Fishpond and wildlife ponds - never the twain?

[kaitkaitkait]

Hello, it's twoponds Kait again.

I've been reading with interest the threads about fish in ponds and thought I would ask those with fish in their ponds for some clarification:

What sort of fish do you have? I have no fish in either pond and initially planned to keep it that way, but I was pondering (no pun intended!) about possibly introducing some 3-spine stickleback and/or minnows in one of the ponds. Would that be a better alternative to goldfish (which I have heard will attract herons because of their bright colour - is that true?)

If I put fish in my pond would I have to get a pump/filtration system? Does that depend on the species of fish?

To those with no fish in their ponds, what prompted this decision?

Thanks!
Kait

Sorry if this is too closely related to other topics to warrant a fresh post - if that's the case, please feel free to delete it.

[Paul mabbott]

If it's a fairly large pond then you can probably get away with sticklebacks but large predatory fish - goldfish/carp will eat everything available - tadpoles, insects - so there will be no wildlife left. Furthermore their excreta, waste food &c will alter the water quality. As you say, never the twain ....

Originally Posted by kaitkaitkait

I've been reading with interest the threads about fish in ponds and thought I would ask those with fish in their ponds for some clarification:
What sort of fish do you have? I have no fish in either pond and initially planned to keep it that way, but I was pondering (no pun intended!) about possibly introducing some 3-spine stickleback and/or minnows in one of the ponds. Would that be a better alternative to goldfish (which I have heard will attract herons because of their bright colour - is that true?)
If I put fish in my pond would I have to get a pump/filtration system? Does that depend on the species of fish?
To those with no fish in their ponds, what prompted this decision? Kait

[werdnal]

We have a garden pond where goldfish and wildlife seem to co-exist quite happily. We have about 20 assorted fish - mainly from my inlaws pond whose fish seem to breed to abundance.

We also have loads of frogs and toads who in turn lay acres of spawn every year. I agree some is probably taken by the fish, but we always get dozens of full size tadpoles and resultant froglets. We also have the usual invertibrates - boatmen, pond skaters, large diving beetles, dragonfly larvae and all sorts of bugs and grubs which I have never fully identified.

Last year I also found baby newts for the first time, with some adults around this year. We do get occasional visits from a passing heron, but our pond only has one "shallow" side, and as herons like to walk into the water, a thin strand of wire about 8 inches off the ground will usually keep them out.

[lol geoff]

I'm with werdnal on this.

Along with the goldfish and Shebunkins in our relatively small pond, we seem to have plenty of newts, frogs, damsel flies and other insects and the local grass snake has taken to laying on top of the lillies sunning itself and taking the odd frog too. They all seem to live quite happily with each other down here in the crowded southeast. Probably a case of having to.

[smartie]

Everything seems to coexist quite happily in our pond, which is about 10m by 5m and then has a fringe of rather overgrown bog garden where it doesn't butt up against the patio wall. We have 6 assorted shubunkin which were rescued from a friend's dying pond, 5 golden orfe which helpfully eat mozzie larvae (I'm allergic to the bites) and a few ghost koi because I like them (though as they are bottom feeders we don't see a lot of them!). They share the pond with a varying number of newts and frogs, all of which breed and some spawn survives most years. We have hawker dragonfly larvae which hatch on the irises and assorted other flying and swimming things. We do have a pump which runs a small waterfall to improve the oxygenation, but we don't run it constantly. I check the water quality quite regularly and it is generally good.

In the early days we lost some fish to a heron, but the fairly dense vegetation discourages them now, as they can't get a clear walk down to the water. About half the pond is covered by water lilies and other floating plants, so there is always somewhere for the fish to hide if they do feel threatened by visiting herons or cats. The pond is also deep enough (1.25m in the middle) so that there is always some clear water below any ice that forms.

[wyevilla]

Originally Posted by kaitkaitkait

Hello, it's twoponds Kait again.

What sort of fish do you have? I have no fish in either pond and initially planned to keep it that way, but I was pondering (no pun intended!) about possibly introducing some 3-spine stickleback and/or minnows in one of the ponds. Would that be a better alternative to goldfish (which I have heard will attract herons because of their bright colour - is that true?)


Thanks!
Kait

Sorry if this is too closely related to other topics to warrant a fresh post - if that's the case, please feel free to delete it.

Kait - I have to say that, in my humble opinion, sticklebacks would be a great mistake. They are voracious predators that will knock out the food web of the pond at the small herbivore level, ie daphnia, cyclops and insect larvae. they will also take out imortant detritivores such as waterlice, worms etc. which in turn will cause a problem for the likes of the damsels and dragonflies.

[Dan Salter]

oh nice one....im going to be building a wildlife pond soon as was thinking of having sticklebacks as my only fish ! i wont now though.....what about minnows? or are they the same

[kaitkaitkait]

Thanks for the advice there! I shall avoid sticklebacks. Still considering minnows but part of me is now backing away from the idea of using fish at all! I like the dragonflies and frogs and toads too much to want to endanger their existences.

If I do have fish, it will be in the smaller but deeper pond, I think!

[badgerwatcher]

For those who have ponds with fish and all the other creatures happily coexisting, what order did you stock your ponds? Did you leave them to become established before introducing fish, so that everything else had sorted out their places first, or the other way round?

[Dragonflyer]

It was interesting to read some of these replies. I have three ponds with the largest being roughly 22 feet at its longest and 12 feet at its widest point the deep central area is about 4 feet. I never wanted Goldfish myself but folk kept giving them to me as presents. This particular pond has been around for 8 or 9 years now. It has 15 Goldfish in varying sizes, 4 Shumbukins, 1 Ghost Koi and 5 Crusian Carp and zillions of Stickle backs, they never fail to breed. There is a colony of newts in this pond as well as my middle pond. Each year the frogs arrive around about the end of Feb and for the past 5 years have produced the first spawn between the 10th and 12th of March. At this time there are between 4 to 5 hundred frogs having their annual party in all three ponds. It started just in the large pond but over the years, probably due to the large population they moved onto the other ponds. The newts I couldn't say 10 is the most that have been seen at the same time, again this is when mating time has come. I have all the other usual bug type things, pond skaters, boatmen and the likes. Dragonlfy's (The reason for me originally creating the pond) for the past few years have been the Broad Bodied Chaser, always the first to emerge in my ponds, Common Darter and Migrant Hawker. Damsel are Common Blue and Large Red. The Heron has been seen twice in all those years and hasn't actually taken anything.
By the way none of the ponds have any type of filtration system, with the right amount of plant life they clean theirself. The only problem I have had in the past is Duckweed. Having said that the large pond cleared up a year or so ago and has been okay since. I just gotta work out how to clean the other two from it.
I have know idea why all this pond life co-exists happily but it does even though everyone tells me it shouldn't. Anyways I love it.