"~ jan" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:28:36 CST, "Reel McKoi"
wrote:

Many of us made mistakes because no one points out all the problems and
things that can go wrong.

Since every pond, ponder, materials, soil are different, I don't think
there is a book out there that could cover it all. Especially not in the
mid-90's. Even if you had known then what you know now, wouldn't you have
still dug the ponds?

Most likely I would have. But I would have designed them to be more natural
and have never bought fish for them. The fish are the main attraction for
the snakes and fish eating predators. The fish are what's causing most of
the work. And their rate of reproduction is phenomenal. I tried adding
rosy reds to consume some of the eggs and fry, but they don't survive for
some reason.

I shudder to think what it would cost to hire someone to add these to both
ponds and in such a way they can be netted.

I don't think Phyllis was even suggesting this. While you're mentioning
all
the cons of ponding, a few of us are pointing out the pros, and that it
can
be done low maintenance and low cost.

Yes, it can...... depending where you live and what you want to keep in your
pond.

After all, you've mentioned you're
ready to pull off the nets, sell the fish, and go the lazy ponder way that
Kathy enjoys. ;-) No one here is trying to sway you not to.

I think we all concentrate on the pros Jan, and forget that all coins have a
flip side. I'm not crazy about these nets either. They're a real PIA but
the only thing that worked. They're in the way of maintenance and of course
not natural looking or attractive although fine and black.

I never dreamed there would be so much maintenance
involved. Then, once the koi started to breed the maintenance increased.
There is no other way to remove fry than do a draindown and net them out.
A
dirty smelly all day job as I mentioned before.

And I don't think anyone here is trying to talk you out of retiring from
these chores. They're just stating their experiences. I know I dug my
first
pond in 1995, a year earlier than yourself and haven't had a 5th of the
problems you've had. So everyone/pond and experiences thereof, are often
quite different. ~ jan

Jan, the first 150g kitty-pool pond was put in in May or June of 1995, as
per the Tetra booklet that was all I could find locally. I didn't have a PC
back then. The library here had nothing on liner ponds. Ponds were not
that popular or common at the time either. No one had liner ponds or
anything other than farm stock ponds that I knew. I went by those early
books that expounded on the pros and minimized the cons if they mentioned
them at all. Finding any good info was hard.
--

RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö