pond creatures

[gerard Le Saffre]

I have just joined and have found this box more by chance than skill!

My wife dug a pond in the garden during July. We were away for about 4 weeks, leaving the hole to its own devices.
When we returned, I found:
1) about 5 inches of water in the bottom of the hole
2) A number of little red worms that progressed in a sort of figure of eight movement.
3) a number of small "beetles": about 3/4 millimeters in length, 1.5 millimeters in width. What I think is the head bit is black. the other end is grey. When disturbed, or sometimes of their own accord, they zigzag to the bottom of the pool and come up again after a few moments. What are they?
I then put in the rubber liner, after having collected the above mentioned specimens, put in about 50 liters of tap water to start the settling-in process and after 3 days, and plenty of rain, put the creatures back in.
I have since seen very few of the worms but the "bugs" are all over the place!
5 days ago, I found a large beetle/bug in the pond. It is about a quarter of an inch long, very wide, swims down into the depths after having spent time on the surface breathing through what I can only call the "wrong end".
The pond receives nothing but rainwater, diverted from the roof through an underground pipe.
Question: Where did they come from???
Were the worms and "bugs" dormant in the ground? Brought in by birds?
I have forgotten to say that the house was built in 1976 on a green field site. When you dig the ground, there is a foot-deep layer of most unexciting yellow clay brought in by the builders to bring the levels up; Then a layer of compacted black earth about 10 - 12 inches thick that has to be broken up with a pick axe, presumably the original field, and finally the original yellow sticky Flanders clay. Were these creatures dormant in the black earth?
Thank you for your suggestions
Gerard
PS We live in northern France, just north of Lille.

[Ukwildlifeo]

The red worms are probably bloodworms, which are actually the larvae of a type of midge. The flying adult would have laid eggs in the water.

The beetles could be water or diving beetles or perhaps water boatman. All of these can fly as adults and would have found your pond by flying around, probably at night.

Hope this is helpful

[gerard Le Saffre]

Thank you very much.
I have never had a pond before and am discovering! It is about 12 ft long, 9 ft wide and 2ft deep.
I will wait and see what turns up
Gerard

[gerard Le Saffre]

Following on the previous message.
My ten year old daughter is also eying the pond. She wants a fish! I expect I should have seen it coming.
The question is : What fish? I note from some of the comments that not everyone is madly enthusiastic...
Regards,
Gerard

[healfdan]

Originally Posted by gerard Le Saffre

Following on the previous message.
My ten year old daughter is also eying the pond. She wants a fish! I expect I should have seen it coming.
The question is : What fish? I note from some of the comments that not everyone is madly enthusiastic...
Regards,
Gerard

Of course its only natural in a childs eyes that ponds should have fish. The easiest in terms of mangement are goldfish, but with winter just round the corner and not knowing the pond size and depth it would be better to wait until spring before introducing fish to your pond. You will need a depth of at least 75 cm for fish to successfully overwinter iin locations with extremes of winter weather. You also have to decide if you require a wildlife pond with tadpoles and lots of invertebrates, or you are content with a nice little clear water pool with fishes. I think at the right time, two or three small goldfish will keep your daughter happy and for the first couple of years will have only minimal impact on other pond life.

[sawire]

The zig zag 'beetles' sound like mosquito lava, they will breed in an inch of water in the bottom of a bucket. Goldfish will eat everything, your best option is to legally import native small fish such as sticklebacks and make sure that your pond has some shallow margins. Your daughter will have to look hard to see her fish but in doing so will see lots of other wildlife that will delight her. Big fish will remove any possibility of frogs, toads or newts because they will eat the tadpoles.

[Wild-Woman]

Sounds to me like you've got the beginnings of a brilliant habitat for aquatic life. It's absolutely fascinating to see what moves in. If you get some of the bigger diving beetles, dragonfly and damselfly nymphs, backswimmers and water boatmen, then you are doing really well. I'm quite envious as our pond is in need of an overhaul as the liner is damaged and the only way to sort it is to basically drain it and re-line.

Keep us updated with your pond's progress!

[nightshade]

Originally Posted by gerard Le Saffre

Following on the previous message.
My ten year old daughter is also eying the pond. She wants a fish! I expect I should have seen it coming.
The question is : What fish? I note from some of the comments that not everyone is madly enthusiastic...
Regards,
Gerard

We have Goldfish and a Tench, the pond was stuffed with Frogs, until a Grass Snake moved in. Toads we still have and Common Newts also plenty of inverts. The pond brings in all sorts of birds from a Goldcrest to Sparrow Hawk and of course a Heron .
It also has a pump and filter box which are also frowned upon but no one told the occupants

[Cowgirl]

Welcome gerard.

The solution...build another pond & put some fish in. I did this but I found that my little wildlife pond got fish anyway, little sticklebacks, I never put them in, but as they say...if you build it they will come...

Sawire is right, I tend to spend more time with my little pond looking for the fish (& seeing all sorts of other things) than I do with my 'proper' fish pond. It's a lot more exciting knowing that the things all got there with no help from me .

In fact I stress about what I'd do if I ever had to move. How daft is that?

[nightshade]

I think the fish eggs arrive on birds legs, like the Heron! I started my pond ecology with a jar of water from a big local pond (since filled in in case children
came to grief in it, not that they would as it involved long walks)