What species to put in a nature pond (UK)

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Inastate

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Mar 11, 2007
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I have had a nature pond in the UK for years now. The frogs are currently spawning and I think I'm going to clean it out (for the first time in a long time) before the tadpoles come out.

However, all that I've ever really put in there is frogspawn/snails and a couple of plants. I've got a few questions.

1. How extensive is the ecosystem of my pond likely to be. Will there really be anything in there apart from the frogs/snails? What?

2. What type of animal (not plant) species could I add to a UK pond to give it more life. I'd also want them to feed on plants/microbes/algae or whatever and NOT other creatures in the pond. Are there any shrimps or anything else that you could add to give it a bit life?
 
Hi,

In the small back garden pond I built a few years ago, the pond started empty with a few plants and ended up full of water fleas, mosquito larvae, cyclops, water beetles, dragonfly larvae etc.

If you take a sample of water from your pond you'll probably be amazed at how much life there is in there. Many species get into ponds via eggs on the feet of birds that visit your pond to drink, others (e.g. water beetles) can fly, other come from eggs laid in your pond (caddis fly, may fly, dragon and damselflies).

If I were you I'd be content that you have frogs breeding in your pond. The UK protected species laws would prevent you from moving any other amphibians to your pond and anything else you could add would either be predatory to your tadpoles or not particularly interesting.

Happy pond-dipping!
 
Depending on how big the pond is and how many frogs you have you could have some minnows or sticklebacks, if you can find them for sale (I don't know what the laws are for collecting them). they will eat tadpoles, but the reason frogs lay so many eggs is so that some survive even with predation.
 
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