couple of questions about pond fish

[sazzap]

OK the pond i have has quite a large surface but compared to its surface area it is fairly shallow so the water is basically 100% green and you ca only see a couple of inches pheraps into it. I have tried various things such as introducing river weeds to cover the surface and stop the algae, and this worked for the first few days/weeks, you could see the bottom of the pond, but then the river weed decided to sink to the bottom instead of staying on the surface like it should, and it went back to how it is.

I don't particularly like using chemicals in the garden, but did try one product for a while, but it did not work at all. So i ahve jsut decided that the pond can stay green.

However, the pond does not seem to be plant friendly at all. We were given a very healthy and big lily plant from a neighbor as it had outgrown their pond, and put it in our pond. Of course it had to get adjusted to a different water level etc. but it has been nearly three years and it only has a few leaves that don't look very healthy, cmpared to the dozen's of leaves it came to us with. Also any other potted plants or floating plants that have been introduced do well for the first few weeks but then gradually die and diseppear.

The only things that thrive in the pond are some pots of wild grass, the goldfish, and frogs, which both multiply like mad.

Also there is a problem of a heron which has already eaten all of our original orange fish, and now we are left with a lot of brown goldfish but only several smaller orange ones. Any ideas for keeping the heron out of our garden when wwe are not around?

also does anybody have any natural ideas for what could be done to improve the pond so that plants can live in it? Or any realy hardy surface plants that can provide shade from the sun to stop the algae?

any suggestions would be really helpful.

 

[The-Wolf]

The only things that thrive in the pond are some pots of wild grass, the goldfish, and frogs, which both multiply like mad.

Also there is a problem of a heron which has already eaten all of our original orange fish, and now we are left with a lot of brown goldfish but only several smaller orange ones. Any ideas for keeping the heron out of our garden when wwe are not around?

also does anybody have any natural ideas for what could be done to improve the pond so that plants can live in it? Or any realy hardy surface plants that can provide shade from the sun to stop the algae?

any suggestions would be really helpful.

i cannot help on the green water issue, except to suggest covering 3/4 of the pond so that light dosn't get on to it (tempory not long term)

as for the heron problem
fake herons do not work don't waste your money.
try running some fishing line in horizontal lines around the edge of the pond at about 6" from the ground and also criss cross the corners espically the shallow end (if you have one).
This deters the heron as when it gets to the edge and walks towards the pond the line will brush up against its legs. because it can't see what it is it will fly away.

some herons will get wise to this but ime it works 90% of the time, of course this won't stop kingfishers
i suggest using 30lb breaking strain line as you don't want to tangle the birds legs up, Do you?

 

[Paul_MTS]

We cover our ponds with netting to stop the herons and grass snakes.

An you can still make them very accessible, recently I made a frame work for our bottom pond netting so you can left it on and off with ease!!.

 

[sazzap]

thanks for that. although the pond is quite open so it probably would not look to good.
we used to have a net covering it in the months when the heron used to visit, but all the frogs used to get stuck in it, very disgusting.

i really don't think there is anything that can be done.

 

[bribones]

a uv filter should solve the green water problem,as for herons ive seen a cat scarer which connects to a hoze and has a sensor which when tripped sends a jet of water(sprinker type) dont know if this would work ,but netting or wire across the pond will do the job i just think its not nice looking,ive had to net mine to keep the magpies out

 

[ryan]

Personally I put lines of fishing line across the pond and 12" intervals and this works a treat. Herons are waders and love to wade into the pond and hunt but if they keep hitting invisible lines of wire they get spooked and fly off.

 

[sazzap]

thanks for all your replies. i'm going to think about putting some invisible wire up. A net is not an option because the frogs get caught on it and die.