Pond Fish

[Joemuz]

We built a pond in our garden last week and was wondering how long will it be before we can start buying fish, how many, what type and weather we need a filter? It's about 2x2 meters and about 2.5ft deep in the depest part. We are getting some oxygenating plants soon and we already have 3 plants but not oxygenators as the garden center had ran out x( Cheers, Joemuz

 

[GoldLenny]

Based on your measurements, your pond is around 800 gallons. If you don't put a full fledged filter system on the tank, you should at least put in a fountain or waterfall and then you could make a DIY pre-filter for the pump which would also provide mechanical and biological filtration for the pond... as well as airation from the fountain or waterfall. If you go to my blog (link in my sig) and then look on the right side, you will see my links to DIY Pond Filter. This is a very easy filter system to make for a small pond and costs very little... usually around $10.00 US. Of course, the fountain or waterfall kit would cost much more but you might be able to find a used one at a garage sale or classified section.

Adding some filtration/airation will greatly increase the number of goldfish you can have. Without any filtration, you would be limited to just a couple of fish. With limited filtration, you could probably go with one per hundred gallons. Do not get any Koi though.. they get much too large for your pond. Some comets and shubunkins would be best as commons also get larger.

 

[Joemuz]

Based on your measurements, your pond is around 800 gallons. If you don't put a full fledged filter system on the tank, you should at least put in a fountain or waterfall and then you could make a DIY pre-filter for the pump which would also provide mechanical and biological filtration for the pond... as well as airation from the fountain or waterfall. If you go to my blog (link in my sig) and then look on the right side, you will see my links to DIY Pond Filter. This is a very easy filter system to make for a small pond and costs very little... usually around $10.00 US. Of course, the fountain or waterfall kit would cost much more but you might be able to find a used one at a garage sale or classified section.

Adding some filtration/airation will greatly increase the number of goldfish you can have. Without any filtration, you would be limited to just a couple of fish. With limited filtration, you could probably go with one per hundred gallons. Do not get any Koi though.. they get much too large for your pond. Some comets and shubunkins would be best as commons also get larger.

Haha, a baby koi would be too much let a lone any other size koi or other carp. What about the oxyganating plants? Would i still need a filter system?
cheers, Joemuz

 

[chilledtim]

Haha, a baby koi would be too much let a lone any other size koi or other carp. What about the oxyganating plants? Would i still need a filter system?
cheers, Joemuz

Id def recommend a filter system or at least a fountain, some of them are so cheap to buy or make.

Oxiginating plants are good, the fish will love them and they will help the water chemistry abit but the name is misleading, they do very very little to oxygenate the water.

 

[Joemuz]

Haha, a baby koi would be too much let a lone any other size koi or other carp. What about the oxyganating plants? Would i still need a filter system?
cheers, Joemuz

Id def recommend a filter system or at least a fountain, some of them are so cheap to buy or make.

Oxiginating plants are good, the fish will love them and they will help the water chemistry abit but the name is misleading, they do very very little to oxygenate the water.

Do fountains just go on to a hose or do they plug in as i would of thought rain would be dangerous near an extension for a plug?
Cheers, Joemuz

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The pond is quite shallow even for goldfish, i would definately advise heating it during the winter particularly as time goes by if you want to have goldfish or carp or other types of fish like orfe and tench as otherwise the larger fish would risk freezing to death during the winter or by facing other issues due to the lack of depth during the winter etc. I would also definately recommend filtration too in such a small pond. If you are not going to filter or heat it i would only really recommend small true coldwater fish which are smaller than goldfish like sticklebacks.

The pond based on the dimensions you gave us (assuming the sides of the pond are steep), is about 180 US gallons. If you had filtration in the pond and heating, you could have up to a maximum of 5 comet or common goldfish (which are the type types i'd recommend), which grow prety large and can exceed 12inches long each. Unless you put heating though in the pond, you could risk losing the goldfish during the winter particularly as the goldfish grow larger.

If the pond if filtered and decently heated though through the winter, you could opt for a fancy goldfish pond though- fancy goldfish grow smaller than goldfish like comets and commons and would make a unique adition to the pond- however the pond would definately have to be heated during the winter though, as fancy goldfish cannot survive freezing temps. Also, if you had a fancy goldfish pond i would recommend only keeping fancy goldfish in it, as they are prone to being bullied by much more agile fish. However, because they are smaller than standard goldfish like comets and commons and are not as active, you could have up to 17 fancy goldfish in such a pond if it was adequately heated during the winter and filtered all year round. Fancy goldfish such as fantails/veiltails make very attractive fish to display in a pond, their large colorful tails and fat bodies are more visable when viewed about than slim type goldfish like comets and commons and they are very friendly and undemanding fish to keep as long as pond is kept warm enough for them and the water is kept clean by a suitable filter for the pond .

 

[GoldLenny]

Tokis,

In my first reply, I figured the pond to be up to around 800G. How did you come up with 180G?

I guess it really depends on whether the sides are vertical or tapered but I'd be curious as to how you came up with your figure. I used the LxWxH divided by 231 = Gallons... so 78"x78"x30" (presuming the entire pond is around 30" deep) divided by 231 = 790 gallons. If only a very small spot is 30" deep, then that would certainly lower my numbers dramatically.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Tokis,

In my first reply, I figured the pond to be up to around 800G. How did you come up with 180G?

I guess it really depends on whether the sides are vertical or tapered but I'd be curious as to how you came up with your figure. I used the LxWxH divided by 231 = Gallons... so 78"x78"x30" (presuming the entire pond is around 30" deep) divided by 231 = 790 gallons. If only a very small spot is 30" deep, then that would certainly lower my numbers dramatically.

Ah i appologise, i made a calculation error. None the less though, the pond is stil 2.5ft deep and this is one of the most important factors when it comes to stocking ponds. I would still recommend heating though for the pond even though it is a decent size pond, the shallowness of the pond would be a big issue during the winter without heating.

 

[Joemuz]

Thanks a lot everyone, i am deffinately going to get some heating for it and firstly a small filter or water feature going into it.
Thanks again, Joemuz

 

[J4MES]

WTF mate i don't think you should heat your pond in uk! Your electricity bill would be through the roof!!!!

J4MES

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

WTF mate i don't think you should heat your pond in uk! Your electricity bill would be through the roof!!!!

J4MES

The electricity bill will be expensive (although there are many methods of heating ponds), but the pond is shallow even for goldfish, which is why people recommend at least 3ft deep for goldfish ponds and 4ft deep for koi ponds. A neighbour of mine lost all of their goldfish once during a cold winter because they dug the pond too shallow (2ft deep), so i know how risky it can be putting fish in shallow ponds- my mother also lost all of her large koi once because their pond was only 3ft deep and the ice froze to thick during one particular cold winter.
I know with global warming and all, winters over here are getting less harsh, but its still a risky buisness putting fish in shallow ponds. This is why i would always recommend heating the pond during the winter if its less than 3ft deep, either that, or making the pond the correct minimum depth- its why it always pays to research your pond before you dig it, otherwise you could end up with something thats only good for frogs and dragonflys.
edit: There are other reasons why shallow ponds can kill fish- for example during the winter when the fish is hibernating in the depths of the pond, if the pond is not deep enough it will be less insulated against sudden temperature changes. This can be bad if the winter gets a brief warming period, which will make parasites in the water become active again- this is bad as the fishes imune systems will not be working very well due to the fishes dormant state, which can end up with the fish dying during its hibernation from parasites and deseases its sleepy imune system cannot handle. Other reasons why to have deep or heated ponds, for example fish can come out of their dormant state during the winter if it gets a brief warming period, which can make the fish active- this is bad as both going in and out of hibernation takes a lot of energy out of the fish, if the fish is fooled into thinking its spring when its still winter by the temp changes in the pond, then the shock of coming out of hibernation only to be forced back into it can be too much for some fish to handle and it kills them.

 

[double-trouble]

WTF mate i don't think you should heat your pond in uk! Your electricity bill would be through the roof!!!!

J4MES

You have a serious problem if somebody wants to heat their pond let them! they will look into the electricity bills themselvesits not for you to worry about.

 

[chilledtim]

My 2 cents.... I live in the uk, have a 2' - 2.5' deep pond abit smaller than joemuz. never been heated and had happy breeding goldfish in it for around 6 years now, on about 2nd/3rd generation goldfish mixed in with originals now.

Heating would be uber expencive and not needed in my view

 

[jakester]

How would go about making a diy pond filter??

 

[GoldLenny]

Do fountains just go on to a hose or do they plug in as i would of thought rain would be dangerous near an extension for a plug?
Cheers, Joemuz

Every fountain I've ever had was electric motor powered. You would need to have a GFCI outdoor outlet that you could plug into. The GFCI outlets are those like in your bathroom with the built in circuit breaker. I only had one of mine trip one time in years of use. It was after a hard thunderstorm with wind driven rain and the rain got under the cover into the outlet. After letting it dry out, it worked fine again.

How would go about making a diy pond filter??

I answered this in your other thread you just started.