The Waterfall Of Doom!?!?!? Help!

[speedingorange]

So within my pond setup there is a waterfall...

Pics

top pond ( currently empty)

and said waterfall

right problem being... is

in the lower pond we have some VERY large koi and orf both of which are about 30cm + in lenth...

any smaller fish we get in the bottum pond REGARDLESS of what my LFS says. GET MUNCHED (obviously the LFS forgot to tell the orf and koi that they are not ment to eat smaller fish)

so to avoid them being munched i thought i would be smart and put any baby firsh in the top pond... now for some reason they all again, against adisements from the LFS take a ride down the waterfall into the large fish's mouths at the bottum.. now im currently wanting some butterfly koi. OR mayb a small shoal of about 5 Rudd and would definately be wanting some stone loach to stir the bottum of the pond a bit, im quite sure the rudd / koi when i buy them will be so small they will get eaten if placed in bottum pond.. so was hoping i could grow them up in the top pond... and then release to lower pond when big enough.

Any ideas how to prevent them taking a ride down the waterfall of doom?

also is my pond overstocked

its 3500 gal not includeing the filter capacity and the top ponds


2nd top pond... i say pond its actually a semi biological filter. but just adds to amount of not on show water in the system, currently full of plastic bits and stuffs.

my home made filter.

Lower pond / main pond 3500Gal

stock includes

1 tench
3 large koi
2 large mirror carp
1 sterlet
3 large orf
and about 10 goldfish. ( im thinking of getting shot of the uglyer ones.

 

[GoldLenny]

How deep is your pond? Judging from just surface area and the size of your fish, I would say yes, your pond is overstocked.... but also judging from the size of your fish, it seems to be working. Besides the fish being eaten, do you suffer many sick or dying fish? The other ponds add to the overall ecology of your big pond as far as total gallons, etc. Do you have a bog pond with lots of plants anywhere to help out with waste removal or do you rely mostly on your filtration?

As far as keeping the smaller fish in the top pond, you could use some type of hard plastic grating, depending on the size of the smaller fish. One thing that would work is plastic "egg-crate" fluorescent lighting grate. This grating is usually 1/2" square openings so it won't work for really small fish. Of course, you don't want this right next to where the water fall is located as it would possibly collect debris. You would have to kind of set it up as a divider, several inches away from the opening to the water fall so that even if debris collected at the water line, there would be plenty of area under the water line for water to get to the waterfall opening.

 

[speedingorange]

the main pond is 6 ft deep

by 2.2Metre x 4metre ish

the top pond is

1.2m x 1m x 1m deep

top " empty pond " aka biofilter =

0.5m x 1.2m x 80cm deep

the fish had lived in there happy as anything untill last summer when we had a break out of valvet disease which killed

1x LARGE orf,
2x large Koi

other than that they are fine.

water stats are Perfect.

plant wise, all last summer we had LOADS of idk the name now ive forgotten it... a floating plant covering the surface. the rest of the filtration is done by my filter i built, and the hair algae that moved into the top pond after the small fish vacated the premisis.

so im certain the pond can support more fish. but i dont want to go mad obviously, would like a shoal of rudd or somethign similar, not really wanting to replenish the number of large fish. One more large Koi (butterfly) would be nice, but as far as big fish i think that is where i would draw the line.

whats you all think?

 

[chilledtim]

Dude i had the same problem, very similar set-up with koi and orfe in the main bottom pond and goldfish in the top pond (with water cress ect in the top pond acting like an aditional filter.

My goldies would swim (not get sucked in actuially swim) down the 2" overflow pipe that feeds the waterfall and end up in my koi pond

I just put fine mesh over the pipe to stock anything small getting thru, had some problems with it getting blocked up with leaves and twigs but no too bad.

 

[speedingorange]

hmm guess ill have to fabricate a grate or something to stop them falling / swimming down :lol

other than that... anyone any sugestions on what would be acceptable additions to stock?

 

[GoldLenny]

You could try this by the entrance to the waterfall.

 

[speedingorange]

now why didnt i think of that before lol