| As a stockbroker, Gerald Borchert is able to take his work wherever he can find a computer, and since stock exchanges where he lives on the West Coast keep hours corresponding to their East Coast counterparts, he starts very early but finishes early and has his afternoons free to pursue his hobbies. He has a residence in Vancouver, but also spends time at his ski condo at Whistler and his golf condo at Palm Desert. Golfing, fishing and skiing take up much of his leisure, but when in Vancouver he can be found most afternoons in his garden, tending his plants and two ornamental fish ponds.
Growing up in Eugene Oregon, Gerald took control of the small brick goldfish pond in his parents’ garden – or rather the bass did! He caught some bass, put them in the pond, and soon the goldfish were eaten and the goldfish pond became a bass pond! Upon moving to his house near the lower reaches of the Capilano River in North Vancouver seventeen years ago, one of the first things Gerald did was build a pond at the bottom of his garden, in which to keep koi. Five years ago he decided he would also like to keep trout, so he enlarged the original pond and built another one adjoining the deck of his house. The lower pond is dug 3½ feet into the ground. It is partly surrounded by irises which resemble rushes, and is shaded by a Gunnera plant, a damp soil loving plant from Costa Rica ( its huge leaves give it the nickname the “poor man’s umbrella”). A 1/3 horsepower pump distributes water to a waterfall, and also up to a Cyprio “Green Machine” biological filter which discharges into the upper pond. The water overflows from the upper pond into a stream back to the lower one. The upper pond was constructed above ground level, from pressure treated 4x6s, and is
lined with a pond liner. It contains six well established water lilies planted in
containers, and nine large koi, each about thirty inches long. It is next to the
deck, which has a hot tub and barbeque, and several ornamental palm trees, creating a
tropical atmosphere. The water issuing from the filter and rushing down the
artificial stream create a pleasant sound which can be heard whilst sitting on the deck
and even in the adjoining master bedroom. From the deck one can view the two ponds,
and also a variety of carefully tended specimen shrubs which Gerald has collected over the
years. The shrubs, including Japanese maples, give a Japanese feel to this part of
the garden, which is enhanced by a couple of pagoda ornaments. The garden is
not just tropical and Japanese however – near the lower pond is an English rose
garden!
The lower pond contains a further collection of about thirty medium and large koi, a few goldfish, and also a powerful and active rainbow trout of about 8 lbs. This trout is the sole survivor from Gerald’s trout keeping experiment. Five years ago he bought fifty 8” rainbow trout from a commercial trout farm at a cost of only two dollars each (their kin were destined for the live trout restaurant trade). They did well, growing to 5 lbs within three years. As of this Spring, ten had reached 8 lbs in weight and were doing fine. Then Gerald went away for six weeks to Palm Desert, and left the fish in care of a neighbour. One trout died and the neighbour failed to remove it. Nitrates built up, and all except one trout died. Fortunately the koi were not affected. Gerald has solved various problems as they occurred. An early problem in the upper unshaded pond was unsightly green algae. He was sold a chemical to kill the algae and was told to turn his filter off for a day while using it. The chemical killed the algae, but it remained in the ponds and all his koi died overnight. The water now passes under four 9 watt ultra-violet bulbs before entering the filter, and this controls the algae. Until the recent kill-off, racoons were a constant problem. Herons still are, so Gerald has surrounded his ponds with a fence made from two strands of fishing line. The herons cannot step over this, and will not land directly in the water – problem solved ! Gerald’s upper pond is built mostly above ground level due to the difficulty of
excavating his rocky garden. The lower pond is below ground level and so the
temperature remains more stable. It is cooler in summer and less likely to freeze in
winter. Gerald keeps his stream and waterfall running all winter, but when the
weather is really cold, he turns off his pumps and puts logs in the ponds. When the
upper pond does freeze, its wooden construction is flexible enough to withstand the
expansion of the ice.
Cleaning the ponds is easy when you have two interconnected ones, and Gerald cleans them three times a year, taking a full day each time. He simply removes the water from the top pond and transfers its fish to the lower pond. The lilies are split (in Spring) and the liner scrubbed. The water in the lower pond is then pumped up to the upper pond and the fish transferred, after which the lower pond is emptied and dealt with. New water is slowly added, with chlorine treatment, and the fish re-distributed. Gerald likes large colourful fish of good quality, but keeps them mostly for decoration and as pets, without getting too fanatical about their exact markings or Japanese names. He did try breeding koi a few years ago however, but says “never again !” …… He collected thousands of eggs from water hyacinths, and put them into a 400 gallon trough in his garden workshop. They hatched into thousands of fry. He had to go away for two weeks, and came back to find only 250 young fish, of which all but two were goldfish! He had not realised that he had collected goldfish eggs from the few goldfish in his pond, and believes that the goldfish fry grew more quickly than the koi ones, and ate the baby koi. So all his efforts resulted in two young koi with uninteresting colouration. Gerald has reverted to buying adult koi only, usually 12” and up. Gerald’s ponds are a constant source of interest to him, and occasionally to others, such as the large owl that recently spent some time sitting by the pond offering perfect photo opportunities, or the pair of wild mallards that came to eat the fish food every evening for two months this Spring.
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