Archive News 2006   

The spambots have finally got the mail address, so it's been changed. The site can be emailed at this address :

This fine specimen gave me a shock this morning when I moved a piece of paving slab which was holding the pond netting down.

The pnod in autumn.

Just a brief comment to note that the layout of the site has changed. I felt that the original pages needed a makeover, particularly the menu. I hope you like it.

The Pnod itself has now been netted over for the coming winter, though the current weather suggests that it may be a fairly mild one.

The young fish have now been split between two tanks. The plain ones are showing signs that they may yet change colour. Some have black edging to their fins and others have white tips to their tails. The Pnod itself is picking up leaves now, so the netting will have to go on soon.

The youngsters are mostly an inch to an inch and a half long now. Free to good homes in the Plymouth (UK) area!

Current appearance of the Pnod :

The young fish (can't really call them fry any more) are now over an inch. I'm running out of space and that leaves a dilemma if I want to get rid of any. About half of them are not shubunkin type - they're just dull bronze wild-type fish. Will they change colour? Their parentage is probably shubunkin/sarasa so there is a good chance that they will. Here's a nice picture of some of the shubunkins.

The fry continue to grow - the largest are about 20mm.

The difference between the two types is now very marked.

Well, the lily bud has finally opened so here is a photo as promised.

The two fish at bottom left of this photo show nicely the contrast between the lighter (shubunkin-type) fish and their 'normal' brethren. The dots are brine shrimp.

The fish have now been transferred to a larger tank. This was a good opportunity to find out how many there are so I counted them. There are 62!

Here's a better photo. This one really shows how quickly the fry are growing (the largest is at least 12mm).They're currently being fed twice a day with newly hatched brine shrimp.

This is the best I could do for a side-on picture. This youngster is approximately 9-10mm. Its swim bladder can be seen as a shiny spot, immediately above a stomach full of brine shrimp. The pale white dots in the background are newly-hatched brine shrimp - the large blob is another fish facing away.

The fry are now approximately 8-9mm. I can't get a good side-on picture yet. I'm going to set up a larger tank soon, as they will out grow this space fairly quickly.

The fry are growing quickly. They have little swollen pink bellies from all the brine shrimp that they're eating. Current size is about 7-8mm. There is already a colour differential, as might be expected with shubunkin genes. Some of the fry are significantly paler than others.

The water lily has produced a flower bud so I'll post a photo when it opens.

Here is a photo of two of the fry from above. They are approximately halfway up at either end of the picture. Actual length is about 5-6mm.

The Pnod is a live website as of today!

On a different subject, the goldfish fry are now free swimming so I'm preparing brine shrimp hatcheries. There are at least 30-40 fry that I can see so far - all from one small piece of weed!

The eggs are beginning to hatch. I observed one or two wriggling in their eggs this morning and by lunchtime several had emerged, either hanging on the plants to which the eggs were attached, or lying at the bottom of the aquarium. They are still living off their yolk sacs at this stage and have not filled their swim bladders, so they will remain where they are unless disturbed. Their eyes are already fully developed - they can even be seen inside the eggs before hatching.

With great timing (presumably to celebrate the completion of the website!), the fish (all six are still there) have spawned. I have salvaged about a dozen eggs (I think) and put them in shallow water in a small aquarium in the porch where, hopefully, they will hatch and grow. More to follow.

The general state of the Pnod is good. The lily has several leaves and the hornwort and elodea are growing apace. The water is still green, but I anticipate that this will change as the plants take over and out-compete the unicellular algae (Euglena) which are the cause.

The Pnod surround is still bare. The New Zealand Stonecrop, whilst still there, shows no signs of its supposed invasive nature. I can't get the Creeping Jenny to take root at all. Again, for a supposedly invasive plant it is being very uncooperative. The next strategy may be to add some potted plants around the edge.

The Pnod is ready to go live, although I won't be uploading it for another couple of weeks, as my broadband download/upload limit has been reached for this month!

I really must do something about that...