Goldfish introduced to a pond with frogs ?

Legacy_user

The house we moved into in Feb of this year, has two ponds in the garden, each about 4ft/5ft approx and each contain frogs, in fact when we moved here, the ponds were alive with activity but of late, only a handful of frogs are seen daily. We doubt either have been cleared for years and there is about 6" sludge in each and we know the frogs are in the sludge as each time we've tried to remove some, we find a frog in our hand.

We would like to introduce a few goldfish to one of the ponds but can this be done? knowing frogs are in there. Would they live together ok?, and if so, should we try to remove some sludge first?

welshsue

We have recently introduced fish to our pond. Before we bought them we cleaned the whole pond out including all the sludge and found lots of frogs, adults and babies. We put them into a bucket whilst cleaning and then put them back into the pond.
Now we also have fish in there and the frogs still come and go, they spend most of their time living under the rocks which surround the pond.
You should be ok, the only problem we have had is the dreaded white spot in the fish. we started off with 10 fish, lost 7 to this nasty disease and have been madly treating the pond with some very strong stuff recommended to us by a friend who now has a shop. we also bought more fish from this friend so are back up to 10 and so far all seems fine...

hethmar

We used to have some beautiful fish in our wild life pond - a heron got the lot But up til then they seemed to live quite happily along with newts and frogs, though I did see the occasional newt chasing one of them - possibly trying to mate But we did have a much larger pond than you have. so may be the competition would be greater. The fish will eat the tadpoles and frog spawn.

When you moved in, well, shortly after, would have been the frog mating time, thats why there was so much activity going on. Most of the year frogs will live in the garden, under piles of rocks, logs and in deep grass and so on. You will get a few having a swim in the pond at this time of the year, but once the mating is over, you wont see a lot of them until the same time next year.

alanobrien

Yes no problem at all. My Koi and goldfish get along just fine with the frogs and the odd toad.

System

The three of you have told us what we wanted to hear. It so happens our daughter has six goldfish in a plastic sand pit bought from tesco and we keep telling her it isn't satisfactory and she has now offered them to us on the proviso that our set-up would be suitable.

The pond we would use, we look down into from the conservatory and like yours, is surrounded by rocks and plants, ideal really. Will keep you posted.

tanith

They can live alongside each other quite happily but of course come next year the goldfish will be feasting on all the frog/toads spawn and none will survive...

Primrose

I guess it's a case of what you value most - your frogs and tadpoles, or the fish because once you introduce fish to a wildlife pond, they'll start eating the baby tadpoles. However, if you have two ponds, I suggest you introduce goldfish to one pond only and then the tadpoles in the other pond will have a fighting chance of a few of them surviving.

tanith

Primrose wrote: »

I guess it's a case of what you value most - your frogs and tadpoles, or the fish because once you introduce fish to a wildlife pond, they'll start eating the baby tadpoles. However, if you have two ponds, I suggest you introduce goldfish to one pond only and then the tadpoles in the other pond will have a fighting chance of a few of them surviving.

They'll be very lucky to get to tadpole stage as my fish eat the spawn almost as soon as its laid...:( I do take a few out and hatch them elsewhere just for my grandaughters amusement and to keep the wildlife element alive a little...:)

wallbash

Yes its the case of ...tadpoles or fish. But as the tadpoles only give interest for a few weeks, while the fish are around all year.

We have 8 plus frogs ( the plus is because I have counted 8 all at once , but as they all look the same , there could be more )
and 14 fish , far too many now for my pond .
Started off with only eight , I must be doing something right.

should we try to remove some sludge first?

You have a choice , do you want a natural pond or an ornamental one?
Your plan to introduce fish , seems you are looking more to the ornamental.

Sparkling clear water ??

hethmar

I spose our pond, being much bigger could support the tadpoles as we had literally thousands and thousands, more than 6 fish could eat The newts eat tadpoles too, they sit at the shallow end of our pond where most of the tads are (OH calls it the newts' smorgersboard ) and just get one after another. Another predator is the dragon fly lava which is a beast - and diving beetles. But its all part of nature.

System

To add a bit more, being the OP, after the spring activity there was a great deal of frog spawn, but it all disappeared within a short time and never stood a chance of developing to tadpoles and we assumed the frogs had eaten it, so in a way, what we've never had won't be missed, if that procedure were to follow.

As for numbers of frogs, we were told there were hundreds each year.

As for ornamental. no we feel we want to ur on the side of wildlife, so clearly mud/sludge would be no problem. We have an above ground patio pond sustaining three fish and they look happy enough when we can see them through the murky water.