Now we can say it is a tradition in the Community House of Szeged that before the first autumn frost, we fish the cat-fish from the pond in the yard and keep them in the big fish tank during the winter
This year’s fishing was exciting because some of the youngest Csányi students also participated in the activity.
On 2nd of November volunteer fishers from the three groups gathered in the house. After discussing the plan we removed the disturbing plants from the pond. One group scooped the water out from the pond with buckets the other one searched for water insects and fish filtering the water. We also found the two golden carps that we moved into the pond in spring. The biggest surprise for us was the huge bullfrog, which dug itself deep into the sludge of the pond ready for the winter sleep. From its size we can say that he was well-fed at the expenses of small fish – unfortunately.
This time, we found fifteen cat-fish, which shows the signs of cannibalism amongst the fish. There were 55 carp offspring, they were put back into the pond with their parents, hoping that they will have enough place to survive the winter.
We collected samples from the water and larvae of water insects and we examined them under microscope under the supervision of Tugyi Nóra biologist volunteer. We were surprised to see that a very exciting ecological system has evolved in the pond. In the samples from the pond’s water besides chlorophyte green algae we also found euglenophytas (Euglenophyta), diatom (Bacilliariophyceae), rotifer (Rotatoria), and copepods (Copepoda). Dragonfly larvae and copepods were examined under microscope was well.
This exciting day was closed with pizza for lunch.
Mikics Péter