Thanks Margaret,
Having as much time on my hands as I have currently, :( I've resorted to the old method; namely pulling it out by hand (or stick as the case was!). I've had to remove the Parrots Feather completely now as this had become a tangled floatilla for the BW. I've put it in a separate tub and managed to untangle the BW which seemed to be smothering it. I'll be putting this back into the pond in the next few days when I have replanted after the arrival of my hessian sacking. (ordered this from a company on-line - DTBrown several weeks ago and it still hasn't arrived) :( You'll be pleased to know that the half bucket full or so of BW that I pulled out of the pond has been put to good use in bunging up the gaps in the waterfall where the water was escaping underneath where I wanted it to go!! So for the time being I have had the last laugh with it ;D
I've put a couple of the bolder fish from the top into the bottom and instead of making the Orfes bolder themselves the fish I put in have now become shy and timid, and like the orfe, more worryingly they have stopped feeding! I'm really at a loss as to what the problem is with the bottom pond - Fish that seem perfectly healthy, lively and friendly in the top, turn into shy, timid ones in the bottom - The majority of the fatalities (90%) I have had over the past 12 months have come from the bottom and despite the temp having been 10 degrees for the past 2/3 weeks I have not seen any of them feeding ??? - This is totally the opposite as in the top where they have been eating everything put before them for several weeks. The water is the same in every way, (it should be it's the same water) temp, ph, nitrate levels etc. can't think of anything else it can be and not sure what to do next!!
Any ideas welcome!
thanks
Tony