Fish hiding

[Terry]

I have installed a pond in my garden and after letting it stabalise for 4 weeks I transferred the fish from my tank in the house into the pond last week.

The pond is ovalish in shape with 4 steps to a depth of 4' 6" to enable me to overwinter the koi. The 'back' edge however is not stepped but has a sheer face up to the bottom of a waterfall. The area of the deepest part is approx 3 feet in dia and the back face coming up to the waterfall. I used a liner for the pond and had to have quite a few folds in it at this edge. The problem is the fish seem to always be hiding in these folds and it looks like there are no fish in the pond most of the time. The water is clear and you can see down to the bottom. Is it normal for the fish to always be hiding.

I am contemplating draining the pond and trying to remove the folds but don't want to stress the fish by doing this any ideas ??

 

[William]

For storage a large clean bin does the job nicely for fish, all but the biggest of koi. Fish always like hiding I reckon the only way you will get them to show themselves more is to remove those folds, once you've done that you can maybe add some plants to replace cover in some form and to add a bit of interest if you do not already have some?

How big are these folds? At the steep back edge would it help to put rocks over the folds, or are they just too big for that, rocks can add interest but will cut down on your water volume.

 

[Pondlady]

Do you have any cover in your pond? Your fish would like some submerged plants and floaters to create security. Mine hid until the anacharis started to grow and the water lily pads started to cover some surface area.

 

[Jamnog]

all fish like cover from the surface. birds like to eat fish stalks etc. once you have a few water lillys in they will come to the surface once in a while. a pond is not like an aquarium you wont get to see ure fish all the time. its better that they can hide because vent in ure guarden they can be easily picked off by preditors while you are off at the pub gettin mashed on a sunny day.

 

[Terry]

Thanks folks,

I have a couple of water lillies and other plants in the pond so I'll just need to be patient and wait till they are fully established to provide some cover.

At least I am able to see them at night as there are lights around the pond and they all seem happy to appear when it is dark.

 

[kevin007]

ur pond must be big if ur fish can hide