"Hal" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:31:01 CST, "Reel McKoi"
wrote:

best thing to do is get rid of the fish, pull the nets off, leave a pump
running to keep them from getting stagnant and let them go to nature -
frog
and turtle ponds.

Sounds like an interesting pond to me.

It's sounding that way to us as well. :-) And don't think the nets aren't
a PIA when you have to do anything with the ponds.

My biggest job last year was
cleaning my DIY filters and I'm hoping reducing the pond size from
1500 gallons to 500 will make that a bit easier. If that doesn't
work out for me, I'll be buying dirt and making a new flower bed for
butterflies in the future.

I hear you. ;-) Cleaning/flushing the filters are something we both came
to dread, along with drain-downs to remove the excess and endless stream of
fry. I fell twice and injured myself on the slick liners trying to remove
overgrown plants and rocks that went to the bottom. Ands what am I getting
out of this? The fish predators here are numerous and cause us both endless
stress. If it's not water snakes around the grow-out tanks, they're out by
the ponds themselves, or it's the herons or other wildlife tearing the nets.
My husband has an aversion to snakes and for some reason the ponds draw them
like crazy. I'd rather give up the fish and not have to deal with these
things summer and winter. That GBH is still here. No amount of scaring it
off has worked. I'd rather spend my outdoor time working with my garden and
growing vggies and flowers - doing something pleasant. If a frog pond
doesn't work then we'll also mostly likely fill them in and make a nice
garden spot out front.

I've always enjoyed gardening and love to use a shovel. I didn't
start a pond until after retirement and then just to have something
interesting to do. Life has so many good things in which, we can
participate. I hope you don't feel you have to rush and your change
brings happiness.

No rush at all. Finding homes for this many fish is going to be the hardest
thing we face. Like I said, the market here is saturated as pond owner's
fish breed and people give them away or sell them for almost nothing. We
love gardening and always have. I have two greenhouses, a large plant filled
sun room and we have two nice size veggie gardens plus several flower beds.
At our ages that's more enjoyable and more our speed than constantly having
to work with the ponds. The only thing that concerns me if we leave them to
nature is the mosquitoes and dangerous snapping turtles that infest
un-netted ponds here.

--
RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
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