Bats

This bat came to roost at the palm tree next to my pond. It will hang there in the day and goes out to feed at night.

Pond Location – My Second Pond

I have the opportunity to build my second pond when I purchased an old corner terrace house. As I was doing some A&A (Alterations and Additions) to my newly bought house, it gives me now the flexibility to include a pond into the overall plan.

The backyard in the new house is small, so no more backyard koi pond this time. Instead, my new corner terrace has space at the side and also a relatively large front yard.

We decided to locate the Koi pond at the side of the house, as close to the building as possible, so that we can enjoy the views of the Koi from the dining room (left of picture below). Large sliding doors at the dining room can be opened to bring us closer to our garden pond from the dining room.

View of Koi pond from the dining room.

The pond included a waterfall to provide oxygen for the Koi and to provide the soothing sound of cascading water for the humans. In the picture above, the waterfall is behind the large bird-nest fern and overgrown with money plants and pennywort. Feng Shui tip: The location and facing of the waterfall is such that the water must flow towards the house.

Building tip: If you are building your pond close to the house, I would suggest that you get an architect and/or qualified person (QP) to review the foundation of the house during the pond design and before the construction. Deep excavation close to the house may affect the building structure.

Koi spawn in new pond

Moving Koi to a newly constructed concrete pond may trigger Koi spawning. It happened to me on two occasions.

I believe it has to do with the sudden PH level change. In a matured pond, the PH level is probably near 7 (neutral) or slightly above 7 (slightly alkaline), with buffering provided by the cockle shells in my filter. In my newly constructed concrete pond, the PH is probably higher due to some leaching of cement into the water. This may trigger the Koi to spawn soon after they are transported from my old pond into my newly constructed pond.

the first time it happened, none of the eggs released hatched. They just turned white and is soon eaten by the Koi. The second time it happened (in my third Koi pond), some of the eggs actually hatched. I counted about 6 to 7 fries (2 to 3 mm long) hiding and living in my filter. I did not remove them from the filter and main pond. Amazingly, one fry manage to survive! It is about 1 year old now (smallest Koi in the photo below).