Small Pond Startup

[fishyjeff]

I've just put in a small pond. It's kidney shaped (fits the space) about 500 gallons (~80 SF surface) and is no deeper than 2' or so with shallows of 6 to 12 inches. Climate is 7b and the pond gets filtered sunlight. This is filled with rainwater.

From a neighbor and his neglected ponds I've acquired what I believe is Anacharis and a superb water lily. Also 4 common goldfish about 2 or 3 inches long. Where they were was in poor shape and not very large. I have some margins type plants in as bulbs (pontederia cordata and an iris) but they are just sprouts.

I have no filtration, but I have a small pump (650 gph) and have set it up as a spray (which is superb: 3/32" holes every 1" in a 1" PVC pipe; wall of water 5' high 3' long ~$3).

This has happened very quickly so I have had little time to really set it up.

What I was thinking was to let the fish grow into the pond and acquire a couple of Shubunkins. That would give me 6 fish total.

So, has living in the small pool already stunted the fish or can they be expected to grow to full size? Will the Shubunkins mix in or should I change the mix?

The fish so far school around the perimeter for a while and then feed on the anarchis. Near as I can tell they are very happy.

I haven't gotten a test kit yet.

I don't like using more energy than needed. Will the anarchris and an hour a day of spray provide enough oxygen? How much filtration will I need?

I have an abundance of cats, so far they have no interest in each other, and chipmunks are plentiful. Are cats going to be a problem?

I was thinking of setting up another pump as a "vacuum" and just having that dump into a debris filter . I have some old vacuum cleaner heads. I'm thinking that the fish will stay clear but I can put some screen on the head.

Suggestions or pointers? I have no experience with this. I'm not locked into anything other than having the pond fit the environment.

Fishy Jeff

 

[pbeemer]

i'm not a goldfish person so i can't advise you about the shub's. i wouldn't expect trouble tho

i would expect the goldfish to start growing; you have a pretty large pond for just 3 of them. assuming that they don't eat all the anacharis, and that it grows to fill ~15% of the pond, i don't think you will have much problem with oxygen; if the fish start exhibiting distress (sucking air at the surface) during hot periods, crank up the spraybar for longer times and accept the loss of water to evaporation. this will also cool the pond down a little.

(if the fish really like the pond, they will take care of your under-population problem once they're big enough .)

you may however have a problem with not having enough plants to use up all the nitrates that the fish generate. algae of course will come in and volunteer to handle this for you, but most of us are opposed to that.

i strongly suggest putting a prefilter on your water pump; not only will this protect the pump from crud (especially if hair algae arrive) but it will provide some surface area for a bio-filter to grow onto. something primitive would be fine; for example, a 15"x15"x6" plastic tub, drilled on one side for the feed pipe to the pump and some egg crate to keep the fluff out of the pump, stuffed with polyester floss (from a craft store, used for sewing quilts and such) and some gravel on top of that to keep the floss in the box and the fish out of it. there are lots of posts on this site for DIY filters that you should search for to get ideas.

the cats may come over to stare, but if the water depth falls off pretty fast around the edges all they'll be able to do is window shop. they'll probably prefer to chase the squirrels anyway.