new owner of a pond

[joehoran]

I have inherited a pond currentlyholding exotic fish, soon to be disposed of.Who wants them?>
I want the pond to be the home of frogs ,toads and newts.Good size garden. Mixed shrubs. trees grass.flower beds.
The pond has a plastic liner and recerc.pump.
What key steps must I take to attract frogs etc?

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by joehoran

What key steps must I take to attract frogs etc?

The first one is to remove the fish, what sort of habitat do you have in the garden? dense vegetation and log piles would greatly benifit frogs. As would dense leaf litter, tussocky grasses, dense shrubs, ground cover like ivy etc. What size/shape is the pond? is it planted?

[RosieB]

Where abouts are you in the country?
When I started my pond I brought in some frogspawn and they grew up from that, now I have lots of spawn every year. Today I heard the croaking of my lot for the first time this year! So glad they survived the harsh winter, mind you I have built them many tunnels and log piles etc to hibernate in.
Good luck its good that you want to do this for the wildlife.

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by RosieB

When I started my pond I brought in some frogspawn

A word of warning! do not do this. You risk the spread of disease, you also decrease the natural stock within a specially selected pond by the adult frogs. If your pond is suitable they will breed in it in their own time. It is important to let the frog come to the pond, if they are not breeding in the pond there is a reason for it, which could negatively influence the tadpole's i.e. water quality, predators like fish, habitat quality etc. Im not getting at you here, just making a general point. More seriously anyone moving adult newts into new/different ponds or ponds without newts in them is an even bigger problem.

[werdnal]

I'd 2nd not importing spawn, tadpoles or indeed adult frogs, toads etc. There are several frog diseases which can be spread by moving infected spawn to a clean area. Frogs will find your pond in due course. You may not have any this year, but they will come of their own accord. You might find you already have some, as even with fish present, some may already be there. We originally had goldfish, until the heron took them all, but still had a variety of wildlife too.

Ensure you have entry and exit points - shallow "beaches" of stones or pebbles to allow creatures to get in, and more importantly anything that falls in to get out!

Once you shift the fish you should find lots of invertibrates just appear. Its amazing how quickly they take over. Make sure your pump has a fine "strainer" or cage over the intake end, otherwise it will suck up the smaller creatures in the pond.

And don't be too clean! Ponds don't need regularly clearing out, as the weed, plants and any sludge in the bottom provides cover, shade and food for the things you are trying to attract.

If you ever need to top up the water level, in the summer for instance, try not to use tap water. Water butt water is idea, but if you have to use it from the tap, add little and often to avoid upsetting the balance of the water.

[Tursiops2]

Hallo joehoran, and welcome to WAB.

There are plenty of things you could (and should) do if you want to adapt a fishpond for wildlife, and you'll get plenty of advice on here, but a lot of factors need to be considered, and some more information would be useful.

When you say "plastic" liner, do you mean flexible (i.e. butyl) or rigid (glass fibre)? The answer to this is important, as it will dictate a lot of your options.

Plants are also important. What sort of plants are in there already?

Have you just moved in to a new house? If so, it may be that the best thing to do is just get rid of the fish, and then sit back and watch it over the summer, see what happens.

A photo or two would be interesting.
T2

[~T~]

If you are in central Scotland I would be able to get your fish rehomed.

[RosieB]

My garden was originally a dry one no water anywhere, I was out one day and saw a puddle fast drying up, in it was frogspawn, so I gave them a chance of life, they have grown up and bred every year now for 10 years. But I never introduce other creatures, they just tend to arrive of their own accord.
I have water butts that collect rainwater which I use in the pond.
I wish you well and look forward to hearing how its all going.

[Malcolm Banks]

Apologies if someone has already mentioned it, and further apologies if you are anyway aware, but whatever you decide to do with the fish you should not put them in a watercourse or public waterbody.
M.

[tom00_uk]

Originally Posted by joehoran

I have inherited a pond currentlyholding exotic fish, soon to be disposed of.Who wants them?>
I want the pond to be the home of frogs ,toads and newts.Good size garden. Mixed shrubs. trees grass.flower beds.
The pond has a plastic liner and recerc.pump.
What key steps must I take to attract frogs etc?

what do you mean by exotic?

goldfish (Carassius auratus auratus) and koi ( domestic common carp Cyprinus carpio)? if you can not rehome them via aquarist classifieds etc then the option might end up being euthanasia.

You will read about people using clove oil with or with out alcohol (tends to be vodka) to try and create a emulsion, as the clove oil has anaesthetic properties. Or if your licensed you can use other selected piscicides.

The problem is that the time it takes using either oil and water or with the addition of alcohol to extinguish life compared to using a fish priest (blunt object used to terminate life with a blow to the head) is considerable and the fishes will be very stressed, (huge levels of cortisone will be in their blood, if you had a test kit to hand to see of course).

Ultimately if you dont think you can do the task efficiently with minimum stress impressed on the animal DO NOT ATTEMPT it. to often people end up with life extinguished through asphyxiation from to long out of the water