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The snake that came to dinner...

D

Dan-MO

Well-known member
For the last several years my wife Linda has worked hard on her garden "ponds".I installed a fairly large one for her a few years ago and she enjoys working around it making different rock formations and planting different flowers and water plants around and in it.A couple of years ago she even conned me into wadeing out waist deep into a muddy farm pond to retreive the startings of some water lillys for her that now grow and bloom beautifully in her pond.

The first year we had the pond we released a couple of dozen tiny 1/2 inch goldfish and koi into it.Many of these have survived and are now huge-over a foot long and very heavy.They grew so large that we were afraid they wouldn't survive another winter under ice in the original pond which is fairly shallow,so last fall I installed a second pond for her along side the first that is much deeper-about 40 inches.This is the new home of the bigger fish

Both ponds have heathy eco systems and are home to fish,several species of frogs including a couple of huge bullfrogs,water insects,and toads.Animals use the ponds for drinking water during the drought of summer.A racoon even made a meal of some of the small goldfish one night.I have always expected to see a snake sunning himself on one of the flat rocks amongst the flowers-but have never saw one there-until today.Did I mention that Linda has is absolutly terrified of any snake?

There I was flipping the steaks on the grill just a few feet from the ponds when Linda let out a blood curdling scream that startled me so bad I nearly flipped a steak out on the ground!I soon determined that the cause of her fear was a small (about a foot long)water snake that was happily swallowing tadpoles at the bottom of the pond.All the commotion sent him scurrying up under the rocks.

Linda has reluctantly accepted the fact that she has created a perfect envioronment for the critter and has agreed to let him live there in peace.But I bet she will be VERY cautious when she works in her flowers from now on!I tryed to get a picture but he was too fast for me.The first pic shows one of the large koi fish we have raised
 
I am going to put one in up here when I get moved up here for good. I already know where I am going to put it and have some books and videos on building them. I have a small 50 gallon one at home and even get a kick out of watching the nature work there.

I would not be supprised that your new snake has been there for a while. :D I have had pet snakes, even a Rattler until the cops made me get rid of it. I sorta like them but they startle me too if I come on one unexpetantly.

Those are some fat fish! I suspect I will have to have a fairly deep one too
 
appreciate your pics, Nice job!
We have quite a few Koi and this spring i added some Rainbow trout fingerlings for the heck of it. Well they have grown like crazy and now are a foot long :blink: good thing there are only 6 of them cause they eat 10 times as much as the Koi and also crap so much that i have to clean the filter every couple days! Maybe i will start feeding them freshwater shrimp and then eat the dang things myself:rofl:
They are very active anf fun to watch tho.
 
We are going to put one in [eventually] up here.That will be a nice little haven to go and relax.

Beautiful work.

sunny skies

M
 
they do not have the name water moccasin or copperhead attached to them, I can deal with them okay! THEY STILL STARTLE ME THOUGH! :yikes: I also have a pond attaced to my rose garden, but from time to time it turns green from algae, and I have to put some chlorine in it!
if I drained it, and got some of these fish, would they keep it clean and would they stay alive do you think? Also, do you buy them at the pet store? Just wondering. Tell her that her's are really pretty and I have some of the same statues! Thanks for sharing them! :)
 
as long as you do it with a clean pond, or at least before the pond is choked with weeds. Once the weeds are thick you can not use it if you have fish. It kills the weeds but depletes the pond of oxygen as they decompose and the fish die. I did it once and learned the hard way
 
I hear that grilled snake tastes just like chicken :rofl:
 
NO SNAKES PLEASE.. WE HAVE THEM IN THE WOODPILE AT CAMP OFTEN.. UGH!
 
After you get rid of the chlorine. Like Royal said you can buy a algeecide that gets rid of the algee without harming the fish another thing you can do is avoid placeing your pond in direct sunlight (algee grows faster in direct sunlight)you can buy the fish at pet stores but I bought most of ours at a bait shop....much cheaper and the fish don,t know how lucky they are!
 
For the rainbows but I bet they are a sight to see! I did put about a 1 pound largemouth bass into one of the ponds a while back.In about an hour hwe had eatten about half the goldfish!I removed him and Linda never even knew he was there.....I blamed the neighbors cat for the missing fish!:devil:
 
put some fish in it! The kids would enjoy it more for sure! Tell Linda I will send her any snakes I might find, tho! :)
 
To me, it does not matter what size a snake may be, it is something to be wary about...snakes bite! I have always wished that Noah had not included a pair of snakes on his bill of goods when he loaded the Ark during that great flood. Heck, snakes have always been bad news...a snake was even involved when Adam and Eve ate that apple. It was a snake that talked them into eating the apple and things have not been the same since that time. I assure you, nothing good is going to come of that snake living around your garden ponds. You might want to consider catching that snake and relocating it on a neighbor's property...you wife would be more relaxed when working around the garden ponds. I enjoyed your story, thanks for posting it. Please have a great day! Kelley (Texas) :)
 
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