Fish Pond Paradise!

Soon after we moved into this house, we were given an old half-barrel that had, at one time, been a small fish pond. However, it had been standing empty for ages and had dried out to such an extent that we could see slits of daylight between the planks! We didn't know if the old pump still worked, and probably the best thing to do with it was fill it with soil and plant herbs in it! However, we like a challenge, so Rob filled it with water and gradually over a few days, the wood swelled and the barrel stopped leaking. And, amazingly the pump still worked! So we decided to buy a few goldfish. I had been given an old gieter or watering can, and Rob rigged this up with rope and cable ties so that the water flowed into the gieter and out through the spout back into the barrel!

A  Malechite male sunbird bathing at the gieter.

And it worked! We bought a few fish and left them to it. The only problem was, the water turned green within a few days and although we regularly changed it, using the pond water for the garden and filling it again from the rainwater tanks, we could hardly ever see the fish through the murk and algae! And after a bad start when we lost a few fish, the remaining two flourished! Eventually they were so big that they could literally only swim in a circle, and we felt really bad that they couldn't see where they were going! Even though they really weren't going anywhere!
So, we decided to buy ourselves an early Christmas present in the form of a new pond complete with filter and UV light! Rob ordered one from a company in Cape Town, and a couple of weeks ago, off we set to fetch it. Luckily it just fitted into the back of the Nissan, we thought we may have to put Alfie in it on the way home, but he sat on my lap and fidgeted all the way!

Let the games begin!

The next morning we set to work levelling the ground and stamping it down, raking and shovelling until we could put the new pond in place. It took a few hours to fill as the rain tank runs very slowly. We had been advised to let it run for a week to allow the water to settle, but we couldn't wait that long, our poor fish were cramped in the old barrel and we were impatient to do the move! Rob emptied the barrel and I stood by with my little fishing net ready to transfer the fish from their old quarters to their new Olympic sized (for them!) pool!

Happy fish!

If fish could smile, ours were grinning from gill to gill. They explored, they swam up and down, they would have done somersaults if they had known how. And we stood and watched for ages, enjoying their freedom with them.

The finished product, complete with clutter!

We did notice that one of them is more developed on one side that the other, I wonder if that is because it could only go in a circle and so the muscles developed more on that side??
Rob built a lovely stone wall around the pond and we rushed off to a chap in the village who breeds koi and bought five little ones to swell the numbers.

And the barrel?
We filled it with soil and planted herbs in it!