Caryl

You can also look at "Turtle Rescue and Rehoming", Donna's site on Facebook. It has a lot of information for you, including a turtle care sheet.

Terracotta ones are great and you can often get them free if you ask the garden centre if they have any broken ones

Perhaps from one of the existing goldfish farms like Braeside Aquaria. They supply many of the pet shops around NZ so are used to shipping fish.

Learned from me I missed the typo! :facepalm:

Ben making fudge this weekend for my parents' church fund raiser. Have had to taste test them all too :bggrn: There's 5 different flavoured fudges there. :thup:

Yes. My daughter has been to that festival (she was nannying for a singer and record producer so got to stay in the VIP tent) and she said the mud there is unbelievable but nobody seems to mind. Neil Diamond - Jonathon Livingston Seagull :dnc1:

Liquid dubstep? I imagine people in gumboots trying to wade through liquifaction in their back yards :bggrn:

Yeah, the birds are cute too :gigl: :thup: Our red bellied conure liked to eat whatever Grant was eating so he had Weetbix and fruit for breakfast, fruit for morning and afternoon tea, sandwiches and biscuit for lunch and meat and veg for tea. He also got extra fruit and veg. Like our budgie, he was particularly fond of chicken!

Nice thought! 8) Pond has been refilled. Still waiting for more oxygen weed to be added and fish put back in. Wanted to get the temperature up a bit first. Grant hopes to finish a new filter today. The one we have clogs constantly so he is building a mesh cage around the inlet so it stops sucking up leaves and muck (we hope). Still no sign of the turtle :thup:

We visited the Parrot Park at Kerikeri :love:

We have been trying to get a hand reared quaker parrot for a couple of years now but no luck so far. Hopefully this season will be a good one (unlike the past two) :thup:

I think most start breeding about now. If she wants a pet it's best to get a hand reared one. Does she know how noisy they are?

I thought a lot of aquatic plants also grow emersed but it can be a slow job adapting them to submerged. Baby tears and lysimachia were two that came to mind. Mondo grass, as said, will not last submerged. Neither do peace lilies or spider plants.

I suspected damselfly nymphs as we have a lot of them about. I will put them back in the pond in that case :bggrn:

No sign of any more ants since using the bait :happy1:

What are these and are they good or bad for the pond? Alice came over and helped me lift out the plants and catch more fish. Those bronze ones really know how to blend in! Still no sign of the turtle but she may have moved out overnight - if she had sense. Filled a wheelbarrow high with oxygen weed. PS. Alice is looking forward to her share of the baking.

We have a bucket through which many holes were drilled. It was then lined with wind break material. This is working well to stop the larger stuff. Fingers crossed the pump will handle the fine stuff. It is easy to pull apart and clean, or replace bits, for that matter.

Well the pond has been half emptied. The major problem is the fine mulm that rises up at the slightest movement. I am worried about it suffocating the fish (no sign yet of the turtle) We filled a stock trough with pond water and the fish we have caught so far have gone into there. The bronze ones are harder as they disappear in the gloom as we disturb the bottom. I have been hauling out handfuls of tree branches, leaves etc and am pulling out all the oxygen weed, as it is easy enough to get more. The current weed had taken over the pond and had quite a bit of algae on it. Any suggestions on the best way of removing the fine mulm? The bottom is uneven so I doubt we can get enough water out of it to scrape it out. It is so fine it goes through nettting. We will try and see if it will go through the non submersible pump (that usually runs the filter and waterfall) without blocking it. If anyone is passing tomorrow and wants to give a hand, you would be most welcome! :love:

I am hoping to clean my fishpond out this Sunday. If anyone is near and would be willing to help it would be appreciated. We need to totally drain it (we have a pump for that) remove the plants, find and catch the fish (and turtle), scoop out the sludge, then put the fish and plants back in new water. I can provide food and drink and grateful thanks :love:

How are you going to keep your landscape looking good when it is full of African cichlids anyway?

Cement usually raises the pH. You can get sealants that are used for concrete water tanks.

If these ones are scouts, they must be having a jamboree! They are everywhere! Will check my bait stations in the morning.

The yellow tube was the other option the supermarket had but trying Raid for now. Came home from work at lunchtime to discover they have found the pantry. Raid is now smeared everywhere in the hopes they will take it back to the mothership. Luckily the lid was securely on the honey container! I am wondering if the neighbour disturbed them when she did the garden along the south side of the house the other day (it is outside the dining, kitchen windows). They are not used to someone gardening! Still can't see any obvious trail of where they might be coming in and they still seem to just run about randomly, not in a nice line to and from home.

I went to the supermarket and got some Raid Liquid Ant killer, as it was half the price of the other gel stuff and they didn't have anything else. Got home to find - no ants. :dunno: Poured a little into a milk bottle lid and left it on the bench. :yaw1: Waited a while and finally found an ant scuttling along the bench, nowhere near the bait. :dnc1: "Here little ant, have a sniff of this stuff". 8) Nope, not interested. :cry1: Moved cap in front of ant. It went around it. :roll: Tipped cap so ant could see and smell contents. Not interested. :facepalm: Picked up ant and dropped it in. Not sure if was interested or not but apparently they can't swim! :dead%fish I now have 5 ants, discovered over the course of the afternoon, floating in the bait but none got in there by themselves. Seems my ants are either stupid or they do not know they are supposed to be attracted to it! :dno: Perhaps they all have hay fever and their little ant noses are blocked &c:ry Or, to paraphrase a friend of Stella's, perhaps it is ant ramadan :gigl:

Thanks all for your suggestions. I cannot see where they are coming in as when I find them they are usually running around in circles :-?