The Fish Pond

Sometimes the best of intentions results in disaster. This was the case when our daughter,Tamara, worked hard to find some company for the fish in our patio pond. Here’s the story.

The Fish Pond

 

We have a fish pond on on front Patio that is equipped with a submerged pump and a rock waterfall. It had been out of commission for a while, so in 1986, I decided to give it an overhaul. I cleaned it out and washed it. Then I dried it and installed a swimming pool sealant on the inside surfaces. After it cured I filled it with water and started the submerged pump. We let it run and settle for 3 or 4 days and decided it was time to fill it with special fish. We went down to the fish shop at the Mall and purchased about $100 worth of small tropical fish. The girls were taking good care of the fish. We nurtured the fish and they were growing and reproducing in the aerated pond.

 

A month or two later, my daughter, Tamara, was playing with her friends in the small creek behind our house. She discovered the creek had perch in it so she worked real hard to catch one and brought one home and put in our fish pond without telling anyone. A couple of days later I went out to check on our fish and I couldn’t find a single tropical fish in the whole fish pond. I kept looking and saw the fattest perch I have seen in quite a while and I knew that the perch had eaten $100 worth of small tropical fish in two days. Talk about a gourmet meal.

 

I ask who put the perch in the pond and Tamara cheerfully said she had put in there to keep the other fish company. I told her the perch had asked all the other fish over for dinner. She knew something was wrong and we went out and looked and she figured out that she had made a mistake.

 

We left the perch in the pond and I guess he had put on enough weight to survive because he was still on there when winter came. The pond froze over and it appeared to be solid ice.
When Spring came the pond had thawed and the perch was still alive. He lasted a couple of years and finally perished when we sprung a leak and the pond dried up.

 

On May 3 of 2014, my daughter Kristi and her husband Carl relined the pond and replaced the pump to rejuvenate the fish pond for Pam for Mothers Day. They stocked the pond gold fish and Ben and Sarah, our grandchildren, have given them all names. I’m hoping we have better luck with this batch than we did the first time.

 

Perch sucking in a high dollar tropical fish while wondering how he got into Perch Paradise.

 

 

Pam sitting by her refurbished patio fish pond. She says thanks to Kristi and Carl for her Mothers Day present in 2014.

 

Thanks for reading The Fish Pond,
Hawg Jaw Bill