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We're at one of our ponds and this is one
of our best ponds. It has quite a few
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plants growing and emerging out of it. But
it's large enough that many of the animals
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use it as a water source. So, our deer
drink here, we occasionally find snakes
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along the banks, our red-winged black
birds nest here, our crows- you can hear-
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come here as well. But we have a problem,
we have mosquito larva. It's cold, it's
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October, we're getting down to freezing at
night but the larva are still surviving in
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the water. Occasionally the adults are
emerging on warm days and we're not
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trying to raise mosquito's. So, we're adding
a fish to the pond, a type of fish. It's
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not a native species, which I wouldn't
normally do. But in this case it's a native
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species that has not been invasive into
our region. It's a type of fish that we've
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enjoyed having in the past. Let's see if I
can scan here. They're getting ready to go
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in; it's koi. I know we have quite a bit
of reflection on the water. I'm going to
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go close, but they're a little skittish
so they may swim away. It's hard to see
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them, but we have four in here. We have
the one that kind of stands out in the
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middle there, the white with splotches of
red or reddish orange, that's a kohaku.
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That's a very characteristic type of koi.
There are two to the left that are gold
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with black spots, those two are bekkos.
They may grow up and lose the black but I
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think that they're probably going to keep
it. On the right holding very very still,
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I know it's hard to see with the water
reflection, but that's acari muji. Which
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is basically a all one color, in this case
gold. So, I got these, I'll see if I can
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get a side view of the tank without
scaring them. They're acclimating to the
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water temperature right now and it takes
them some time. I got them at a local pet
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store, kind of a chain pet store. You can't
really see them there. They were in
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mistakenly with the goldfish, so I scored
a great deal. But they did have a parasite-
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ick. So, I've had them in captivity for a
few weeks, kind of making sure they got
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larger. I treated them with a little bit
of salty water, some formalin and
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malachite which you have to be very careful
handling and dosing. But it worked, it got
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rid of the ick, at least visibly. They're
breathing well, they're eating a lot. I've
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already been training them eating mosquito
larva. We're going to put them in as soon
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as they acclimate. Adding water in from
the pond, the tank sitting in the water.
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Soon they'll be ready to go.