Quelle surprise!
Who’d have thought it? Blow me down! Well, I never! You could have knocked me down with a feather (yeah, right) . . . and other expressions of delight, amazement and astonishment.
What caused this delirium? After a period of at least two years of absence, two fish surfaced in our pond. We don’t know where they’ve been hiding.
Newly hatched fish fry are tiny and prey to many other aquatic species, like dragonfly and damselfly larvae and diving beetles. Parent fish cannibalise their young, but all our large adult fish had inexplicably disappeared and we hadn’t noticed any overweight herons bumbling around. The fish we saw have clearly survived the perils of fish babyhood.
So, it remains a mystery, but we were so pleased to see two little fish swimming about. There may be more, but those are the only ones we’ve seen. They are around 3” long, so may be mature enough to spawn. We shall see.
Two fish? I see six fish in that first photo! I've never heard of Silver Rudd, but I'll keep them in mind should I ever have a fish pond.
ReplyDeleteAfter 2 years that must have been quite a surprise!!!
ReplyDeleteHello my friend
ReplyDeleteWhat a delightful surprise indeed! Nature always finds a way. So lovely that the fish reappeared after all this time little miracles like that bring such joy.
Hopefully more will show up soon! Thanks for sharing this peaceful pond moment, and fingers crossed for some fishy babies in the near future!