I talked about landscaping done by Mother Nature earlier and thought I would add a couple of pictures to show what she has down with my small island.

That started out as 3 one meter squares, made of 4" pvc. I wired them together in an L shape and covered them with a woven plastic cloth. I used some top soil and some shredded coconut husk and planted 12 different types of plants. None of which remain, what you see has all been planted by her. The original size has more than doubled. I had anchored the island at one point but, one of our monsoons kept pushing into that corner so I finally gave up and let it stay.

Mother is now making her own islands, you can see the second one just at the top of the picture. It starts off looking like a spider, then fills in and also traps some of the smaller plants in its arms. We had placed about 100 of the plant that dominates my island in the pond a couple of years ago and the pacu at them all, they also ate the small plants that now surround the island, Now they won't touch either? Mom's island plant is new and was brought in by her.

The last picture is the latest of the water monitor, now about 5' long.

Is this pond #1 or #2, Rad?

This is one.

So far two is a completely different pond. It is only a 100 feet away and looks like it could be a 1000 miles.

I will take a couple of pictures of it later to give you some idea of what I am talking about.

Glad you are still with us, I read that rain on the roof story, that was a nail biter.

IF we had a member named Radmandoo, we'd be getting Monitor Lizard recipes.

Rad thanks for the pics. The tallest water plant in the second pic looks like arrowhead (one type of Sagittaria) but probably not due to your location. There are a number of Sagittaria.

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/emergent_plants/arrowhead.htm

We have some arrowhead and it can spread easily but is not a problem to control. Have you named the lizard ?

Theo,
Thais consider monitors a special treat and eat them when ever they can catch them.

ewest, thanks for the plant info and no, no name yet, I think it is a female sitting on a nest, but until I see the hatch I am holding back on a name, maybe Fred if its a boy and Wilma is a girl?

Rad:

Beautiful picutres, it's nice to see something green and growing!

I believe the taller plant in the middle of the 2nd pic with the blue flowers is water hyacinth. Some waste water treatment facilities would use that to take out nutrients from the water, and I had some in a small pond that my Mandarin and Wood Ducks used for watering. They would eat the whole plant if they could get to it.

esshup,
It looks like any of the three major plants in the picture can and will take over soon if left unchecked. I want to leave them through our dry/hot season, from now to about mid May, to use up some of the nutrients in the pond. My water level will drop at least 3 feet by then.

Great tropical photo's Rad, does the Monitor eat many of your fish?

I don't think it eats many, there is a shortage of meal size tilapia, the barramindi keep them thinned out. It goes hunting every 10 days to two weeks, but that is out in the palm orchards next door. Rats, mice, frogs, toads and snakes probably make up most of its diet. There are 35 to 40 acres of ill kept orchards to forage in with little chance of encountering either dogs or man.