Photo: Red Mangrove tree in the plant filter. One aspect of our hatchery systems we use to raise fish that always seems to fascinate hobbyists when I speak at fish clubs is our plant filtration system. Goliad Farms exclusively uses plant filtration designed by us through trial and error. We have ... Read More
farm
Winter in South Texas
Photo: Geranium (actually genus Pelargonium) after winter in South Texas. Winter in our area continues to become milder. When I was a child, several decades ago, we had winters with real freezes, several of them a year. (By the way, when did we quit capitalizing seasons and directions?) A typical ... Read More
Life and Death on the Farm via a Squirrel
Photo: Me up a tree next to a squirrel nest. No, I’m not the squirrel! One recent afternoon Susie, my wife, and I were sitting in the living room reading and doing Sudoku puzzles (we’re real party animals!) when the dogs jumped up and rushed outside. Simultaneously, a hawk began screeching in ... Read More
Feeding Fish Tips
Photo shows juvenile mollies in a vat ready to eat. Fish tip, How to Feed Your Fish: This tip was first published in our Newsletter No. 1, August 2013. I’m reposting it as a blog so that it can be searched for on our website and in my blogs. Here it is: Get plastic fish; they require no ... Read More
Fire Ants
Guess, in the photo above, what the dark brown mat is on the water in the ditch after a two inch rain. In case you don't know, it's a floating mat of fire ants. The most common ant on the farm is the Imported Fire Ant (Solenopsis invicta). This species is not native to North America but is ... Read More
Copperhead Bites Sadie
Photo: Sadie on sofa about a half hour after being bitten by a copperhead. I hadn’t planned on blogging about copperheads any more for at least a year, but Sadie our son’s family’s rescue pit bull was bitten, so here goes copperheads again. In previous blogs I’d explained that copperheads ... Read More
Our Peacock Cichlids
Photo: Male Skyblue OB Peacock with male Blue OB Dolphin in background. Below is a reprint of the feature article from our May newsletter. If you'd like to subscribe to the monthly newsletter go to: http://goliadfarms.com/blog/ and enter your email address under the Subscribe section to the ... Read More
Copperhead Eating a Cicada
The photo shows a copperhead with a cicada nymph in its mouth. This time of the year at the farm cicada nymphs are emerging at dusk from ground to ascend into a shrub, tree, or other object where they eclose into winged adults. This typically happens from June 1st to about July 15th. They and ... Read More
Copperhead Hunting a Cicada
The photo shows a copperhead stretching for cicada that is just out of its reach. During July and August each year copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix) flock to our yard to harvest emerging cicadas and June bugs. Both of these insects live underground for a year to several years as grubs. When ... Read More
Maya’s Copperhead Bite Update
The photo shows Maya's copperhead bite a couple days after it occurred. Maya, one of our German Shepherds was recently bitten by a copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix (see my blog: http://goliadfarms.com/mayas-copperhead-bite/), which are very active at this time of the year. Fortunately, ... Read More