Wildlife pond?

bouicca21

At my last house we had a big pond with goldfish. One year they tried to mate. The courtship was so intense and competitive that they constantly threw themselves against the side of the pond - and ended up killing themselves. They had however been successful and left behind a pond teaming with progeny. Of the hundreds of tiny fish only one survived. I think he ate his siblings.

no1catman

bouicca21 wrote: »

At my last house we had a big pond with goldfish. One year they tried to mate. The courtship was so intense and competitive that they constantly threw themselves against the side of the pond - and ended up killing themselves. They had however been successful and left behind a pond teaming with progeny. Of the hundreds of tiny fish only one survived. I think he ate his siblings.

Weird behaviour. But very odd that you only had one survivor. IMHO - it wouldn't be down to one young fish eating all the other young fish. Something else at work - maybe dragon fly larvae, or frogs.
If the pond has weed in it the fish will mate in it, the eggs stick to the weed near the surface. The warm water near the surface, helps them grow and emerge, and the weed gives them cover from predators.

JP08

Well, after my winge on the 8th April - looks like I spoke too soon. Watching the wildlife pond in a spell of sunshine last weekend - it is home to at least one good sized frog and a couple of newts. So stuff is gradually finding it.

dogstarheaven

Davesnave wrote: »

You might be disappointed at first.

Frogs, and especially toads, are conservative creatures. They have fixed ideas about what makes a great pond, so they may shun yours, at least to start with. Toads almost certainly will.

Eventually they'll come, but my experience is that it may take a few years, if there are viable and well-established alternatives nearby. If there aren't, the population may be relatively low to begin with.

So, just "build it, and they will come...".....on their own terms.

As the above, I 'built' mine in winter 2010 from upcycling a plastic storage box which I sunk in the flower bed, and used tap water (dechlorinated) and put a few bricks to allow easy access in/out for wildlife/frogs. Pond plants such as Marsh Marigold and, Hornwort (? the curly parsley looking one) for oxygenating the water was put in (eliminate need for a pump). Spawn was brought in and viol!, frogs galore! They revisited the pond year upon year, until last summer, the plastic cracked on one side, thus the water level was only half-full, prob. about 10" deep, and sadly this spring, the frogs didn't come to spawn for me again:(:(:( I had hoped they would but obviously the water depth wasn't agreeable for them, so shall be replacing the storage box with a new one.
Still, at least the marigold has been flowering happily for the past month...

PS. The pond was sited in partial shade, but now that my tree has been felled a couple of weeks ago, it will be in full sun. By winter this year, I will have tall plants around this to prevent water loss/evaporation and accelerated weed growth, and hope that the frogs will will want to spawn for next spring instead!

seven-day-weekend

We moved house last year leaving behind our wildlife pond of forty years, which had been home for decades to colonies of mating frogs, dragonflies, damselflies , et al. Just before we left, we found a newt. (I hope the new owners have kept the pond).

We have just installed one in our new garden, a raisded pool this time, but shallow and wih an area at the corner where they can get in and out. Someone we know is filling a pond in, so yhesterday we hoiked out their oxygenators, a small lilly and another and other plants, some tadpoles and dragonfly larvae (one of which promptly ate a tadpole as soon as it was introduced to the new pond). There was also lone female frog amongst the catch.

Hope they all decide to stay!

Waterlily24

We haven't had any frogs in our pond at all. It's quite large and has lots of different plants in it.


We went to a meeting in our village hall last week about garden wildlife. The meeting was mainly about ponds and we mentioned that we have never seen any frogs or frogs spawn and they asked if we had any fish (We have 2 large Koi and 8 orfe - 4 golden and 4 blue). They reckoned that the fish had eaten the spawn.


In our last garden we had two large ponds and used to get frogs in both of them. We are only a few miles away. Wonder why the fish didn't eat that lol.


Meant to say that the pond has been here for about 10 years. We are in a very rural area with countryside all around. A river just down the road and dykes all along the front of the garden, so plenty of water all around. Perhaps, too much?

bouicca21

Weather permitting my small pond will go in this weekend.

Various sites on the web warn against tap water. As it happens I have a large container that I haven't yet planted, which has filled up with rainwater. Presumably this is ok to use, even though it has been standing there for weeks (presumably much the same as a water butt). I think it will still need topping up.

It's going to be small, only about 3 or so foot by about 18 inches. I will need oxygenators, preferably native, currently thinking about water violet, hornwort and maybe water crowfoot. Does anyone have any idea how many I will need? Or better suggestions. (I'm not planning on any fish, hoping for frogs and newts.)

andrewf75

Yep tip the rainwater in. I'd just wait for the rain to fill the rest up. Won't take long! water milfoil is a good native oxegenator. In a pond that size one or two of each will be fine. There are some good online sellers for native plants.

seven-day-weekend

We have just realised that one of the plants we had from the pond that was being filled in was one of these:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=american+skunk+cabbage&espv=2&biw=1440&bih=859&tbm=isch&imgil=I3dvGAq0AnVFrM%253A%253BuPFq70TUqBw_1M%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.plantlife.org.uk%25252Fwild_plants%25252Fplant_species%25252Fskunk-cabbage_american_and_asian&source=iu&pf=m&fir=I3dvGAq0AnVFrM%253A%252CuPFq70TUqBw_1M%252C_&usg=__Zwcj7e0BypGaHQSGXT25IpjVW6U%3D&dpr=1.5&ved=0ahUKEwjRpuzK9-XMAhWG0xoKHbwsB6QQyjcIPA&ei=9JU9V9HcAoana7zZnKAK#imgrc=I3dvGAq0AnVFrM%3A

Very invasive and harmful to native species. So we have thrown it away in the 'green bin' and bought some ragged robin instead.

Our new pool is looking good, hasn't 'greened' over but we haven't seen the frog again, we assume she has gone next door where there are other frogs in a pond.

Davesnave

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

We have just realised that one of the plants we had from the pond that was being filled in was one of these:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=american+skunk+cabbage&espv=2&biw=1440&bih=859&tbm=isch&imgil=I3dvGAq0AnVFrM%253A%253BuPFq70TUqBw_1M%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.plantlife.org.uk%25252Fwild_plants%25252Fplant_species%25252Fskunk-cabbage_american_and_asian&source=iu&pf=m&fir=I3dvGAq0AnVFrM%253A%252CuPFq70TUqBw_1M%252C_&usg=__Zwcj7e0BypGaHQSGXT25IpjVW6U%3D&dpr=1.5&ved=0ahUKEwjRpuzK9-XMAhWG0xoKHbwsB6QQyjcIPA&ei=9JU9V9HcAoana7zZnKAK#imgrc=I3dvGAq0AnVFrM%3A

Very invasive and harmful to native species. So we have thrown it away in the 'green bin' and bought some ragged robin instead.

I've forgotten how large your pond is, but although skunk cabbage is invasive, it's not 'totally out of control' invasive in a home environment.

I saw some a few weeks ago in a mill leat. That might not be the best place, as the seeds will be carried elsewhere, but it hadn't blocked the leat, 0.5m wide, despite having been in there for many years.

In the UK the plant will be banned from sale from next year, but people will be allowed to keep the ones they already have.