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Ah yes, where to start? First let me tell you that I always worked for success in my pond building business. I was not a gambler, so once I found the magic combination, I stuck with it. The following comments about fish are based on what is best for success. In the new pond, there are three basic guidelines.
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I am assuming that you are building and stocking your pond as I have suggested in other parts of this website. So, let's talk fish.
What kind of Fish?
Buy common goldfish, Comets are best to start.
Buy fish that are about 3" long.
The reason I recommend goldfish is because they are lazy and soothing to watch. They are easy to see because they are orange. They multiply well. They are disease hearty and they are not bothered by extremes of temperature. Now, if you have something that is hearty, breeds well, and is fairly bullet proof, what other attribute do you think they have? They are CHEAP! So for once in your life, the best is the CHEAPEST.
The reason for 3" fish is that they are adults, capable of reproduction. Identifying sex of a goldfish is not important so don't let me catch you holding them up by their tails trying to figure it out. You are bound to get a mix. Why? How unlucky are you?
Later in this article, I talk about other fish, but for now, let's confine ourselves to goldfish.
How many 3" Comets to stock?
Stock one fish for every 2 square feet of surface
area in your pond. So if you have a 25 square foot
surface area pond, get 12-13 fish.
There are a number of ways to gauge how many fish should inhabit a pond, but this is the best, the simplest, and the most bullet proof method I know. It works, so just do it.
How do I figure out how many square feet of surface area in my pond????
The best method is to take the length and maximum width measurements of your pond and make them the dimensions of a rectangle. Remember geometry? It helps to draw this rectangle to scale, 1' = 1". Now divide the rectangle up into 1" squares. Next, sketch the shape of your pond inside the rectangle so that the extremes of the pond touch the sides of the rectangle. Very good. Now count the number of squares that are mostly inside the pond. And, voila! That is how many square feet of surface area you have. I tell you this highly technical approach because I used if everyday and found it the best way to calculate area. :)
If you under stock, your fish grow in size and number
based on their environment . . . simple as that.
The concept follows that if you use this method to stock your pond, fish will grow and multiply to the limits the pond can naturally support. That is why it is wise to under stock in the beginning and let Mother Nature take it from there.
Adopting Fish
When you first buy (adopt) your fish, try to find a store where the owners know about pond fish in the first place. When I was building ponds, there weren't many that knew diddley about ponds. Today that has changed. The reason why you want to buy from a knowledgeable fish store owner is so that s/he can help you later if you have problems.
If you buy fish from the same store more than once and the fish end up being ill or mistreated, then you should be looking for a new store. Duh!
Bringing Adopted Fish Home
A wide range of temperatures does not adversely affect goldfish. But, like all fish, they are very susceptible to illness if they have the temperature changed faster than in nature. It can be a blazing day in the mid summer sun in Arizona and goldfish will be fine, or it can be zero and snowing with a foot of ice over your pond and goldfish will be fine. But Heaven help you if you bring your fish home in a bag in the warm car and dump them into a pond that is ground water cold!
It is just like having your naked little body jerked
out of a nice hot shower and thrown out into the snow!
So make sure that you always float your unopened bag of fish in your pond for at least 20-30 minutes to allow the water temperature in the bag to equalize with the pond. If the bag is floating in the sun, cover it with a wet towel to keep from cooking the fish at the same time.
Then untie the bag, hold it closed and turn the bag upside down leaving an air bubble in the bottom of the bag so it floats. Make sure the mouth of the bag is open underwater. The fish will swim out when they are ready. Don't dump them in! If they haven't made their way out in 30 minutes or so, then you can gently lift the closed end of the bag and they will make their way out. Some fish will stick their nose in the closed end of the bag and just don't catch on that the pond is the other way!
In the first couple of days watch for problems. It will be obvious if you have a sick or injured fish. He will float crooked, swim in circles, have splotches on his gills or something. Losing a fish or two is not the end of the world and not reason for panic. After all, if you had been through what they went through just getting to your gentle hands, you might roll over and croak too.
Nursing sick fish.
Today, we enjoy a number of pond and fish websites on the internet where you can get valuable information. I will be putting up good links as I find them.
There are all sorts of elixirs for fish problems. A good fish store operator will usually want to see the ailing fish before they recommend a treatment. Get a clean plastic bag, a large zip lock type is OK, put in some pond water, and plunk in your ailing fish. Fish have a protective slim coat so don't ever touch a fish any more than absolutely necessary.
It is wise to call ahead and make sure someone knowledgeable is in the store. Most of us don't have oxygen to squirt in the bag with our sick fish, so you will need to move right along.
When I say knowledgeable, you should make sure they know you are bringing them a "pond" fish, not one out of a bowl. The illnesses are not much different, but the cure prescriptions are considerably different. You should only buy a fish cure product that specifically says it is for "pond fish." Otherwise you could spend a fortune trying to buy enough fish tank elixir to make a difference.
Try to treat a sick fish in quarantine if at all possible. Obviously, if what he has is contagious, you may need to treat the entire pond anyway.
Healthy Home
Properly stocked ponds are the healthiest place in the world for your fish to live. I had a pond for 12 years and never treated it for anything, not once! Sure I had fish die from time to time, but that is life in the big swim. Don't get all green around the gills over it. The only time you should worry is if you add new fish because they may be carrying something in.
And in that light, I stocked over 150 ponds and I can count on one hand the amount of times I ever lost more than 10% of the fish on initial set up. A 10% loss is acceptable.
Fish feeding is unhealthy!
I know, you want to pet the little guys and have them begging at the back door when you come home from work. Well, you CAN love them to death. Overfed, fat fish are unhealthy. Just like humans, they develop a number of unpleasant side effects. Plus, their environment is slowly being poisoned by above normal wastes.
What goes in must come out!
So the best thing to do is feed your fish once a day and only what they completely clean up in five minutes. Do that for one week when your fish are new. Then put the food away except for Thanksgiving, or maybe the 4th of July! They will be just fine. In fact they will be much better off not being fed. This is true, of course, if you have properly stocked your pond with plants.
Feeding has another downside I often forget to mention. Fish that are fed frequently swim to the surface as soon as they see you (aren't they cute ... you say) or anything else pond side. They don't see well enough to know whether it is you . . . or the Heron. And the heron is no dummy, he remembers little fishes that swim up to the surface and he smiles as he carries them away.
I want KOI! I want KOI!
Really now, let's look a little closer at this. Actually goldfish and Koi are from the same carp family. Koi are bred and raised for numerous color patterns and, most of the time, sell at exorbitant prices.
Koi are notoriously rough on plants.
My personal observation is that Koi are generally nervous, fast moving fish. They tear up plants in a big way. They eat a lot and therefore they ........ a lot! Most koi ponds have trouble keeping plants. Poor plants means poor water condition, means - most koi ponds have BIG filters.
Go to Disney World - look closely at the huge koi ponds. See any plants? Nope! See any filters? Nope ... but you do see that big castle don't you? Know what's inside? A humongous filter system that runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and has 4 full time employees tending to it. In fact, half of your admission ticket price goes to feeding and cleaning up after those koi .... !
Koi provide a special situation that needs lots of care. I recommend that you start your pond with goldfish only. Later, when everything is going well, and your eco-balance is in good order, then you might want to add a small koi or two. Trust me on this.
Other fish!
Don't do it. Resist the temptation to put in a couple of cute little big mouth bass, or rainbow trout. First of all, nature has camouflaged these fish so they cannot be seen from above. Guess what, you won't ever see them again. And guess what they eat? Goldfish!
Can you spell Pocastimus?
Also, the first time you get algae in your pond, your friendly fish salesman will be warbling on about "algae eaters." Don't fall for that one either. There are no better scavengers than goldfish. Most fish eat the algae that grow on things, the walls of the pond, the planters, and on other plants etc. But that is not the algae you want to get rid of. You want to get the pea soup algae to go away, right? And surprise, no fish, snail, tadpole, clam, or lobster can help you with that. That algae can only be controlled by robbing it of its natural food source. See Maintenance.
No fish, snail, tadpole, clam, lobster, sea horse,
or great white shark will eat the algae that makes your pond green.
Fish Gulping
Ever see a fish gulping at the surface? The time this is most common is in the early morning. Ever find a dead fish floating in the morning? What is this about mornings?
During the night, oxygen producing plants aren't producing because they need sunshine. But that is only half the problem. Harmful chemicals are always being produced by other plants and decaying materials.
During the daytime these chemicals bleed off through the surface of your pond harmlessly and some are absorbed by plants. But sometimes at night, the surface of your pond is "closed" by a difficult to explain phenomenon. When this "door" is closed the toxic gases are held in the pond and your fish are slowly suffocated. Thus the surface gulping ... and if a fish is already weak, death.
So what do you do?
If you have your waterfall on a timer, I suggest that you have it come on between 2-4 am and run for an hour or so. It will "open the door" and let the toxic gases out and allow your fish to sleep peacefully all night. Otherwise, make it your first duty in the morning to go out and stir the surface or turn on the pump for an hour or so.
This phenomenon is not a daily affair, but it does happen. The night is usually the culprit. It also happens during dry thunder storms. During these storms, the electrical charge in the air plays a part in this "closed door" problem. The electrical storm usually doesn't last long enough to cause a problem, BUT, as often occurs in the south, sometimes these storms occur in the evening and that tends to close the door on your pond a little earlier than normal.
I do not recommend stirring the surface of your pond with a metal pole during an electrical storm! :)
"Ribet"
Detailed instructions on building your
new pond are available on this site, click here.