Wildlife or fish?
Wildlife or fish?
Garden ponds – Wildlife or fish?
Before you do anything at all you need to decide if you want a fish pond (goldfish or Koi) or a wildlife pond, as there are considerations to take account of when building either type.
Fish pond
If you are a building a garden pond to keep fish you must ensure that the depth in places reaches at least 2 foot. This is because fish need somewhere to go when the top ices over in winter. In garden ponds fish will eat small frogs, tadpoles and other small water creatures so you cannot really have both together.
You will also need a pump and filtration system installed to keep the water clean. Choose the equipment from the wide range available from all good garden centres that stock fish and accessories.
If you want to successfully keep Koi you will need to provide the fish with the most natural environment you can. This is sometimes difficult to achieve as Koi ponds are often overstocked, there is a tendency for a build-up of debris or chemicals and these should be handled using specific equipment if the fish and your Koi pond are to stay an asset and not become an eyesore.
Goldfish are much easier to look after and their popularity goes beyond their beauty.
Goldfish used to be brown and were bred by the Chinese for food thousands of years ago. Now we buy them to feast our eyes on in our garden ponds. However, they need the same care as Koi in as much as the water quality, oxygen supply and plants need to provide the goldfish with a close match to their natural environment.
Wildlife ponds
Wildlife ponds do not necessarily need the depth of fish ponds but they do need the sides to slope down in more places to enable the small animals to get down for a drink and to get out if they accidentally fall in. After a time you will find all sorts of wildlife living in or near your garden pond.
Frogs need shallow water to lay their spawn and 3 weeks after laying the spawn you will see it start to turn into tadpoles. It is very exciting for young children to watch the stages of growth of tadpoles turning into frogs. At four weeks old the shape is a definite tadpole and as each week passes they grow bigger until eventually the small legs appear, then they begin to lose the tail and viola after a few more weeks you have tiny little frogs.
Backyard Ponds is a community blog set-up to answer pond related questions.