Will wild ducks eat the Newts?

[archer66]

Hi all, firstly I have to say what a great forum, really enjoy reading all the posts.

I have a medium sized pond in the garden been up and running for about 18 months now, last year all the wildlife appeared from nowhere, frogs, newts, grass snake and loads of little critters which we loved, I have only got a couple of little tench in there as I want the wildlife not fish, anyway this year there have been dozens of newts of different breeds in there all mating and starting to get big bellies and then a week ago two ducks appeared then Thursday they spent a couple of hours on the pond diving etc, when we went out to the pond yesterday there was not a single newt to be seen, the ducks came back and spent the whole day in the garden with me yesterday but I am so upset at the thought that they have eaten all the newts, it was such a joy seeing them playing in the pond, do the ducks eat newts and would they demolish so many so quickly?

Please tell me they are just hiding.

Thanks Alan

[King Edward]

Ducks do eat newts, also frogspawn and a whole range of other stuff, but I'd be surprised if they cleared a whole pond out just like that. Were these Mallards? I'm not sure if there's much to be done about ducks though - shooing them off doesn't seem to do much because they generally return.

Out of interest, why did you add the tench? I know very little about these fish, other than that they root around on the bottom, stir up the mud and aren't generally considered desirable for a wildlife pond. They might be little now but presumably they'll grow.

Also, how large/deep is the pond, and do you have a decent amount of aquatic/marginal vegetation?

[archer66]

Thanks for the reply, but not the answer I wanted to hear Luckily the frogs spawned very early this year before the ducks arrived and I have little tadpoles swimming around (for now anyway), yes they are Mallards.

Regards the Tench, the wife kept nagging about having some fish in the pond which I was against as I did not want to feed the Heron and as I already have a large covered pond which I keep my Koi Carp in I was not to worried, however somebody suggested that a few fish would help the whole wildlife cycle so I decided that tench which stay on the bottom would be good as the Heron would have no joy, I did not know that they are bad to have in a wildlife pond until your message, if somebody could expand on this for me they might have to go.

The pond is about 30' long x 15' wide x 3' deep with a pebble beach at the end followed by a shallow planted marginal area and little pockets at the back of the pond also for planting and I have lilies in the main pond, I am still finishing off the garden surround but I will get a photo for you later as it is easier than trying to explain.

Alan

[dampflippers]

I'm afraid ducks can wreck a pond- by eating things and by pulling all the pond weed up and generally churning things up.
Go out with a torch to see if there are newts left- I'm sure there will be some.

Make sure there is alot of pond weed for cover and to lay eggs on.

Personally I would never put any fish in a wildlife pond that I wanted amphibians to inhabit as the amphibian population won't thrive due to predation. Also don't forget fish grow and also reproduce, so by summer you may have hundreds of fry eating all the baby newt efts. Fish will also eat srogspawn and newt eggs, and other pond creatures. Newts are entirely carnivorous, so this means they are both after the same food.

Good advice sheets to download here:
http://www.froglife.org/advice/sheets.htm
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/adv.../booklets.aspx
http://www.bwg.naturalengland.org.uk/


If you decide to discourage the ducks, you will either have to chase them off whenever you see them (water pistol) or net the pond (but leave gaps under for amphibians, birds to bathe and hedgehogs to drink.

[archer66]

Hi Dampflippers and thanks for the reply, the fish will have to go then if there is any wildlife left after the ducks visiting. You say go out with a torch but up until the ducks came you could go out any time of day and see 40-60 newts active and if you could not see them you knew where they were hiding and now I can't find one, what difference will the torch make?

King Edward, I have taken some pics of the pond to show you but then I saw a message saying external pictures will be removed, how do I go about showing the pictures of my pond are can't I?

Edit, Ihave sorted it, now to try and add them.

Regards Alan

[diggleken]

Hi Alan,
theres nothing wrong with Tench (Tinca tinca) in a pond - they are part of the ecological balance - they are generally regarded as being pond dwellers or slow moving waters and are a lovely (if naturally slimy) fish. Generally bottom feeders (!).
The copious slime led to them being called the doctor fish in folklore, helping others to recover using their slime.
Golden Tench are an ornamental form.
They will grow larger, but as with most fish, will be self limiting depending on size of pond and food availability.
Dont get rid of them.
Cheers
Ken

[archer66]

Hi Ken, thanks for the reply that is similar to what I was told and why I introduced the tench but then I thought I had done wrong, I will leave them now, sorr Dampflippers

Below are the pictures of my pond.

[archer66]

And as I posted the other pics 3 ducks appeared on the pond

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[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by diggleken

Hi Alan,
theres nothing wrong with Tench (Tinca tinca) in a pond - they are part of the ecological balance - they are generally regarded as being pond dwellers or slow moving waters and are a lovely (if naturally slimy) fish. Generally bottom feeders (!).
The copious slime led to them being called the doctor fish in folklore, helping others to recover using their slime.
Golden Tench are an ornamental form.
They will grow larger, but as with most fish, will be self limiting depending on size of pond and food availability.
Dont get rid of them.
Cheers
Ken

There is if its a wildlife pond, fish dont naturally occur in small ponds. Tench will feed heavily on invertebrates and invertebrate larvae which will reduce the overall quality of the pond for amphibians, dragonflies, birds etc. Additionally they will stir up the water causing high amounts of debris within the water column, this increases the water temperature and reduces oxygen it also results in plants struggling to grow in deeper areas. They will uproot plants and their faeces will cause further algal blooms. They will also predate amphibian metamorphs.

The overall dign of the pond is not particularly wildlife friendly and would be better without all of the rock/stone which would be best replaced with shallow boggy margins and rough vegetation which would provide far better wildlife habitat. As for ducks as has been said they will predate newt larvae. How ever its unlikely that they would empty your entire pond. It might be worth shining a torch into the pond after dark when newts are most acive and seeing what you get.

[diggleken]

Fish do occur quite naturally in ponds.
It does, I agree though, depend what you want from a pond, but if its wildlife friendly, that to my mind includes fish, so they are OK.
We are talking two small tench here, which will not have a severe detrimental effect.
The pond is a good enough size to take those in my view and invertebrates and insects etc etc will be fine.
Does need more bankside/marginal work though to encourage greater diversity.
Cheers
Ken