My pond finally has fish in it!
And more plants. I have been putting a few new aquatic plants in every couple of weeks, nothing overly interesting to speak of, some lived, some died, some melted but are starting to come back to life. There's no information at any local stores that sells them what the temperature range of their aquatic plants are, everyone seems to assume all aquarium plants are for tropical fish, because most people with cold water tanks only have goldfish which destroy plants. New pet shop recently opened in town, they don't have aquatic plant info either, but at least they stock a wider variety of cold-water fish species. No one has any duck weed, pond lettuce, or azolla water fern, so I had to get creative and find some other way to get some bare root plants in the pond to act as filters and suck up the nutrients that would otherwise overwhelm and kill fish.
It became a bit of a rabbit hole of learning about what grows in aquaponics and hydroponics outdoors in full sun, as most such set ups are indoors under artificial light, and not everything is full summer sun suitable, but finally last week I put some different varieties of cherry tomato seedlings into the pond after removing all the soil from the roots. The pond is raised off the ground, so I plan to let the tomato plants hang down over the edge, with the base of them gently strapped into place in the pond around the large pot that the frog hotel sits in, and branches can grow down and tied sideways along the sides of the pond (which I will soon be adding steel mesh to so I have something to tie the plants to). They're doing great already, three of the larger seedlings are already starting to flower.
With the tomatoes in place, I was finally able to put some fish in there. Three tiny little White Cloud minnows is what I started with. An hour after I put them in there, one vanished. I could only find two of them after that. No idea. No dead fish floating, no dead fish laying on the bottom, or on the ground, or out of the water on the edge of the tub, just gone. Only Two White clouds to be found.
One week later I put some bare root mint into the pond, and five more White Cloud minnows, and two Murray River Rainbow fish. The moment they were released from the bag, the Rainbow fish instantly vanished. I even checked the ground around my feet in case I accidently tipped them too close to the edge and they flipped out and landed on the ground. Nope. No Rainbow fish to be found.
Meanwhile, the five new White Clouds stayed motionless for some time. Then one finally started to move and swam off. A few minutes later three more of them seemed to cautiously start to move about and swam off as a little group. Then finally the one remaining swam off on its own.
The next day I checked on the fish. Still no Rainbow fish to be found. They're just gone. Vanished. There was a little group of 5 White Clouds swimming around as a little school. Seems they found each other after their initial shock and teamed up together. Expecting to see the original two White Clouds together as a separate little school that hadn't yet met or been invited to the new one... nope. Not two. Three. A little group of three, and a little group of five. It was then I realised what happened to the one that went missing. Like the second group that sat still and slowly gained enough courage to move and swim about (understandable now that I think about it, they were safe in a plastic bubble until I released them, then suddenly they're in the open with no idea where is safe to swim, and are there predators? Best sit still until we figure out if it's safe to move.) the first group likely did the same, with two recovering and swimming off faster than the third one, leaving that one alone, in a huge pond, no school of friends to keep it safe, it hid and stayed hidden until friends to school with finally found it.
Still no Rainbow fish, until today. It was in finally spotting one of the Rainbow fish that I realised what happened and how they vanished. It's a darkwater pond. Darkwater meaning there's driftwood in the pond that stains the water with tannins and makes the water dark, but still clear, ie: not murky. Like staining a cup of water with a teabag, it's essentially the same thing. Anyway, Murray River Rainbow fish are a darkwater fish species. Side on they look bright and shiny and colourful and are easy to see. But looking down on them from above, they're dark, and the only reason I even saw the one I did is because the bottom of my pond has a dark substrate with scattered white pebbles (which I use to tell if there's algae growing on the floor of the pond and to see if the water is getting murky), and it slowly swam over one of the white pebbles in my line of sight and made the pebble partially disappear. Duh! No wonder I couldn't find them. I was too busy thinking about what would best survive in the conditions the pond would present over the course of all four seasons. It didn't occur to me that I wouldn't be able to see the fish most suited for it. The reason I can see the White Clouds is they're not darkwater fish, and they have a bright light-reflective stripe running along their back.
Now that I have more fish in there, I need to up the oxygen levels in the pond, so I ordered a small solar power battery backed up pond pump. I'm trying to decide whether I want to set it up so that it sprays a gentle little fountain of water, or set it up so that it looks like one of the pipes of the frog hotel is pouring water into the pond. The spray function has a LED pond light option, which is making me wonder if I might be able to do both. I've got a week to think about it before it arrives.
I'm also now 90% set up for my rose garden bed. All the roses I plan to put in it have arrived. All the compostable material, the dirt, the compost, old potting mix, and everything else I've thrown in there over the past .... holy gourds, it's been 14 months since I put the bed together... anyway, it's all turned into lovely rich soil perfect for growing roses in. I just need to buy a few bags of moonure which my son gave me the money to buy, because he's starting to actually take an interest in how it's all going and loves his mum. I'll be planting a lot of alyssum seeds underneath the roses, that will act as groundcover and attract hoverflies to eat all the aphids.
I've also had two more tall but small Birdies beds arrive this week, which I already have put together and in place, I just have to start filling them up now. The plants I want to put in them are a midyim berry in one and muntrie berry in the other.
And I've made a start on replacing my falling down front fence, beginning with the gate entry way, which is currently blocked off and we're using the driveway gate for all entry and exit, as I break up the concrete path so I can put in new fence posts. So yeah, that's currently a very messy construction zone bit of the yard which I have to get sorted out and done as soon as possible lest some fool defies the barricade and warning cones and hurts themselves.
Lastly, which really should be firstly, but never mind the order of things, I got all the upright posts for my grape arbour concreted in and painted. Still need to buy the reomesh to cover it with, but I'll get to that after I've finished putting up the new fence posts, then I can get all the wire mesh ordered and delivered at the same time.
As usual, didn't think to get any photos of anything. Might remember to do that tomorrow.
... you must taste very nice. 
. I don't do "man flu". If I can keep going, I will. My tonsils have been aching for about 3 weeks now. I'll probably be just fine. It hasn't stopped me yet 
