Tag Archives: koi

Dec 30 2012

Print out day!!!

So yeah, I’ve edited as much as I can. I think its time to print it, a viable first draft.

I’ve a few crits in on the first few chapters, so they’ll be altering in the next few weeks and I’ll decide what and where it needs to go (bar the bin) lol….

So, wish me luck, 🙂

It makes it feel so much more real when you actually have it in print.

Here goes… I’ll post a picture later.

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In other news, been out to the ponds today, clean and refresh the water. 2 toads and one frog in the big pond.

My Shiro Utsuri male is looking better, not as pink, so I am thinking that it was a drastic drop in water quality (rain) that made him pink up.

Babies are fine, some of them look stunning. I can’t wait till spring as we’re going to catch them, take pictures and see which to keep and not. I know I’ve promised 10 to a local charity, but they’re twice the size now, so I might only part with a few. That will be up to him.

We’ve got lots to do when the weather warms up. Get the backi shower running on the main pond and then also sort out all the stupid pipes and wires. Too many jobs, but no fish till we straighten this all out. And I make sure there are no parasites about.

Spring is always the worst time of year for them, they don’t like the cold weather, neither do my I 😦 its miserable.

Catch you later…

Dawn x x

Dec 11 2012

65k :) wooo hooo

Yeah, every little milestone counts…

Word count from 63,118 – 65, 008

Today’s count 1890

It has been a breeze today, some more heartache in the mix and some real raw emotions.

My two guys really struggled with their feelings, fought tooth and nail not to be together and then bam…  amazing when it happens like that…

Writing is such, such fun. I am having a blast and I do really love it. 🙂  So, for my guys I am proud to say that for now it is working out okay.

That is all I am going to spill though.

Onwards the ending is in site, edging closer and closer.  I will say it is going to be a tearjerker though,  and that does make me sad. The happiness now isn’t going to last forever.

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On other notes, been really cold here today, poor fish, my main pond is down to 6d now. And I’ve even started to lower the baby tank so they can have a winter as well. 😦

I am so looking forward till the 21st of Dec, a break, hibernate city for me for a week I think. Some reading, more writing and time with family. I can’t wait.

For all my new visitors and likes, if you comment I’ll come and comment back, interaction is good. Don’t be shy. lol..

Dawn x

Dec 8 2012

Downer :(

I tend not to post about things that bother me at the time, because the emotions are pretty raw.

This week has been a tough one, at work and at home.

Pauls job has gotten so much worse on him and to be fair he’s done his absolute best, but they’re almost forcing him out the door.

I had to take him to the doctors on thursday because his stress levels are through the roof. He’s not sleeping, or functioning anywhere like himself. It sucks. So he’s been signed off till Xmas, this means less money for us and less stuff we can do while we’re off.  Nothing like having a bored husband for 10 days…

Unfortunately for me this affects my mood for writing. 😦 so it hasn’t been the best week, even though I have really tried. This computer sucks too, it crashes every day. While I back up on a regular basis, it still crashes and I’ve lost so much work because of it. Bless my hubby’s mate for trying to get mine fixed and lending this one too me, but if it isn’t back soon, (before Xmas) I think I am just going to get a new one in the Jan sales, even if it is buy now pay later… I can’t carry on with this, its just crap.

Today I’ve spent the day cleaning, because I didn’t do any in November lol… its been kinda nice to get the bedroom sort of clean. Still need to put away some junk though, my stash of books, writing stuff and bits and bobs is just all over the place. I don’t know where it all comes from sometimes. Wow….

Been out in -3 this morning to clean and re-fill the pond. The blanketweed is dying off, so its clogging the filters. And it is so so cold, poor fish. The only ones who aren’t feeling the cold are the babies. (they’re still at 12d)

My plan for this afternoon is to carry on cleaning for a bit, then stop and do some writing, hopefully. 🙂

Catch you later.

 

D x

Oct 23 2012

Tues

Had a lovely day relaxing yesterday.  Got chance to catch up on some reading. It was great.

After the losing our Koi on Sunday I was messaged on Facebook by an old family friend. She was having lots of problems with their fish. I went to school with their son Bradley who owns the fish and I offered my limited knowledge and use of a scope to see what was going on.

The pond, lovely a good size and so are the fish. But, they were pretty poorly.

I’ve kept Koi for 4 years now. and as soon as there has been the slightest odd behaviour from my babies, I’ve had the help of someone with a microscope. My local two dealers over the years, have called me paranoid and hard work lol… but I’ve known the bugs were there long before the outward signs were.

Our old school friends mum and my mum used to know each other very well, so my mum tagged along for a catch up, while I took a look at their fish.

It wasn’t hard to see that they had problems from looking at them, very heavily mucused up. So much so that they were practically blind. Bit like the Ogon I rescued earlier this year when we had flukes.

I caught their nice Showa, and took a sample from him. It practically dripped onto the slide. Yikes.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to find, the owner said it looked to her like their skin as coming off, this was just excess mucus, but on first look under the scope at 40x the problems were obvious.

Parasites, in the thousands.

To any other non Koi keeper Chilondonella and White Spot won’t mean too much, but for those of us who do know, we know how badly these fish have got it.

She had been trying to treat them, with some medication I’d never come across before. It did say on the packaging that it dealt with both those parasites, but with the mucus layer being so thick I don’t think it stood much of a chance.

I offered her my suggestions and am willing to go back to re-scrape in a week. Fingers crossed for them. They’re in a bad way.

Here is the Youtube link to the bugs… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVdICSrwNMw&list=UUcctES6g0AypmmSfuS2sRGQ&index=1&feature=plcp

I have no idea why, but this laptop wouldn’t show me what I was videoing as I was doing it, so it isn’t very good.

I also need some new lenses… but it gives you an idea of the numbers of bugs involved.

Today, we decided to take a little ride to Quality Nishikigoi I had the pleasure of speaking to Tim earlier in the week over my shusui and wanted to see where his place was.

Very impressed with the gentleman there, Paul. And their whole set up. Some very clean and nice koi. I will more than likely be going back 🙂

Now I am going to enjoy the rest of my day, cleaning my filters and looking after my own Koi. 🙂

Catch you soon.

Oct 21 2012

A sad day : (

So today we lost our Shusui.

A Koi that we have had for 4 years.

Of course, she didn’t look as clean as that anymore. The blue had spread, but she was one of our first, and you don’t forget that.

I wondered if you could protect the content of your blog, as I was going to upload some of the autopsy pictures. However, realized they might be a little gruesome for some. So decided against it.

The autopsy revealed she had a large cyst. And millions of eggs. Although the eggs were not bad there was nothing we could have done to save her. A real shame, but at least she isn’t suffering anymore.

However, if anyone is interested don’t hesitate to ask,

Sorry that this week has been a tough one. Hopefully, it will get better from here.

Dawn