Saving Nemo?

 


When we bought our house in the Poconos, it came with a pond and fish.  It is beautiful.  It is calming.  But...

Like everything else, its work and it has its issues.  I've written about some of those issues. (https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/cold-hearted-b.html for example.)  But I haven't written about all of them or the costs.  (Yes, there are costs...more than I thought...isn't that always the case?)  Earlier this year when we (and by we, I mean the pond guys) "opened" the pond for the season, the waterfall (which recycles the water) pump was replaced (because the waterfall kept "turning off" and I'd have to adjust the float to get it running again and eventually even that didn't work), the falls themselves were adjusted somewhat (so that there would be less water evaporation) and new fish and 2 turtles were put in.

Over the past several months, the small goldfish have grown.  The turtles have disappeared.  (I never saw them.  We have to assume that they wandered off, which is entirely possible.)  The frogs disappeared.  The water plants grew and blossomed.  We've found new "critters" in the pond:  snails and what I have to assume are tadpoles.  (I know, I thought by the summer they'd have grown into frogs, but these little black fish-like things occasionally appear.  They were nearly impossible to see a month or so ago, but now they are larger and less cautious.  Maybe they are not tadpoles, but if they're not, I have no clue what they are!)

In order for the pond to "work", there is a pond box.  Since I didn't know exactly how to explain what this box is, I turned to Google AI:  What is a pond skimmer box?

  • Removes debris: It's a chamber installed at the edge of the pond that houses a pump and acts as a pre-filter.
  • Skims the surface: Water enters the skimmer through a floating weir, which helps collect floating debris like leaves, twigs, and uneaten food before they sink to the bottom and decay.
  • Houses the pump: The skimmer box protects the pump from getting clogged by debris.
  • Mechanical filtration: It contains a basket or net that captures larger debris and often has a filter mat to trap finer particles.
  • Improves water quality: By removing debris and improving water circulation, it contributes to a cleaner, clearer, and healthier pond environment, benefiting fish and plants. 

The skimmer needs to be cleaned and the debris removed every once in a while.  Last year, when we had bigger fish, I was cleaning the skimmer just about every other day.  With less and smaller fish, I've been doing it less often.  I probably should do it more, but... (I have a million excuses for this, none of them really valid.)

One of the last times I pulled the skimmer "brushes" out and rinsed/cleaned them, they started to fall apart.  Luckily, I have a handy husband, who managed to wire them back together.  But getting them back in was an issue.  Everything is crammed in the box and it doesn't fit quite right.  I figured at the end of the season or at the beginning of the next in 2026, we might need to replace it.  I've been trying to be better at cleaning everything, but...

Last night I drove back to PA from NJ.  It was raining and traffic was bad, frustrating me.  (It doesn't take much...top that off with the fact that my neighbor had a package delivered to my house instead of his and I had to carry it over to his doorstep in the rain...yeah, I was not in a good mood.)  When I got home all I wanted was to have a drink (I had just gotten Jose Cuervo's Raspberry Colada Margarita and wanted to give it a go) and something to eat.  But first...

I went outside and I could hear that the "noise" from the box.  So I opened everything up and started pulling out "gunk" from the mesh that separates the pond from the box. There was a lot of gross gunk.  (I swear it hadn't been there earlier in the week.)  Not fun. I have my husband help me pull out the skimmer brush and clean it off.  It starts to rain.  I'm cleaning the skimmer; my husband is cleaning the net that collects "gunk".  We get it as clean as we can, as the sky darkens and the rain continues.  My husband puts the net back.  I give him the skimmer to squeeze in.  And then I notice something...

Although it is getting hard to see, there is something orange in the box.  Yes, somehow one of the fish has gotten through the mesh and is now in the box.  Not good.

I'm thinking I need to find something to scoop the fish up and get it back into the pond.  My husband has other ideas.  I get out of the way, he bends over and somehow manages to grab the fish and fling it back into the pond!

We both nervously look at it as is "sits there."  It may be stunned, but it's alive.  We see it move.  My husband has saved Nemo!  (Okay, we haven't named him Nemo.  All the fish pretty much look alike and I've given up trying to name them because we'd never really know which was which.)  We're hoping that "Nemo" stays alive and that the rest of his "family" continue to be okay.  (Because we've had enough fish tragedy.)

So all's well that ends well, right?  Well the noise is still coming from the box and as a result we had to turn off the waterfall.  I'm waiting for the pond guy and hoping that all IS well.

Until then?  Just keep swimming, right?


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