There’s a bond in pond again

I WAS tidying up the small pond on the patio — taking out the algae that had grown in the warm weather and weeding the margins — and I noticed the number of goldfish had dwindled down to one, a plump yellow fish that had become rather reclusive, spending most of its time in deep meditation under a fringe of aubretia that had grown down into the water.

I had been rather neglecting the pond. Some of the fish may have died of natural causes, some not. There’s a feral tom cat in the area who’s an expert fisherman. Anyway, I felt a bit guilty and I thought some company might jolt the surviving fish out of his melancholy so I headed for the garden centre and returned with a plastic bag of water with five small orange fish in it. An investment of €7.50 in the social life of a fish.

The pond is actually two connected by a narrow channel — I extended it a couple of years ago. The yellow survivor lived in the left hand pond, which is slightly larger and deeper, so I decided to release the orange fish in the right hand pond, just in case it wasn’t love at first sight. I opened the plastic bag and stood it in the water for 15 minutes to ensure the new fish wouldn’t suffer from thermal shock. Then I gently tipped the bag on its side so they could swim out if they wished.