Emily's Pond Build Log

Well of the 6 goldies we added to the pond, only one is in there now. No sign of the others. I'm guessing neighborhood cat or racoon had a few meals. :( The minnows are still doing well. Pond is turning green also, which I sort of expected. I've got some plants in there, but not many yet. So definitely the algae has nutrients to feed on. Can't exactly black out a pond either. So I'll let it work through it on its own most likely. I've added a few floating plants, but they haven't multiplied yet, although I expect that they will sooner or later - put water lettuce and water hyacinths in. I know those are both rapid spreading, and should help choke out the algae eventually. For now there are only 3 floaters though - bought 2 lettuce plants and 1 hyacinth, but nothing has spread yet. Also purchased a hardy lily (who knew Home Depot would have some decent plants for good prices?). And I picked up a couple more iris plants at the local garden expo a couple weeks ago. Those are looking good too, and the ones I got there were natives so will over-winter without an issue. I still have so much space on my plant shelf to fill though.

I am going to be re-potting (and splitting in the process) some of the plants that I've got. One question I have though is what to use for substrate in the pots. Right now they appear to be in some kind of clay substrate. But I'm not sure exactly what it is, and I obviously don't want to put anything in there that could be harmful to the fish. I'll go hunting the net before I do the re-potting, but if anyone here has suggestions or input I'd be happy to hear it!

I'll get more pics up eventually as well. :)
 
Depending on what size the slits/mesh/holes are in the pots, I would recommend Shultz Aquatic Soil. It's really just clay pellets but they allow for good root growth and oxygenation. They stay nice and loose. It's been a pain in my aquarium but in pots, it'll do nicely. Super cheap too!
 
Where might I find it? Lowes doesn't have anything and Home Depot didn't either the last time I was there. I'm actually just using regular planter pots - black plastic ones - so they're pretty solid. Drainage at the bottom, but no big holes for anything to fall out of. So if I can find that somewhere (I wanted to find the hydroton but it's not sold anywhere here...) I will try to use that. Should I mix it with anything? Sand? Soil? How will the roots get sufficient nutrients? Do I need to drill small holes in those plastic pots maybe to allow water to flow through better?
 
People usually use net pots for aquatic plants, or so I thought. You could be okay with the ones you describe if you put root tabs in every so often for root feeding plants. I got my Shultz Aquatic Soil from Home Depot. You don't mix anything else in.
 
No luck at Lowes last night with the aquatic soil. Going to try Home Depot at some point soon. Probably won't re-pot anything until next weekend or the weekend after. They're Ok in their current pots for the moment.

Question though - I need to put netting or something over the pond to help protect the fish from whatever has been taking them out of the pond. Problem is, the only nets I'm finding have TEENY holes, which will not allow the plants on my plant shelf to actually grow up through it or anything. Are there other nets out there that aren't so teeny? Or is there a better way to go about this? I want to protect my fish, but I still want to make use of my plant shelf... Help?
 
Netting isn't great. Animals get stuck in it and so do debris. You'd be better off with a motion activated water sprayer. It sprays a jet of water at whatever moves near the pond.

Or... You could do what I always wanted to do. Keep piranhas! Or more realistically, a long nosed gar!
 
Happy Easter everyone!

Capt, i can see various regulatory bodies becoming just a little testy about the piranhas. and it would get a little tough on the other fish too. how about Emily gets a wetsuit and a really long hose to a compressor and then lurks in the pond overnight until the critter arrives?

Realistically, i would suggest setting up deep hiding places for the goldies away from the ledge. the minnows probably won't use it, but they aren't the ones that are so easy to spot and catch.

netting is a balancing of inconveniences. there are a lot of workable solutions with a standard fishnet size openings, including some that are kept just under the water to minimize the obtrusiveness. but to work they have to be really well secured, which means they'll probably be a real pain in the wrist every time you have to go into the pond. or you could run an electric wire around the perimeter, which would be a lot easier to deal with as long as your dogs can remember to avoid in

Also, are your dogs outside at night? they would probable scare off cats, but they would be in real trouble it it's an adult raccoon. we didn't have raccoons around here when i was little -- probably the dinosaurs scared them off -- but they started showing up about 10 years ago and they are hell on all kinds of outdoor pets.
 
Yeah the netting is just not seeming like the best idea.

I've seen the water sprayers but have read mixed reviews on them. Plus - do they waste a lot of water in the standby position? I guess that would be my main concern. The pond is 4' deep at one end, so the goldies have plenty of deep-water hiding space if they are smart enough to use it. Problem seems to be that they are not quite that intelligent...

My dogs are not outside at night. My babies are all indoor pets. They go outside for playtime, walks, and potty breaks, but that is about the extent of their outdoor time.

Thanks for the input. :) I'm going to keep researching. May try out the scarecrow thing and see how it does. If it sucks, I can always return it. Is Amazon the best place to purchase? Or do they sell them locally at like a Lowes or Home Depot? I'll have to hunt around and see. Will just have to make sure I remember to turn it off before trying to feed the fish since I don't particularly want to get sprayed myself. ;)
 
Well I bought the scarecrow on Amazon. Hunted around locally and Home Depot has it too (online only) for nearly twice the Amazon price. Yikes! It was almost $50 on Amazon as it was. Anyhow, I guess we'll see how that does. I have a group of 8 goldies that will go into the pond in the next few weeks if they are still appearing healthy. I bought them a week ago at Petco - 6 shubunkins and 2 Sarasa comets. So we'll see how they do. So far they all look perfect. In the midst of a 90% w/c right now. They're in the 40 gallon, and seem very happy, but I'll be glad to move them to the pond where they will have much more room to roam. The shubunkins are all between 2-3" and the sarasa are about 1.5". Haven't noticed any sign of illness or anything, and they're all eating well too. I'm using salt at the moment as a preventative, but will wean them down on that over the next couple of weeks. Today was about half the dose they had last week. Next week will be half that, and then they'll be down to none. Thus far I feel the fish at this Petco store are infinitely healthier than the ones I picked up from PetSmart quite some time back. So I have my fingers crossed that these guys continue to do well. :)

Anywho, I'll report back on the scarecrow once that's here and installed. One more week of class left and I'll be DONE with this degree. Then I'll have more time to devote to fish. :D Definitely looking forward to THAT!!

Anywho - better go finish the w/c's before I get sidetracked and overflow the tank again. Did that last time already... I am far too easily distracted on AC... Hah!
 
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