Question about fish affecting the balance of my pond

[vole-woman]

We installed a pond last autumn, about 15 foot by 8 foot and 4 feet deep, and it's already attracted quite a lot of animal life. We've got frogs, common newts, great diving beetles, some other medium-sized brown water beetles, whirligig beetles, water boatmen, pond skaters and the usual array of nymphs and larvae.

My question is, can I add a couple of loaches that currently live in a cold water tank in my house? Mainly I don't want to affect the balance of the pond life, but neither do I want to accidentally kill the loaches. And if I do put the loaches in, I presume I'll need to fed them fish food as I currently do? Or will they be able to eat the plants that are in there?

Sorry to sound so ignorant, but, well, I am.

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

What sort of loaches are they?

[lucypooseface]

NOOOOOOOOOOOO dont do it until you have a very good accurate identification and you know that it is not an invasive fish, it is a very bad thing to introduce fish which may cause problems in our own water systems, if you find out what it is and it naturally can be found in your local rivers and pons then go for it, if not dont do it, as it may wipe out some other speciaes on other pons should flooding wash them to other waterbodies or eggs after breeding had been transferred by other wildlife at some point!
a second point too, if you bought if from an aquarium shop for your aquarium, it sounds like it could be a gerra pinghu, a butterfly plec or a sucking loach, the second 2 will definitely not survive the winter, not sure about the gerra pinghu but they are not native to our contry sop it's best you leave them where they are!
failing that though, knock yourself out!! just make sure if you do introduce any fish from indoors you float them in a bag or bucket first until the water temp matches, pick a good day where it is reasonably warm so the fish has more of a chance to get used to it before it gets very cold, and never do it in the winter or if it is too hot as extremes of temperature will make them sick of kill them...
hope this helps any, apologies if my spellings are wrong its late and i have no stomach for reading it through
take care,
Lucy

[Lords and Ladies]

Originally Posted by vole-woman

We installed a pond last autumn, about 15 foot by 8 foot and 4 feet deep, and it's already attracted quite a lot of animal life. We've got frogs, common newts, great diving beetles, some other medium-sized brown water beetles, whirligig beetles, water boatmen, pond skaters and the usual array of nymphs and larvae.

As your pond sounds like it's going very well at the moment, I'd be tempted not to add them and just leave things as they are. If they're native loaches they'd probably be more at home in a moving stream than a garden pond in any case. If you put them in and it then turned out they breed well, if they're male and female of course , it could well have a negative impact on the insects and amphibians you already have. Not really worth it just to find a home for them imho.

[vole-woman]

Yes, I'd much rather play safe than sorry. It's just that all my fish have grown so much in their tank! I don't know what sort of loaches they are - they look a bit like brown bananas, only smaller and slimmer. Not plecs; they're much longer and more eel-like in shape than that.

Anyway, I'll keep them out of the pond. I quite agree that the environment in there has found its own balance (though I'm not sure the tadpoles would agree, lol - the last one I saw was in the jaws of a great diving beetle!). It's just that my husband's been agitating for fish in there. I said a flat no to goldfish because I know what greedy monsters they are, but husband reckoned loaches were native and would fit in ok. Honestly, he knows no more about it than I do!

Thanks for your help.

[shyfx]

They sound rather like the Japanes Weather Loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus ) and I think you made a wise choice to leave them out.If your husband was desperate for fish in there could you not try something like a few Sticklebacks.

[almostnormal]

Originally Posted by shyfx

They sound rather like the Japanes Weather Loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus ) and I think you made a wise choice to leave them out.If your husband was desperate for fish in there could you not try something like a few Sticklebacks.

beat me too it, i'd say they sound like japenese weather loaches as well, so they'd probably just about survive the winter, but they'd definitely do more harm than good in your pond. sticklebacks will work nicely as shyfx has suggested. they are native and well capable of taking care of themselves. not sure where you'd get them though....local garden centres possibly?

[vole-woman]

We have a little waterfall going into our pond; would this be enough for the sticklebacks? I know they like running water.

[GuyF]

Originally Posted by vole-woman

We have a little waterfall going into our pond; would this be enough for the sticklebacks? I know they like running water.

I've got a male Stickleback in the pond who's lived there for 2 years, and we don't provide any running water, I think they're hardy little fish so can survive in loads of different habitats so still water won't be a problem and a fountain will be fine.
If you do get some they're fascinating things to watch, it's interesting watching them build their nests and then trying to defend it from anything that goes near it!
Guy

[joey747]

sticklebacks should be present in most streams in england, look on utube at minnow traps, tie one to a branch or something with some string and drop it into a stream for a couple of days with some bait in( i use peporami) i catch hundreds doing this. i also get stone loaches in with them too.