If you have been following my social media, you have already seen the tidbits making up the bulk of this effort.

Backstory

When we bought our house together, it came with a pond in the backyard. It is lovely to look at and sounds peaceful when the pump runs the water through the rocky falls. The previous owner did an outstanding job caring for and maintaining the pond, even if it was only at the end to get it ready to sell.

They did so well getting this ready for listing pictures!

We quickly discovered that the pond is a beast to maintain. It is too shallow for a permanent koi pond, so it was chlorinated and kept clean. While it seemed easy enough, the thing leads…from everywhere. The pond armor paint needs to be refaced every year, or it leaks more. Where the pond armor is not submerged, it dries and cracks. If it’s not deep enough, the skimmer doesn’t work, and the skimmer doesn’t get all the tree debris, so it needs to be vacuumed and scooped frequently.

With everything on our plates over the last couple of years, pond maintenance fell to the bottom of our lists. Last year, we drained and cleaned it in early spring before the critters got to it. Not so much this year.

Frogs!

Not getting to it early this year meant the frogs used it as a breeding ground. I love frogs in all their forms, so I couldn’t just drain and clean, scooping up all the frog eggs to whither upon the ground. We decided it might be easier to let them do their froggy thing, but past years had taught us that the mosquitos also loved the pond, and the dunks did not keep them away.

The tadpoles would eat some of the mosquito larvae, but we needed something more or more aggressive to make a dent in the millions of future mosquitos squirming around in the water. It’s a little creepy to stare at the water and see it practically writhing with the little wormies.

After some option searching, we landed on guppies as our best option. Mosquito fish are invasive and not sold here. Goldfish would also eat the tadpoles.

Guppies!

Our first group of guppies did not last long. It was either too cold for them at night, or they gorged themselves into their next fish life. I like to think it was more the latter, and they had good lives as far as feeder fish usually get. The squirmers in the water certainly reduced. Just visually, it looked like about a 75% reduction. I called it a success, and we waited until further into the warmer season to get more.

Many from the second group survived, the frogs and salamanders grew up, and the mosquitos were managed. I enjoyed going out to the pond to watch my little fish swimming around. Eventually, I walked up to the pond to see a mass of little fish swimming away. My guppies had some little guppy fry.

And thus began my operation to save the guppies, because they will not survive the winter temperatures outside.

Aquarium Time

The animal lover in me decided I wanted to try to save the guppies, but my resources were very low. I had to get creative. My goal was to keep the entire endeavor under $50.

I found a second-hand tank with a filter and bought the smaller plants to grow in the tank and propagate organically. The substrate put me over my initial budget. I considered grabbing dirt/gravel from the yard, but that seemed a little too risky. I did pull some of the rocks from the pond to use in the tank, though, to bring in some of the algae and give the fish a taste of home.

As of now, the plants are growing and I’ve brought thirty of the baby fish into the tank. Since they are going to get bigger, the tank is probably at capacity now. I won’t be able to save all the guppies, as there are probably still another hundred out in the pond. I’ve offered them up as easy-to-care-for pets to friends and family, so maybe we will save a few more. The rest will return to the circle of life, likely as bird snacks.

For my new indoor friends, what do you think we should call their new home?