Unless a pond is incredibly small, the water is hardly going to "get hot", with the correct ammount of planting, there will be shade for fish underwater, places for them to hide. I top ours up regularly in hot weather, BUT the fountain araerator causes some of the problems ironically, because of where we live (downs and Sea) we get wind, which blows the water from the fountain out of the pond. Stiring with a stick, hum, churning up all the algae? Shading the pond, well, that will turn the water green, always told to make pond in as much sunlight as possible. We started off with 4 fish, all different colours, then we had baby fish, they seemed to come and go, definitely different fish because of the size, and colour, I dont think a 4 inch fish can suddenly be one inch. Lots of chasing going on, looked agressive, local fish "nursery" chappie said mating. They did very nervous at one point, thought they were scared of Grandchildren maybbe, recently saw seagull sitting on the edge of the pond (yes it IS covered with chicken wire!) I kept a good eye on him, he was having a drink (we have 3 bird baths dotted around the garden) the fish didnt seem a bit bothered. Course they do have various health problems, they can suffer from, and eventually they must possibly die of old age!
I think we have the tiniest leak in our liner, but so small it's impossible to find so I need to top it up if it's been hot for a long time or not much rain ( neither is a real problem here in Devon )
I use tap water to top up our pond , maybe Devon water is ok as no ill effects have been noticed.
Oddly, we have the same water company Southern, as before we moved, but the water in our last house tasted horrible, I either used bottled, and then bought a filter, it looked horrible too, here it looks and tastes fine. Nothing to do with the pipes either, we had a new main put in our last house. Do you have fish Hostafan1?
Nanny, the only thing I can say is that I have **never** had blanket weed in my pond, nor in my last pond either, nor in my other smaller current pond. I never had more than a couple weeks green water in May. I use no chemicals and no pumps, the occasional top up from tap water never bothered the fishes and neither did the occasional bamboo-pole water churning which I do when I feel a boost of oxygen is needed in very hot weather. My pond is in shade most of the day in summer, the water is nice (I bathe in it!) the plants are healthy, my fish are healthy, mating and growing bigger every year (I moved them from my older garden, so some of them are really getting big indeed), and their fry is curious, busy and full of life.
I am sorry if that upsets your pond-care certainties. Shade does NOT make the water green unless perhaps the shade is so deep that water plants can't develop properly.
A small artificial pond with black liner and too-small,newly planted vegetation can certainly become too warm in the sun in prolonged fair weather. It doesn't need to be very warm to be too warm: less oxygen is dissolved in the water with highr temps. Bofore the correct balance of planting can be reached I think temporary shade is better than fish soup.
Ooooh, lets not have a punch up over this Katherine W, Your pond you swim in sounds more like a lake.I dont use chemicals, some folk do and thats fine, I would hate to suddenly, change, i.e. use fresh tap water and the fish to die, we all have own ideas about everything, thats what makes us human and interesting!
Ah ah, a lake, no, it's about 6m on 3 m on 1,50 m deep. Larger than the average backyard pond, but not a lake. I bathe in it, but I don't really swim. No, I am not going to punch anybody, I threw my back badly on MOnday evening and all I can do is lay flat, so I'm quite harmless at the moment, no worries
Yes my fish have started chasing one poor individual not so much that they all want to spawn with her but more that they want her to produce eggs. The fish have reproduced in the pond before but that was when it was much weedier than it is now and the eggs escaped being eaten
I always used tap water to aerate previous ponds, apart from the ones which were spring fed. Fix the hose through the handle of a fork stuck into the surrounding edge of the pond, and it acts like a shower of rain. We have good water here though so it might depend on your supply. I had a couple of small fish - no problem.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Posts
Unless a pond is incredibly small, the water is hardly going to "get hot", with the correct ammount of planting, there will be shade for fish underwater, places for them to hide. I top ours up regularly in hot weather, BUT the fountain araerator causes some of the problems ironically, because of where we live (downs and Sea) we get wind, which blows the water from the fountain out of the pond. Stiring with a stick, hum, churning up all the algae? Shading the pond, well, that will turn the water green, always told to make pond in as much sunlight as possible. We started off with 4 fish, all different colours, then we had baby fish, they seemed to come and go, definitely different fish because of the size, and colour, I dont think a 4 inch fish can suddenly be one inch. Lots of chasing going on, looked agressive, local fish "nursery" chappie said mating. They did very nervous at one point, thought they were scared of Grandchildren maybbe, recently saw seagull sitting on the edge of the pond (yes it IS covered with chicken wire!) I kept a good eye on him, he was having a drink (we have 3 bird baths dotted around the garden) the fish didnt seem a bit bothered. Course they do have various health problems, they can suffer from, and eventually they must possibly die of old age!
I think we have the tiniest leak in our liner, but so small it's impossible to find so I need to top it up if it's been hot for a long time or not much rain ( neither is a real problem here in Devon
)
I use tap water to top up our pond , maybe Devon water is ok as no ill effects have been noticed.
Oddly, we have the same water company Southern, as before we moved, but the water in our last house tasted horrible, I either used bottled, and then bought a filter, it looked horrible too, here it looks and tastes fine. Nothing to do with the pipes either, we had a new main put in our last house. Do you have fish Hostafan1?
Nanny, the only thing I can say is that I have **never** had blanket weed in my pond, nor in my last pond either, nor in my other smaller current pond. I never had more than a couple weeks green water in May. I use no chemicals and no pumps, the occasional top up from tap water never bothered the fishes and neither did the occasional bamboo-pole water churning which I do when I feel a boost of oxygen is needed in very hot weather. My pond is in shade most of the day in summer, the water is nice (I bathe in it!) the plants are healthy, my fish are healthy, mating and growing bigger every year (I moved them from my older garden, so some of them are really getting big indeed), and their fry is curious, busy and full of life.
I am sorry if that upsets your pond-care certainties. Shade does NOT make the water green unless perhaps the shade is so deep that water plants can't develop properly.
A small artificial pond with black liner and too-small,newly planted vegetation can certainly become too warm in the sun in prolonged fair weather. It doesn't need to be very warm to be too warm: less oxygen is dissolved in the water with highr temps. Bofore the correct balance of planting can be reached I think temporary shade is better than fish soup.
JMHO of course.
Ooooh, lets not have a punch up over this Katherine W, Your pond you swim in sounds more like a lake.I dont use chemicals, some folk do and thats fine, I would hate to suddenly, change, i.e. use fresh tap water and the fish to die, we all have own ideas about everything, thats what makes us human and interesting!
Ah ah, a lake, no, it's about 6m on 3 m on 1,50 m deep. Larger than the average backyard pond, but not a lake. I bathe in it, but I don't really swim. No, I am not going to punch anybody, I threw my back badly on MOnday evening and all I can do is lay flat, so I'm quite harmless at the moment, no worries
Yes my fish have started chasing one poor individual not so much that they all want to spawn with her but more that they want her to produce eggs. The fish have reproduced in the pond before but that was when it was much weedier than it is now and the eggs escaped being eaten
Katherine W, are you in a different country? What did you do to your back? Relieved you are not going to hit me though!!!
Thanks I'll try all the hints :- h
Katherine's in France Nanny B.
I always used tap water to aerate previous ponds, apart from the ones which were spring fed. Fix the hose through the handle of a fork stuck into the surrounding edge of the pond, and it acts like a shower of rain. We have good water here though so it might depend on your supply. I had a couple of small fish - no problem.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...