There’s been a death in the pond.
I have enjoyed stopping by the pond lately to admire the fish. The water is clearer than it has ever been. The fish are mostly hiding in the submerged plant life. I think it’s their instinct to hide when it’s cold. I have stopped feeding them. The literature says that if they eat, then get cold, they’ll stop digesting and the food can actually rot in their stomach and kill them.
Yesterday when I passed by the pond, I noticed one of the large fish had died. Its body was stuck to the water intake on the pump. I already know that next spring I’m going to have to cull fish from the pond, so one of them dying naturally is something of a blessing. And it is my intention to cull fish with short tails so I can keep breeding for long, flowing tails. The fish that died had a short tail. Yay!
Rot in their stomach and kill them? Really? That is sad and disturbing.
That blob to the left of the deceased looks like some sort of open-mouthed fish swimming up to the surface. Maybe it’s a hungry ghost.
You big bully! Why don’t you pick on someone your own size? I didn’t know anything about ‘culling’ & now I’m sad. All along, I’ve been so excited about your fish & their families. Poor short tailed fish…
After you eat all that left over Halloween candy, why don’t you go sleigh riding in your underwear…then we won’t have to cull you out of society.
ZZZZZZIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGG!!
What? Brad sledding in his underwear while Halloween candy rots in his stomach isn’t funny? I meant it in the nicest possible way.
a little bitter today, Pegster?
Culling for tail length, eh? What sort of post-Nazi-era selective breeding piscicide are you trying there, buddy?
If you were Buddhist, I’d ask you how you’d feel about coming back as a short-tailed fish in your own pond…but due to our religious preference, that point seems moot.