was). Its a pretty dull existence down there most of the time and to brighten up things they try to encourage down celebrities and do charity events. A certain Mr Fish along with 4 page 3 girls got invited down (he'd retired by then). Mr Fish its turns out he liked a drink and on one night (allegedly) made quite a number of inappropriate remarks and goosed up one of the female civilian staff. He left on the next flight.
The Met Office lot were a bit weird, one bloke had to be restrained on a flight back to Brize and he was pissed when he got on the morning flight to the Ascension Is stop off and had a stash of vodka, continued to get pissed and stripped off shouting about how he was going skydiving. Does funny things to you the Falk Is.
Yeah, how is the pond doing? Any snakes about?
^ I've taken my eye off the ball for a while to be honest.
What with the daughter having online tuition at home and two litters of puppies to find homes for it's been a busy couple of weeks.
After the second time I pumped the sludge out, the pond is certainly not the vivid green it had become, but just back to it's 'normal' green colour. There's been no more fish deaths (and no more snakes to my knowledge), and still a lot of live catfish (pla duuk and pla sawai) and a fair few tilapia left. It's all back to normal, but I'm sure another similar episode is just round the corner, especially with the 36 to 40 degree temperatures we're getting just now.
I'm very interested in getting one of those solar powered paddle wheel aerators that VocalNeal mentioned in Post #269, and had got as far as tracing a German company in Pattaya that used to supply them, but I think no longer. I need to resume that search.
I went fishing in the pond today for the first time since losing about 150 nice pla nin and tabtim to the algal bloom.
The demographic of the pond has changed completely... the fishing was slow... but first I caught a small pla sawai which went back.
And then another, and then another... until eventually I caught a nice pla sawai (about a pound) which I gave to the gardener (although he's threatening to cook it up for me). These are the strangest looking of fish, with a flat head and eyes low down. They have vicious spikes on the pectoral fins and dorsal fin, and when they get you it bleeds a lot and stings like hell. It must be something in the mucus (they are very slimy fish).
Finally I caught a couple of nice pla nin, about a pound and a half each. I lost a bigger one as well!
I didn't catch the shoe... that's for scale! A size 45 as well to show how big these fish are.
Fish and chips tonight for the first time in a long time.
I was walking around the pond with the dogs this morning when a dead fish floated up, right in front of me, as I was watching.
I immediately thought... "Oh no, not again... another algal bloom".
I netted it out and it was a nice pla nin... with it's tail missing. It had some damage to the mouth as well.
This gives some idea of how big the pla chon (snakehead) have become. I reckon a fish with at least a 3" wide mouth did this. Annoyingly we're still getting a lot of pla nin and pla tabtim fry so it seems the pla chon are too big to bother with the fry and are going for the adult fish. I have to get rid of these... somehow.
The winner here was Coco, our new fish loving dog. This pla nin was very fresh, so she's getting it fried up for tea tonight!
^ This reminded me to do a spot of fishing. In about an hour I caught a couple of decent pla nin and a nice pla sawaii.
That's dinner sorted.
These pla sawai are the most peculiar looking fish, but the wife was happy!
^ It seems a bit excessive to start trying to electrocute the 'bastards'... what about all the smaller fish we want to keep? And the frogs and snakes and occasional terrapins that turn up?
And what about me for that matter?
You Scandinavians are good at fishing... can you think of any safer methods to catch these snakehead?
The fish will surface; you pick out the "bastards", and let the keepers wake up, and carry on.
It's done all the time
It is not handgrenade fishing
Don't know the price, but it's all over the net
It's 230 volt DC
Last edited by helge; 07-05-2020 at 01:31 PM.
I will check this out... but I'll think long and hard before going forward with it. I'm not so good with electrics and wiring a plug is about my limit.
Would I need a little dinghy or something to sit in?
I'm thinking of getting one of those 'throw' nets, a circular net with weights all around. Maybe if I regularly have a go with it I could gradually reduce the snakehead population.
The first heavy rain of the season and the pond level has risen by a foot at least.
I'm sure the fish welcome the fresh water.
Have just read the thread from the beginning, great story and sorry you were having problems with fish dying etc.
One thing I couldn't help noticing, was you have no way to export all the nutrients that are building up in the pond from the constant feeding of the fish. I think finding a way to do this would solve all your problems at a stroke.
There are two ways to do this usually, first, by using big chemical filters that will take out all the excess Nitrate and Phosphates that are 100% causing your algae blooms, these can be DIY'ed for not much money, but you will need to buy the right chemical resins to do the extracting of phosphates., Nitrates can be removed by constructing a huge trickle filter using bio balls or similar.
Alternatively you can use plants, lots and lots of plants to do all the work for you. If it was me I would just chuck a suitcase full of Water Hyacinth in the pond and let it go crazy. The important bit is to keep removing it as it multiplies and thereby exporting the nutrients locked in the plants. This should clean up your pond in no time and provide shade to help keep water cool.
Aquarists and commercial fish farms both do something similar but using different plants to maintain peak water quality.
Good luck!!!
I have completed the creek with good results.
The algae doesn't like the 18 meter of travel through pebbles, and a lot of sludge is being deposited in the creek.
So I made a small primary pond, where the sludge can settle.
I'll try to find Dapnia for the small pond.
I'm trying out the mussels also( Anodonta cygnea)
I'm gay, man
^ Great stuff Helge... add some pics! (not of the gay bit, mind)
Sorry sourmanflint... I have only just seen your post... I wasn't ignoring you.
I will look into this in detail. One problem we had with plants was that the pla nin (tilapia) nested in the underwater plant pots and kept digging out the soil. Other fish we have seem to eat the plant stems. We originally had a few lilies but gave up as they kept dying for these reasons.
I enjoy fishing using rod and line for the fish, so don't want the pond overtaken by plants, but also would much prefer the plant option as opposed to installing complex filters.
I will do some more research, and many thanks for your advice!
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