A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 How NOT to build a pond!

Yep Weezie....there are actually aquatic vets who will perform a hysterectomy on a fish. I kid you not.

Dr.Helen Roberts in NY is one of the more prominent ones that I know of. She has been written up in several magazines and journals for her willingness to specialize in fish surgery. It is a growing field as people have more extraneous money to spend on 'luxuries' like fish surgery. Even vet schools are starting to offer more in the way of specializing in aquatic medicine.

I know a woman who has used Dr.Roberts for several surgeries on her run of the mill, pet store fish. (She's a bit more bonkers than most though. )

Cyst removals and such are more common than neutering though. Neutering often happens when a female fish becomes egg bound and either has to have the eggs surgically removed, or the owner decides risking becoming egg bound again is not worth it. (The eggs can basically become impacted internally, almost like constipation.)

Crazy Frannie...you should see my real neighbor.
She thinks I'm NUTS!
(But she likes me!)

She was a nervous wreck when she saw me out here on a backhoe digging the front yard up. She just KNEW Andy was gonna use the hole for something besides a pond when he came home!

Uhhh.............

Cindy i ve got good news

I wanna know HOW they preform the neutering..
Do they like pull them out of the water,
lay them on a gurney and put an oxygen mask
over their gills???

OMG! How would I ever know if one of my fishies was in need of medical care...I didn't even know they were pregnant and then all of a sudden a zillion babies.
If one of them was egg bound...how would it tell me?

See why this is stressful for me?

Here's a link that describes one of the procedures that Dr.Roberts has done...she was written up last year in the NY Times for her aquatic veterinary practices:
http://nasw.org/users/skloot/Nemo.htm

They actually use anesthesia, although balancing it is a lot harder with fish than with mammals.

There are lots of after surgery therapy practices too...because usually the fish is not able to manage it's balance well, so often a sling with bobbers or floats will be used.

And Afgrey...don't panic. Sick fish that can be saved (usually with readily available meds from your fish store or Walmart) show symptoms. You may see them looking bloated, floating and having difficulty swimming, having odd growths or fuzziness, changing colors (such as looking reddish), clamping their fins or refusing food. If you had a female who became eggbound you would know...she would float to the surface, bloat up and have difficulty getting back down under the water.

Giraffe...that was an AWESOME article!
Absolutely awesome!

My fishies seem to be loving their new home.
They look so small in that big pond!

I thought they'd be mad at me for moving them...but they aren't.

Quick question...is it harmful to a goldfish to hold it...under the water?
They like to lay in my hand...and I didn't know if that was a bad idea or not.

Thank you so much for that article.

Cindy

It's not particularly harmful unless you have recently held something else that might be harmful (fertilizer, bug spray, soap, etc.)

Wash your hands well...and rinse well. Then, you can splash a little dechlor in your hand and hold them without worrying about harming them. I wouldn't rub them because you will remove the slime coat...but if they like to sit in your hand or if they bump against you, that is fine.

Actually, them being comfortable with you is a great thing. It means you will have better opportunities to look at them and make sure nothing is funky is going on with any of them.

Well...they sure like to lay in my hand for some reason...probably because they see "that hand" drop food into the pond everyday!

Well...day five since the move from the puddle to the lake, and they all seem to be doing fine. I gotta get some pictures tomorrow...those fish that looked so BIG in the puddle pond look so tiny now!


Cindy

"You may see them looking bloated, floating and having difficulty swimming," I'm so glad I read this!!! I know what's wrong with me. I'M A FISH! Cindy, can I live in your pond. Guess since you dug up the yard, you're staying. So uncover that piano (I've been so worried about it), call Gene and tell him you don't need it moved after all, and play a pretty song.

Lola was thrilled...she sang such a pretty song while I was playing, and just swayed back and forth while she was singing. I need to play it more...for her.

I ran into Gene Saturday night when I was out.
Let's just say he knows I was pretty ticked off because he never showed up.


Cindy Faye

This makes me feel so happy. It's like your back in full Cindy form. You do need to play for Lola and for you and for you forum friend - me.

If that is a pond, I hate to see you did a dam..
Man you do have spunk........
Are you putting whales in there/

Just wondering.

dodge

dodge...My 70+ goldfish looked like whales in my other pond ...now they look like minnows in the new one.

Guess that leaves me room for all the babies they will end up having! :rolleyes:


Gotta get some more pictures tomorrow...I brought another load of rocks up day before yesterday with the backhoe...and got most of them around the edge of the pond. Can't wait 'til I can say "I'm DONE!"


Cindy

I gotta get me a backhoe.

Sheri...If you get a backhoe, don't get one for the reason I did. :rolleyes:
I always thought a backhoe was kinda erotic... get the backhoe and operate it yourself. Don't take the man that comes with it.


Check this out...
Today I picked Brennan up and we stopped at the store and got this neat scuba diver for the pond. The goldfish LOVED it!
They chased it around...it was so cool!







Maybe they thought it was their daddy!

Uhhhhhhhh, maybe they thought it was,
DINNER!!!

Wow, really cool Cindy.....

It sorta looks like a small lake instead of a pond....LOL

Yeah...nothing ever turns out normal for me. :rolleyes:
Since it's a lake I think I need to name it!

"Lake SomethingOrOther"

Used to be "ON" GOLDEN PONDS..
But in your case Cindy, you could call it,
"IN" GOLDEN PONDS...

I know! Lake Eiffelinalot....

Say it right and you'll get the idea!

Hubbys fancey molly its STILL growing(and victumizeing his tank mates....when he don't make a meal out of um)I don't know if HE"S in the carp family...but he's about the size of one.when he's sideways in tank(a 55 gal)he lacks 2 inches to being as wide as the tank.
Like the scuba dude.I think ya need an underwater light!(not that Andy would...credit card& all)a piano huh.I wouldn't know where to stick one around here.

Pond looks GREAT!if ya get the urge to dig again.....load up that back-ho& ya can dig my pool!

Can name pond Jims Beam Lake...all falls are welcome& permitted.

Holy cow njoyit! Someone lied to you guys...there is no way that is a molly. Even the large mollies max out at 4 inches. I've kept them for years. I think someone snookered you.

(If you can post a pic I could double check that ID for you.)