Pond Info

[danb_1985]

Hi.

I am thinking about adding a pond to my garden and need a lot of info. I have kept tropical and marine fish but a pond is new to me.

The pond will measure approx 6ft long x 3foot wide x 4 foot deep(2 foot under and 2 foot raised)

I would like the pond to attract wildlife such as frogs but also have fish in it.

All info would be appreciated right from materials needed and cost, to stocking limits and ideas. would also like to know about pond plants.

One specific question is do you cycle a pond like a tropical tank?

All info appreciated thanks.

 

[Haveagojoe]

As regards to a pond with fish and frogs it dosnt work, the fish will eat all the tadpoles and after a couple of seasons the frogs will die out.
To combat this I have sunk a couple of belfast sinks into the borders of my garden and in the spring I remove the frog spawn and put in the sinks, no predators the tadpoles happily develop in their own little green swamp and in july august I have a garden full of froglets like I used to until I introduced fish into my pond. So now I have the best of both worlds, a pond with fish and the best slug eaters a garden can have frogs!

 

[hanny93]

Not true, my grandads two ponds both have sets of frogs coming back to lay their eggs which hatch into tadpoles which survive quite happily with 10" koi and various goldfish, and theyve been coming back every single year for about 15 years now

 

[This Old Spouse]

Not true, my grandads two ponds both have sets of frogs coming back to lay their eggs which hatch into tadpoles which survive quite happily with 10" koi and various goldfish, and theyve been coming back every single year for about 15 years now

I want HIS pond! Can you ship that over to the states, please?

 

[hanny93]

Haha I'm sure if he could he would! He's having a few problems at the moment with it, filter dying, fish got strange growths on it and rather sluggish, he's going to strip it all down and start again we think.

It's pretty aswell, I'll get a picture when i next go over.

He lost half his breeding group of koi aswell a few years ago, because if a heron, didn't even eat them, just tried to carry them away, didnt get very far, found half of them on the patio the next day, very sad.

Anyway, sorry for the thread hijack!

I would suggest for pond plants,
a good floating plant, plenty of egeria densa and some water lilies and reeds maybe?

 

[Baccus]

If the pond is not a preformed one, try to make some ledges at different heights under the water that way you can grow some marginal and bog plants near the edges without them drowning, these plants will help any fry avoid adult fish and will provide more habitat to other creatures wanting to use your pond.

If you are using a rubber/ plastic liner to make the pond get the highest quality one as possible so that it is less likely to tear and put some underlay underneath it to protect it from anything sharp you may have missed.

Good luck with your pond construction, I cheated for my pond and got a 1000L horse/ cattle trough but at least the pest introduced Cane toads can't get into this pond and breed.

 

[danb_1985]

thanks for your replies. good advice with the different levels for plants and a separate "tank" for frogs.

Does anyone have any more answers to my original post?

 

[danb_1985]

Any more replies to my original post?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Goldfish & Koi like a lot of other coldwater fish have huge appetites and while some wildlife will survive in the pond, it will be greatly depleted by the fish.

Case & point;

My mother had 2 indentical ponds 6ft away from each other. One had koi in it while the other had no fish at all. The pond with fish in it had almost no critters in it whatsoever (just a few pond skaters and the occasional dragonfly larvae), but the pond with no fish in it was humming with wildlife- frogs, dragonflies, pond skaters, water beatles, dragonfly larvae, tadpoles, newts, water snails, damselflies etc.

Given a choice frogs will choose ponds with no fish in them over ones which do as Goldfish & Koi eat large numbers of tadpoles (will deplete the tadpole populations by like 85-95%).

When it comes to creating the ideal wildlife pond, it should have shallow sloping area's and should be situated in a sunny spot. This is because the water will warm up quicker during the daytime which aquatic bugs & amphibians greatly prefer as it allows them to be more active much earlier on in the day etc. Having shallow area's also makes it much easier for animals like frogs to get in and out of the pond (they can get trapped in steep sided ponds).

Goldfish/Koi ponds on the other hand need to be at least 3-4ft deep for the fish to survive the winter as the deeper the pond the more insulated it is in the winter. And shallow sloping area's in fish ponds can leave the fish very vulnerable to attack from fish eating birds like herons, which wade into ponds to catch fish (herons cannot step directly into deep water, so by ensuring the pond has steep deep sides you can massively help prevent your fish getting eaten by herons).

Wildlife ponds don't need to be as deep or long as fish ponds to attract and support a great diversity of wildlife. And they can be put in sunny area's which are not suitable for fish ponds and do best with no filtration at all. Personally if i was you i would have a separate wildlife pond to the fish pond .