Feeding your Goldfish

Occasionally, feeding of pond goldfish becomes a topic of extreme concern to the keepers of ponds.  Do not feed goldfish. This does not apply to koi. If you have koi, you have an outdoor aquarium and must deal with it accordingly. But not goldfish.


Here's why:


If you have a balanced pond, with underwater vegetation, your fish will be happy without unnecessary and artificial food introduced into the pond. 


If you feed them, they will grow bigger than the pond can handle, they will eat all the vegetation, so you will feed them more and more...and soon the bioload will be too big for the pond and all the fish will die.

If you have sufficient filtration, you can feed fish, but not without it. And overfeeding leads to foul and green water.


You must have enough submerged vegetation for the goldfish to eat and the submerged vegetation grows faster than the fish can eat it. 


Do not introduce more fish to your pond than 1 linear foot of fish per 25 square feet of pond surface.  


If you feed fish, they will be easily attacked by predators because they do not know the difference between you and a raccoon or a heron, so will come to the surface thinking they are going to get dinner and end up being dinner.


If you have grandchildren and they MUST feed the fish when they visit, make some chopped, cooked carrots and feed them sparingly, perhaps once weekly, no more.


And for all the science behind a balanced pond and to make your eyes glaze over:

Plants and fish benefit each other in two ways. First, fish and plants contribute to the successful functioning of the nitrogen cycle. As the waste products excreted by fish are released into the water, they are converted to ammonia and then to nitrites and nitrates by 

nitrifying bacteria. Nitrates are a food or fertilizer for plants and algae. As they are absorbed, plants and algae become a valuable food resource for fish, thus completing the nitrogen cycle. 

This ongoing biological cycle ensures healthy pond life. It is important to realize that if plants are not thriving, algae will take over and the water will become murky. 

A second important way fish and plants complement one other is through the process of photosynthesis. Fish require oxygen for their existence and they release carbon dioxide. Plants in turn require carbon dioxide for their successful existence and emit oxygen. 

During sunlight, plants will consume the carbon dioxide released by fish and in turn emit oxygen required by fish. 

A constantly functioning nitrogen cycle and photosynthesis are the key components to a successful and beautiful garden pond. 

Plants to use for best results:

The most beautiful type of pond plants are lilies. Water lettuce and water hyacinths are also excellent additions to the pond and submerged plants such as Hornwort, Vallisneria, Sagitarria, Cabomba and Anacharis are also excellent. 

The ideal pond fish are common or hardy goldfish. 

Now you can refocus your eyes.  Do not feed your goldfish. It's only common sense. 

In my book, I advocate not feeding fish, just as I do here.

You can buy my book here

It is consistently in the top ten best sellers in Landscaping.  Yippee.

It's on sale now for a buck.  Get it before the price goes back up.

And for pond info visit us at pondlady.com  You will find knowledgeable folks there who are glad to answer your questions.

Thank you for stopping by this morning.

And no, I don't know why the font keeps changing in this blog lately. Gremlins, maybe?

Small Pond Plants

Question:

I am in Caifornia and have a small container pond (32gal). Any ideas on hardy flowering plants I can add?  Not water lillies. Pond is 14 inches deep x 16 inches wide x 36 inches long

• 
  
  Answer:
• You can grow water poppies as a floater, any emergent like the rushes, cyperus or irises. If you are in the shade, grow calla for great drama. To keep the water clear, use submerged vegetation and to keep mosquitoes away, use Mosquito Dunks or a mosquito fish.
• For more info on pond plants, see this article I wrote about pond plants:
• http://www.pondlady.com/Articles/umbrell…

Water plants and soil?

Question:
Do Water Plants work without soil?
I have a small pond with no soil, only pond pebbles. Water is about a foot deep. Will water plants such as lilies grow without the soil? Or do I have to have soil?




Answer:
Pot up your pond plants. They don't need to be in soil, but they do need to be in a pot. Use pebbles if you wish or any old soil you have lying around your yard and put pebbles on top.
DO NOT plant directly in the rocks in the bottom of the pond. The plants will grow everywhere and you will have to get them out of those rocks. If it were me, I would remove the rocks now before you have to deal with cleaning them. But whatever you do, don't plant anything directly in them.

Irises mean spring

Louisiana irises are starting to bloom. This one is in my front garden today and more bloom stalks are evident and about to burst. Callas in the pond are blooming. Spring, maybe not officially, has arrived. Get ready to see your fish become active and your pond plants begin to bloom. It was a long winter, wasn't it?

Plants and Fish

IF YOU HAVE KOI, DISREGARD THIS POST! Koi eat plants, all plants, all the time. You can screen off your koi or your plants, but if you allow the koi access to the plants, you will have larger koi and fewer plants.

For a garden pond to be successful, it must contain both plants and fish. Not only is this an optimum esthetic condition; but a balanced biotope with interactions between plants and fish will ensure proper water conditions, reduce insects, especially mosquitos, since the fish consume their larva, and plants will greatly reduce the development of algae.

Plants and fish benefit each other in two ways. First, fish and plants contribute to the successful functioning of the nitrogen cycle. As the waste products excreted by fish are released into the water, they are converted to ammonia and then to nitrites and nitrates by nitrifying bacteria. Nitrates are a food or fertilizer for plants and algae. As they are absorbed, plants and algae become a valuable food resource for fish, thus completing the nitrogen cycle.

This ongoing biological cycle ensures healthy pond life. It is important to realize that if plants are not thriving, algae will take over and the water will become murky.

A second important way fish and plants complement one other is through the process of photosynthesis. Fish require oxygen for their existence and they release carbon dioxide. Plants in turn require carbon dioxide for their successful existence and emit oxygen. During sunlight, plants will consume the carbon dioxide released by fish and in turn emit oxygen required by fish.

A constantly functioning nitrogen cycle and photosynthesis are the key components to a successful and beautiful garden pond. The most beautiful type of pond plants are lilies. Water lettuce and water hyacinths are also excellent additions to the pond and submerged plants such as Hornwort, Vallisneria, Sagitarria, Cabomba and Anacharis are also excellent. The ideal pond fish are common or hardy goldfish.

Pond Plants, Taro

Taros are another emergent plant to use in your pond. Their broad leaves add a shape that contrasts well with the rushes and strap leaf irises. You can find taro in green, black and variegated. It will emerge from the water about 2' and, as all of the marginal plants, likes to have the top of its pot about an inch under the water.

Taro will grow well in the shade, one of few pond plants that will. It is also tropical, so sorry, you folks up north, you can have it only in the summer unless you wish to take it inside for the winter.

Taro is grown for its foliage rather than any flower.

Oh, if you let taro loose in the garden, you will be chasing it around trying to remove it for years. Keep it contained in the pot and in the pond. If it overgrows the pond, cut off the excess and give it to friend or compost it. Do not let it get into a public waterway.